We were camped about 25 miles north of Lone Pine, in the Owens Valley of California. The small town is pretty famous, and was an obvious choice for a day-trip. Besides, living in coastal California, we had often visited the Sierra Nevada from the west, and we wanted to get a ways up into the Sierras from this eastern side.

We drove down US395 and then west out of Lone Pine on Whitney Portal Road, with the massive Whitney Range dominating the skyline. From Lone Pine’s 4,000′ elevation, the peaks of the mountains rise to 14,000’+. And most of this two-mile rise occurs within the last 4 horizontal miles, a 1:2 pitch that’s steeper than most roof tops.

I remember from my private-flying days, coming across the peaks eastbound was like jumping off the rim of the Grand Canyon. A “precipitous drop”, as they say.

In a few short miles out of Lone Pine, the road dives straight into the jagged mountains.

Most of the way up, but not yet into the forest, an occasional pullout delivers commanding views, this one back to Lone Pine.

The road soon gets buried in the forested canyon — but the signage and the towering granite let us know where we were.

In mid-November, when the road is usually closed for the season, the upper parking lot was full. This is a VERY popular destination, with no lack of visitors whenever the road is open. It’s a mecca for climbers, hikers, nature-lovers. We were so glad to be there off-season — I’m sure it’s an absolute zoo during the peak visitation times. I’ll estimate that there were 20 cars scattered around, and perhaps room for ten times that many during peak months.

This Portal is the embarkation point where all the real journeys begin, with venues for lodge residents, hikers, and day visitors. The road ends at 8,900′, and the lower-48’s highest peak is only 2.5 miles away (as the crow flies). And of course, also accessible from the Portal are huge areas of the rest of the Sierras, the Pacific Crest Trail, many lesser peaks, and on and on.

This small trail bridge shows why everybody wants to come here. The scenery is fabulous, enchanting, daunting. The immensity of the place needs to be felt to be understood.

Right at the end of the road, Lone Pine Creek comes crashing down through the rocks and the forest in a gorgeous cascading waterfall. With daytime outside temperatures in the mid-30F range, the falls were already almost completely frozen.

We left the mountains and came back down the Whitney Portal Road, not thinking too much about “where next” except returning to camp. We wandered around the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, a picturesque range of low hills with heavily weathered boulders. Its biggest claim to fame seems to be the filming of the 1938 “Gunga Din” (Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant, Sam Jaffe).

There are many small roads and pullouts, and it’s mostly BLM land, affording multiple places to camp amongst the artsy rock piles.

We kept on going, and stumbled upon a new housing development. Apparently it’s intended to be upscale. Here’s the first one they built. There are 20 more lots. Not too shabby.

Just as we were about to turn back toward camp, we saw, far away, an amazing series of switchback cuts in the steep rise of a foothill range. The map showed that it dived way back into the Sierras, going to a place we’d never heard of, Horseshoe Meadow. Hmmm, 2PM. Dark comes early in November, but we decided to go.

I’m sorry to say that the hillside was is dark shadow even as we started, so I have nothing to show of the monstrous switchbacks. But one interesting feature cropped up — a helipad 3/4 of the way up. This road leads deep into the back country, where it can be nearly impossible to fly in and out. Apparently there is a need to Medevac people out of the wilderness.

Horseshoe Meadow Road is further south than Whitney Portal, and affords a grand view of the once-lustrous Owens Lake, that LA County has long since sucked dry. The tiny spots of water that can be seen are part of fragmentary restoration efforts to try to suppress dust — and this, only under court order. So beautiful, and so sad at the same time.

Just before the road dives down into the upper plateau of its destination, a grand view presents. Lone Pine, the Alabama Hills, and the Inyo range all gleam in the late afternoon sun.

In addition to the numerous hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails, this is also the entry point for the Golden Trout Wilderness, and fishing folks come from all over to try their hand.

But Horseshoe Meadow was all but shut down when we arrived. A few late-comers, like us, were nosing around, but it was obvious that the furious summer season was long over. At 9,900′ elevation, one decent snow should close that road for the winter; we were in fact surprised that it was still open, but certainly happy about it.

All in all, our two mini-day-trips were excellent. Each one could be made into much greater an excursion of course, but for what we invested, our “ROI” was just fine. We’ll go back again and do some more hiking and sightseeing — maybe when the days are just a bit longer, and warmer.

STILL CURIOUS?

Whitney Portal USFS

Satellite map Whitney Portal and Mt. Whitney

Alabama Hills wiki

Horseshoe Meadow Youtube drive

Horseshoe Meadow USFS

Satellite map Horseshoe Meadow

Water History — LA and Owens Valley