Lone Pine Road Trip - Day 3 - May 10, 2019

After another great breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe we headed north on US 395 to do a bit of exploring around the area near the town of Independence.  Our first stop was the old airfield across the highway from Manzanar.  We had to stop for a "Top Gear" style photo of the Xterra on the old runway.

From there we continued north, and then west on Onion Valley Road up into the mountains.

Later, on the way back down to US 395, we turned south on an unpaved road that runs parallel to the crest of the mountains and to the highway, to see if we could find a less traveled and more scenic way to get back south.  We didn't quite make it, as we got to a stream crossing that was overflowing due to the high water levels, and had to turn around.  Still, we saw some great scenery in the foothills of the eastern slope of the Sierras.

May is a great time of year for flowers in this area, but it can still get cold as you climb in elevation towards the mountains.  We dug out our old Adventure 16 "Elmer Fudd"* caps for a little walk in the hills.

We've stopped at the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery many times over the years, and for some reason we've always managed to arrive when the building is closed.  For once we finally got to go inside and see the various historical exhibits.

Next we headed out through the Alabama Hills and up to Whitney Portal.  

The views on the road down from Whitney Portal are great; you can look across the Owens Valley to the Inyo Mountains on the other side.

On the way down we detoured off onto the back way (Hogback Road) into the Alabama Hills, on our way back to the town of Lone Pine.

We stopped in to see the Lone Pine Film History Museum in Lone Pine, then had dinner in town.  After dinner we drove back out to the Alabama Hills to wander around bit after the sun went down.

Click here to see more images from the third day of our Lone Pine road trip, including more of the Alabama Hills and the Film History Museum.  I even managed to get a selfie with a Graboid from Tremors.

* I think A-16 actually called them Bomber Caps when they sold them, which was many years ago.
     
Note: For some reason lately the images on this blog have looked somewhat soft and mushy, which I think has something to do with the blog software.  They look a lot better in full screen view at the gallery website linked above.