Lone Pine

We’re in Lone Pine this weekend with the Breezy Elks Camping Group. Fun fact…Tom will officially be a member of the Elks on Thursday! Also I can’t seem to say “Lone Pine” without my head saying “Loooone Pine” in a deep voice (think Spaceballs). Since I’m not sure anyone else has this problem I’m going to keep it to myself!

We went into the town of Lone Pine today and went to the Film Museum. Apparently this are has been a favorite Hollywood film spot, especially for westerns since the 1920s. Iron Man and some Star Treks were filmed in the hills around here as well.

While there we saw the Bonanza restaurant where we were had eaten years ago when Chad Kristin were little and we took a road trip to Lake Tahoe.

Another fun fact, the hills are named the Alabama Hills in honor of the C.S.S Alabama, a Confederate warship that wrecked havoc during the Civil War. Apparently many of the gold prospectors were Confederate sympathizers, naming their claims after the Alabama and the name stuck.

Back at camp we joined a game of bean bag baseball. It’s played on a board like cornhole only vertical. I’m proud to report that my team won 9 to 6!

Later on Friday we took a drive to the trailhead for Mt. Whitney, don’t get any wild ideas here, we had no plans to hike up Mt. Whitney! There is a beautiful waterfall just past the set in point. We walked up to it and the most amazing thing was that there was ice and snow! The waterfall was simply gorgeous and at 3:00 in the afternoon we needed jackets because it was 50 degrees. We talked to the old guy who runs the small store and he told us they are usually closed for the season by now because they would normally have 3 feet of snow already!

Finished off the day with stew provided by the “Wagon Master” Ron and his wife LaVonn then a campfire.

On Saturday we took a drive to the Alabama Hills again, to Movie Road which leads you back to all the movie sites. Nothing was marked so all I’m sure we saw was where the scene from Iron Man was filmed. Think the background of where Robert Downey Jr. says “I give you Jericho”. We took a short hike and saw some of the most beautiful landscape.

Fun times with friends and this trip is almost over!