Lone Pine Weekend Alone

wayoflife

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Instead of heading down to the madness that is known as TDS, Cindy and I decided to change things up this year and head up north to Lone Pine for some well needed alone time. Along the way, we made a stop over at Pearsonville to say hello to the Uniroyal Gal, explored the shores of the Owens Dry Lake, spent some time at an abandoned airfield, wheeled up into the Inyo Mountains and went hunting for 235 million year old Ammonite fossils before calling it a night. Before heading for home the following day, we decided to take a long cut home to play on some rocks and explore some old mines. Here are some pics from our trip, I hope you enjoy.

Shot of us heading up the beautiful 395...
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Stopping to say hello to the Uniroyal Gal in Pearsonville...
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Of course, Pearsonville is also known for being the "Hubcap Capital of the World"...
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Time to ditch the pavement and do some exploring...
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Our first stop was over to the old Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns along the shores of the ancient Owens Dry Lake...
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It sucks that they have to be fenced off like this but, I do understand that without it, the yahoos would destroy it...
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Down by the waters of the not so dry Owens Dry Lake. In recent years, the DWP was forced by the EPA to help prevent the air pollution created by blowing dust and part of that solution was to divert some water back into the lake...
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Beautiful divided sky overhead...
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Our next stop for the day was to check out the old Manzanar Airport which was abandoned back in 1956...
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Mother nature reclaiming the land...
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X marks the spot! Section of the airfield that is relatively intact....
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Exploring the surrounding area, I found this old glass vial partially buried in the dirt complete with rusty tin cap and some kind of white pills inside...
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Leaving the airfield, we headed up into the Inyo Mountains to do some fossil hunting...
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Shot looking down a cool looking wash as we hiked the rest of the way to the fossil beds...
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Fossil hunting is hard work!! After spending a couple of hours digging through the rocks, we were only able to find a handful of Ammonite specimens, aquatic creatures that lived in an ancient sea over 235 million years ago...
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Shot of some Fishhook catus with the Sierra's in the background...
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After our fun at the fossil beds, we decided to hike up to an old mine high up on the mountain side...
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It was a hell of a hike but well worth it. Because it was hard to get to, it was also is incredible shape - no trash, no bullet holes and no signs of vandalism...
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Watching the last of the sunlight illuminating the eastern ridgetops...
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With the sun down for the day, it was time for us to head back down the mountian...
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Home for the night...
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More pics below...
 
The following day was so beautiful, we just couldn't head back for home without doing some more exploring first. Here's a shot looking east across the Panamint Valley...
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Rubicat posting for a shot...
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Ahhh, a road less traveled...
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Time to air down...
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Tessa soaking in the sun...
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And we're off - heading up the Argus Range...
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Cool!! An old mine to explore...
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This goes a long way down...
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Working our way up the canyon...
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Beautiful folds in the rock formation...
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It's play time...
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It's been a while for Rubicat so she decided to do some stretching...
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Sizing up a temping tub/waterfall...
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While it was totally doable, there was definitely the potential for damage or a break and, being that we were by ourselves, we decided to play it smart and leave this obstacle for another day when we have friends along...
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Working our way further up the canyon...
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So many routes to explore and so little time in a day to explore them all...
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Way cool! Our destination for the day - the old Defense Mine...
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Exploring the extensive network of tunnels...
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Looking up one of many vertical shafts...
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So, what do you think... would you go in?
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Posing for a shot before heading out...
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Working our way down the mountian...
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A really sad sight we came across along the way...
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Making a stop to check out some huge concrete pads...
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Almost off the mountain, we came across an old Volvo...
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Kicking up some dust as we head back to pavement...
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The end of a great day out in the desert. Now, only 5 more hours till we get home...
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I hope you enjoyed our weekend trip up to Lone Pine and back. :cool:
 
Looks like a really fun trip I would love to do that once I get my lift! :thumb: 


Ray ⛺
 
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Awesome pictures! One of these days I'll have to head down south to check this place out.

I'm waiting on the gates to open up in the mountains just north of you. Snow wheeing is all I can do right now.
 
Anybody else on the East Coast get crazy jealous when looking at a trip like this?

That looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.
 
Anybody else on the East Coast get crazy jealous when looking at a trip like this?

That looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.

Our Western friends sure are lucky.

Great writeup, love to admire the pictures. Love, another jealous city slicker
 
Awesome photos of a beautiful trip. That trip has been on my bucket list for a while. Is the location of those fossils in a guidebook somewhere?
 
That is a really cool area! Is the fossil dig area just an off the map kind of thing? Looked like those were pretty good ammonites :yup:

I love the geology out there. Lots of great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
 
Beautiful photos and I love the background and history with them. It makes the trip so much more.
I thought sure you were going to tackle the flexy rock climbs solo, but "with age comes wisdom.":thumb:
 
WOW! awesome pictures, I spent about 6 months in Lone Pine working at Owens Dry Lake Bed. Suck I never had a chance to explore the area but also I didn't have my Jeep then.. Great place to explore thank you for sharing!! :thumb:
 
Certainly something I needed to see! Glad to see you guys out there doing what you love and enjoying life! Quite a beautiful dog too!

Again, thanks for being out there promoting what you love!
 
Anybody else on the East Coast get crazy jealous when looking at a trip like this?

That looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.

Very jealous .. You would think that since GA is mostly woods and open land that's we would have tons of places to wheel... Definitely not the case whatsoever.
 
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