Eastern Sierras, Oct 2009 |
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| "Movie Flats" Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA |
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| Scores of Hollywood westerns have been filmed here. |
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| Quite surprisingly, the movie "Gunga Din" was filmed here too. |
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| Quest this visit was to capture more stone archways. |
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| There are over 80 wind-carved stone archways in the Alabama Hills. |
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| It takes time, patience to locate them among the numerous rock formations. |
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| Accessibility can sometimes present a challenge. |
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| There is one stone arch everyone wants to find. |
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| Lone Pine Peak framed by the Hill's most famous archway. |
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| Hazy skies due to wild fires burning further south in the Los Angeles Basin. |
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| A broad, narrow archway discovered while exploring. |
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| A line of equestrians wind their way through Movie Flats in the Alabama Hills. |
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| Just as we were leaving, noticed this archway in an area not previously explored. |
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| Found no safe way to get close to it. |
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| No safe way to get behind it either. Note the distance to our car on the road below. |
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| A sturdy cottonwood deep rooted in a dry creek bed. Joshua trees once thrived here too, but all have vanished. |
| "Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie! " |
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| We arrived 1.5 hours before closing time. Not enough time to see everything. |
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| Church scene very popular with photographers. Surprised to have a clear view. |
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| Some of the structures appear near collapse. |
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| Buildings in better shape are locked to prevent entry. |
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| All structures heavily weathered by the elements. |
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| Shacks with smaller rooms added haphazardly. |
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| Flattened tin can siding for additional insulation. |
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| Portrait of decay. |
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| These old shacks have withstood extreme heat in summer, deep snow in winter. |
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| An autumn afternoon slowly drawing to a close. |
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| One of a handful of sturdy houses that still retain their windows. |
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| A pulley mechanism was used to lift and close the door to the fire house. |
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| View of the buildings housing equipment used to process ore extracted from nearby mines. |
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| This fat cat is a serious hunter. Watched it make its rounds from shack to shack. Lots of mice and voles to eat. |
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| Another favorite scene for photographers. |
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| Sun sinking low casting shadows. |
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| Two structures with a shared wall for support. |
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| Found this broken wagon wheel positioned to enhance the scene. (Photographers often do this at Bodie.) |
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| Twenty miles northeast of Bishop about mid-valley. |
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| Along a quarter-mile stretch of fractured cliff-face above a dry arroyo. |
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| Is the site of an impressive array of Native American petroglyphs |
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| Owens Valley is the traditional tribal lands of Piute and Shoshone. |
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| But these petroglyphs are older by a thousand years. |
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| In some places, the entire cliff face is covered with markings. |
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| Some deeply carved and more recent, others worn, faded, hardly visible. |
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| Concentric circles, cup-and-ring, zig-zag lines, animorfic. |
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| Three hunters, one appears to hold a bow. |
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| Care to speculate on the meaning of these symbols? |
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| Repeated straight and chevron lines, concentric circle, cup-and-ring marks. |
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| Numerous symbols concentrated in a small area. |
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| Pony tracks? Parallel wavy lines - water? Ladder or partial outline of a feather? Stick figure pointing west? |
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| These carving high up on the cliff face, well above human height. |
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| Incised boulder near dry streambed. |
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| A thousand years ago, stream bed would have been much higher than today. |
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| Bleached area at base of cliff was once the stream bed. |
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| Late afternoon along the shore of Mono Lake. |
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| Rush Creek, June Lake Loop, Mono Basin. |
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| A Dipper pauses briefly before resuming its under water search for food. |
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| Rush Creek is very popular with both anglers and photographers. |
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| A full-size cinnamon colored black bear entered the water just across the creek. |
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| It flicked one ear back when it heard the click of my lens shutter. |
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| It sat down mid stream and began feeling around underwater in search of crayfish. |
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| Not a lot of autumn color yet. Another week or so, the entire canyon will turn to flame. |
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| One of two old shacks along Hwy 395 about a mile from the June Lake Loop road. |
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| I photograph these shacks each time we visit Mono Basin. Last October, the scene was very different. |
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| Same weekend, October 2008, blizzard conditions. |
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| All the northern passes were closed. We arrived via the southern route through Mojave. |
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| Same weekend, October 2007. |
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| Northern passes were closed, we took the southern route via Mojave to get home. |
| Return to Top. For more information visit: Mono County: Wild by Nature |