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Bill Bikes My bicycling expeditions and jaunts |
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Alabama Hills, part 1
7 May 2021
For today's ride from my base in Lone Pine, I visited the Alabama Hills.These spectacular formations rise immediately above the town. Especially in years past they served as the backdrop for countless cowboy movies. Nowadays movies are still occasionally filmed here because of the other-worldly landscapes, but mostly the hills are filled with RVs and vans and pickups. It's a popular spot for "dispersed camping," with lots of hidden nooks and crannies. Scarcely any vehicles appear in my photos—I was careful how I aimed the camera—but they're parked everywhere.
Anyway, I pedaled out sandy Movie Flat Road and explored many of the unusual rock formations, but there are always more to see. Despite a little sand and a couple of steep (but very short) sections, this is an easy ride and highly recommended to anyone in the vicinity of Lone Pine with a bicycle. But wear shoes that will allow you to walk and scramble up and down big rocks!
For movie fans (and TV shows like the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, etc), here is information about some of the films and specific locales shot within the Alabama Hills:
"Monster Rock," the only painted feature.
Did I mention the Alabama Hills are at the foot of the sheer eastern face of the high Sierra Nevada mountains?
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, sits back there and shows up in many of these photos.
I'm just pedaling around, finding interesting spots, dragging the Ogre into the scene, and wasting pixels.
In addition to the main (sand and dirt) Movie Flat Road, networks of sandy tracks criss-cross among the hills, allowing access to scenic campsites.
It's the perfect landscape for a classic low-miles, high-photos ride.
I thought this one looked like a skull.
Hole in the rock.
Very few vehicles moving through the hills. Just a few campers coming or going. At one point I caught up with a slow-moving pickup truck. The young couple were driving carefully, but barely moving as they admired the landscape. They gave me a friendly wave as I eventually pedaled past them.
Later I was back down in Lone Pine. A friendly couple came up to me and said "We saw you earlier today." Turned out they were in the truck I passed. The woman went on to say "I hope this doesn't sound too weird, but I took your photo."
Indeed, she had snapped my picture while I was stopped on a little side path studying the mountains, and she was kind enough to send the photo to me. That's it, above, with my back to the camera as I study the peaks in the distance.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions? I'd like to hear from you.
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