Darwin Falls and Movie Road

One of the best things about our lifestyle is being able to take time to see the “small stuff.” On our way out of Death Valley we drove to Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs and hiked back to Darwin Falls. Who would guess there’s a waterfall in this desert. It was a fun hike back and forth across a creek and up and down rocks but worth the effort to see the vertical falls and clear pool.

The drive across the Sierra’s was a white knuckle one – a winding road with steep cliffs and big downgrades! We unhooked the car so I followed Roger in the car. I’m sure the scenery was breathtaking but neither of us took our eyes off the road! We went from 285 feet below sea level to over 5,000 feet at Town Pass then back down to about 1500 feet.

We were both looking forward to the town of Lone Pine – anxious to see something green if only a “lone pine!” Roger read a blog about boondocking in this area so we made our way to their “favorite campsite of all” in the Alabama Hills at the base of Mt. Whitney. We were not disappointed!

Lone Pine and the Movie Road area is know as a favorite movie filming location – especially, the old westerns but also more recent films. You can drive down Movie Road and just camp anywhere – we found a great place with a fire pit and leftover wood. The view of the snow capped mountains is gorgeous.

We toured the Lone Pine Film History Museum this morning – what a trip down memory lane. Names like: Hop Along Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, and of course “The Duke” John Wayne. Episodes of Rawhide and the movies – Gunga Din, How the West was Won and many other old westerns were filmed here. More recent movies are: Django Unchained, Tremors, and Iron Man. We keep expecting to see the Lone Ranger and Tonto race by on Silver – right Kemo Sabay??

After lunch we toured the Manzanar National Historic Site. Not a proud time in United States history. It is one of nine internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. In all about 110,000  people were held in these camps from 1942 until 1945 – 18,000 at Manzanar – and none were ever found to be anti-American of subversives. In fact, several were killed in action serving in our military while their families were held captive! Of course, we have heard about these camps but never really knew the details or appreciated the families sacrifices.