NUGGET #291: EASTERN SIERRA GRANDEUR

The Owens Valley along the Eastern Sierra Front is a magical place with world-class views. Bounded by the White-Inyo Mountains to the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west, each with peaks exceeding 14,000-feet, it is considered the deepest valley on the American continents with a 10,000-foot difference between summits to valley floor. The crests between the two towering ranges are only 20 miles apart, with the valley between. Like Lake Tahoe, Owens Valley is a graben, a down-dropped block of land between two vertical faults. Geologically active, an 1872 earthquake on the Lone Pine fault uplifted the Sierra 15 to 20 feet in massive thrusts.

Peering down upon Bishop, California, from a vantage point in the White-Inyo Mountains. Native Americans called the valley Payahuunadu, meaning “place of flowing water.” It used to be flush with water until a Los Angeles water and power utility deceitfully acquired nearly all water rights in the area. The movie Chinatown with actor Jack Nicholson touches on this topic.  

View south along Highway 395 heading to Walker Pass where the Sierra Range begins to peter out. In 1834 mountain man Joseph R. Walker first entered the southern end of Owens Valley via a pass he learned about from Native Americans, now called Walker Pass.

The Manzanar War Relocation Center opened in 1942 as one of 10 such encampments established to incarcerate Japanese immigrants ineligible for citizenship and Japanese American citizens during World War II.

The Alabama Hills are a formation of unusual, eroded rocks and hills located west of Lone Pine at the base of the massive Sierra Front. This National Scenic Area was named for the Confederate warship CSS Alabama by prospectors sympathetic to southern resistance in the American Civil War. Hundreds of movies have been filmed at this iconic western location and every Fall the Lone Pine Film History Museum hosts a festival to honor the industry. Legendary Western actors like John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper and many more rode horses in this spectacular terrain.

At 14,494 feet, Mount Whitney is the highest mountain peak in the lower 48 states. Although it towers two miles above Lone Pine, its profile is a bit muted by the proximity of other peaks and granite needles that exceed 14,000 feet.

I’m a big fan of Highway 395 road trips!

Although it’s hard not to smile at this graffiti in the Alabama Hills, I’m sure the Bureau of Land Management discourages the defacement of this remarkable and fragile ecosystem. Traveling companion Nora O’Neill leaves no trace; takes only pictures. Backcountry code.

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