We went camping over our Winter break, spending Christmas in the southern Owens Valley area. I wanted to try to get some pictures of sunrise on the east face of a snow-covered Mt. Whitney, and we wanted to get out of town. We headed to the Alabama Hills, just outside of Lone Pine, California.
It's cold over there in the depths of winter, and especially so when you get up before sunrise to take pictures. We sleep warm inside the rooftop tent, so that's not a problem, but it does make for some long nights when we retreat into the tent by 7 pm or so. The first couple of days were good, but once it got windy, we decided to head for a motel in town.
After enjoying pizza and old movies in the motel room, we were ready to head out again. We drove up into the Inyo Mountains, east of Lone Pine. We enjoyed the views of Owens Lake and the Sierra from the Inyos, passed through the old mining town of Cerro Gordo, then went down the steep east side of the Inyos on a rough jeep road. At a couple of points on this excursion, I was very glad to have the locking rear differential on the truck; I was spinning the tires in 4 low until I used the locker. We ended up in a Joshua tree woodland called Lee Flat, inside Death Valley National Park, just before sunset.
The morning temperature was about 19 degrees F (-7 C), but the day soon warmed. We decided to go look at one of the side canyons off Panamint Valley. The road into Wildrose Canyon was blocked as a result of flash flooding earlier in the year, so we ended up in Surprise Canyon, which had a nice flow of water but too much mining debris for our taste.
On the way out, we took the back roads past Darwin Falls, China Garden Spring, and the town of Darwin in Death Valley National Park. I was intrigued to visit a town named after Charles Darwin, but I quickly realized that this wasn't the case. The town was founded in 1874; Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was first published in 1859. The town of Darwin was actually named after a fellow named Darwin French, apparently named after Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather.
After Darwin, we went back for one more might at the Dow Villa Motel in Lone Pine. It's close enough to the Alabama Hills that I was able to get up before dawn and go shoot more photos. Finally, we headed home, with a stop to sample the beer at Firestone Walker Brewery in Paso Robles.