Looking Around in Lone Pine- Tuesday, June 24 2008

Words can hardly describe the pure beauty of Yosemite National Park. It is truly a place of preserved splendor, where time seems to have stood still in many places for thousands of years. But before I get to Yosemite, I need to back up and cover our stay in the western movie location town of Lone Pine.

They filmed literally thousands of movies in this sleepy small town at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Not only were movies by Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry filmed there, but also more modern films like Tremors and even Ironman did filming in this area. We visited a small museum about this small town, as seen below. I even found a friend there!

We headed out into the Alabama Hills, a place that has been used for everything from westerns to Afghanistan and Egypt. These rock come from seemingly nowhere, then blend into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Mt. Whitney is right behind them!

The Lone Ranger ambush rock

We made an important discovery while driving out through the hills: minivans are NOT made for off-roading! We bumped and banged down a few trails, but soon decided that pavement was best. We found a cabin once owned by Hoppy, and uncovered some beautiful scenery. We went back into town, and in a moment of misfortune, I managed to lock the keys in the van!! It was taken care of quickly, so we were fortunate.

We stayed at a real throwback in time in this small town. It was called the Dow Villas, and was one of those motels where you park your car right outside your door! While the decor was undoubtedly chosen by a penny-pinching granny (the bedspread, curtains, and shower curtains were all a matching yellow and pink floral motif) it was extremely clean and comfortable. We girls wrapped up the evening by taking a soak in the hot tub with the mountains in the background.