Lone Pine

I love driving through this little town on the way to anywhere in the high sierra. It’s got a wonderful feel to it, very small and mountainy and natural. Fits the landscape.

I love Lone Pine. We frequented the saloon a lot and most of the restaurants.

Met a lovely woman in the shop, she was so friendly to all of us on the fieldtrip and even gave us programmes from last years film festival.

Alabama Hills look unreal. they look like a film set.

My sister and I recently stayed here on a road trip through California. We weren’t expecting much from it, since we’d only ever seen as much as is along Highway 395, but it was a suprisingly pleasant stay. The mountains are absolutely beautiful, and even for the non-experienced hikers (such as ourselves), the Alabama Hills not far from town offer easily accessible nature walking and climbing. Many famous old western movies were shot there, for their rugged, scenic appearance and accessibility. It’s only a couple hours from Death Valley as well. So if you want to get away from the crowds and tourist traps at Mammoth and Tahoe for a while, it’s definately worth a stay. I’d reccommend the Best Western right along the Highway; the rooms are huge and very affordable.

Wandered through Lone Pine prior to a back country trek up to Mt. Whitney. I didn’t make it to the top of the 14K peak of Mt. Whitney in 2004 due to a fire in the back country, but I’ll be back. My brother tried again this year but was defeated by snow lingering long into the normal hiking season.

Lone Pine is a small town (pop. about 1600) below Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. Most people whiz right by it on the way to Mammoth from the L.A. area.

It’s a friendly little town that serves hikers about to summit Mt. Whitney, less adventuresome hikers like myself, horse riders, campers, fishers, etc. Some small hotels and restaurants, most notably The Merry Go Round restaurant.

It’s in the Owens Valley, which is a great place to go if you are interested in geology. You can see volcanic cones, hot springs, alluvial flows, earthquake scarps! There’s a grave on the north side of town from a huge quake that hit there in 1872.

My husband and I recently camped at the Boulder Creek Campground, pictured here from a distance. (We’d walked down the road toward dry Owens Lake in the morning.)