Outdoors with Don Q: A fun-filled mini vacation in Lone Pine, Calif

Elaine and I just returned from a mini vacation in Lone Pine, California, where we spent three days and two nights, having fun goofing off. The original purpose of our trip was to fish for trout in its nearby Diaz Lake, however those plans were reluctantly cancelled due to high winds.

Traveling to Lone Pine:
Lone Pine is about 250 miles south of Carson City via U.S. 395.
We left home at 10:30 a.m. and arrived in Lone Pine at 2:45 p.m. with one stop in Bishop for gasoline.
If you take this same trip, do not, do not, do not plan to stop for gasoline in either Bridgeport or Lee Vining.
Gas in Carson City was $2.67 a gallon, in Bishop it was $3.39 a gallon.
In Bridgeport and Lee Vining it was a mind-boggling $4.39 a gallon.

Lone Pine:
Lone Pine is a neat little community in the Owens Valley with a population of just over 2,000 people and it is located about 60 miles south of Bishop.
In March, 1872, a huge earthquake struck the Owens Valley, destroying most of the buildings in Lone Pine, killing many people and it caused the valley to drop some 25-30 feet which resulted in the creation of Diaz Lake.
Today, there are numerous stores, shops, cafes, restaurants, motels, RV parks, gas stations, etc., and even a film history museum. Our personal favorites when staying in Lone Pine are: The Dow Villa Motel for overnight accommodations, the Alabama Hills Cafe for breakfast and lunch and the Merry Go Round Restaurant for Chinese dinner.

Boulder Creek RV Resort:
This year, we had made reservations at the Boulder Creek RV Resort, about four miles south of Lone Pine, and stayed in a very comfortable cabin at the resort, which is close to our planned fishing destination of Diaz Lake.
That resort has three cabins and some 80+ spaces for RV's. Both nights we were there, most of the spaces were full of travelers in camping trailers, fifth-wheelers and motor homes (some were huge!).

A number of those travelers suffered serious damages to their units, as the high winds during the night raised havoc with their awnings and screens.

Rob and Denice Buonamici of Carson City had been in Death Valley on a short trip with their camping trailer, but it got too hot for them (100 degrees in the daytime and 83 degrees at night) so they altered their plans, called to see if we wanted company and then joined us at the resort, where their trailer was only a rock's throw from our cabin.

They put a nice red/white checkered tablecloth on their picnic table and when the wind blew during the night, that tablecloth disappeared forever. I have a suspicion that it is somewhere high in the sky on the way to Utah.

Here are some of the things we experienced on our mini vacation:
Taking photos of Mount Whitney: All four of us took photos of Mount Whitney from all kinds of angles.That mountain and its range were very photogenic but would have been more spectacular if they had their normal covering of deep snow.

Sadly, even though it is more than 14,000 feet high, the snow on that towering peak is pitiful this year.
According to Wikipedia, Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m).
It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties. The west slope of the mountain is in Sequoia National Park and the summit is the southern terminus of the John Muir Trail which runs 211.9 miles (341.0 km) from Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley. The east slope is in the Inyo National Forest in Inyo County.

Visiting that general area:
We wandered all over that general area, visiting many different locations and taking lots of photos of everywhere we stopped. In the old days of Hollywood, this area was a favorite of movie makers. According to Wikipedia, a whole bunch of movies were filmed in the Lone Pine, Alabama Hills and Whitney Portal area, and they included:

Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy.
Bagdad with Maureen O'Hara
Boots and Saddles with Gene Autry
Broken Arrow with James Stewart
The Charge of the Light Brigade with Errol Flynn
The Cowboy and the Lady with Gary Cooper
Desert Legion with Alan Ladd
Flaming Guns with Tom Mix
G.I. Jane with Demi Moore
The Gay Caballero with Cesar Romero
The Great Race with Jack Lemmon
The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck
Gunga Din with Cary Grant.

Finally:
If you're looking to escape the Carson City area for a short time in the near future, you might want to consider visiting Lone Pine, Calif. We did, had a great time and are planning to return in the future.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you about the clubhouse at the Boulder Creek RV Resort.
If he grins and says, "Every morning, the clubhouse has free coffee and assorted muffins for the folks staying at the resort," he has stayed there overnight in the past.

Special Note:
In the main building, next to the clubhouse, there is a great general store with a friendly staff and all kinds of goodies and souvenirs.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photographer. They live in Carson City and can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.