Lone Pine Road Trip - Day 4 - May 11, 2019

The last day of our Lone Pine Road Trip was a short one.  I got up early and went out to the Alabama Hills to photograph the mountains at sunrise.  Then it was back to the hotel to pick up Heather, get one last breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe, pack up the Xterra and try to beat the traffic home.

The sunrise light was amazing. The sun rises over the Inyo Mountains to the east, which are about 10,000' high, and the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is about 14,000' high when looking west from the Alabama Hills.  The Hills themselves sit at around 4,000' elevation.  What all that means is that the tops of the Sierra Nevadas are in beautiful pinkish-orangish light well before you can actually see the sun coming up over the crest of the Inyos behind you.

This is the view east towards the rising sun at about the same time.  The picture above and the one below were taken about one minute apart. 

The biggest thing with trying to photograph the landscapes in the Alabama Hills is all of the RV's and campers that are out there.  I generally try to frame my shots to avoid them, but sometimes it's just not possible.  And sometimes, it's nice to actually have something for scale in the photos.  This Jeep happened to drive by at just the right time.

Click here to see more images from sunrise in the Alabama Hills on the last day of our May 2019 Lone Pine Road Trip.
      
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.