Central California - May/June 2009
South on US395
Movie Road
Just west
of the town of Lone Pine, CA is an area known as the Alabama Hills. The whole area
is littered with sculpted rock outcroppings that rise out of the Owens Valley floor.
According to imdb.com, there have been at
least 316 movies filmed
here. Modern examples include Tremors
(a personal favorite) and Star
Trek: Generations.
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Here we see one of the many outcroppings with
the eastern Sierra Nevada in the background. |
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A shot looking northwest towards the High
Sierras. |
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Note the dark oval “cave” in the rock left of
center. The back appears to have a heart-shaped hole eroded through it. |
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One of the stranger looking formations. |
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Owens Valley Radio Observatory
On the
vast majority of my vacations out west, I have visited some sort of astronomically
oriented place. This trip was no exception. I happened to pass by the Owens Valley Radio Observatory
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The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
Located in
the White Mountains, the Ancient
Bristlecone Pine Forest contains the oldest known living trees in the
world. The oldest individual, known as “Methuselah”, is over
4700 years old! And these trees only thrive in specific rocky conditions at
elevations of 10,000ft and higher!
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A
panorama looking across the Owens Valley from the road up to the Ancient
Bristlecone Pine Forest. The elevation here is ~9000ft |
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A closer look at the peaks of the eastern
Sierras. |
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A few of the Bristlecone Pines. Unfortunately, while up amongst the pines a
huge cloud blocked the sunlight. This made for poor photographic lighting. |
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Another one of the pines. |
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This was a lone stand just outside the parking
area gate. |
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South on
US395 |
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All images copyright ©2009 by Al Hann All rights reserved |
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