Lake Isabella, CA to Lone Pine, CA

With the forecasts for really hot weather in Death Valley I had almost decided to give it a miss. Who knows if I would ever get back but I didn’t want to risk endangering Eliot or Helmut (the VW van). But as the forecast was for lower temperatures by the weekend, I thought we would slowly make our way over the mountains and miss the worst of the heat.

First thing on this morning’s agenda was to purchase some new mantles for my Coleman lantern. The evening’s are so pleasant after the heat of the day that it’s nice to sit outside and read for a bit in the evening. So before leaving town I visited an Army/Navy surplus store in Lake Isabella. I tied Eliot just outside the door but when I went inside the two woman looking after the place asked if that was my dog and insisted that I bring him inside. Eliot and I did a little tour around the place and I found this lovely chapeau which has a detachable piece which covers the back of one’s neck and one’s ears. I also got mantles (and a spare set) for the lantern.

After a return visit to My Place Restaurant for a lunchtime burrito we were off up Hwy 178. We had spent the night at around 3,000 feet but we had to go up and over Walter Pass at 5,000 feet to get over the bottom end of the mountain range. We stopped at the pass for a brief stretch and met a fellow who was doing a short hike with his dog and turned out to be someone else who was looking to have a friendly chat. Turns out he is retired from the U.S. military and had been working at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center which was just down in the valley at the bottom of the pass to the east of Hwy 395. It strikes me a bit odd that there would be a naval facility in the middle of the desert but this naval facility is the one that has to do with those unmanned drones that we hear about in the news.

Although I learned this in passing, Chuck had lots of tips for travelling to and in Death Valley. He recommended taking Hwy 395 up to Lone Pine, CA. Hwy 395 runs up the valley between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Panamint Mountain Range that forms one side of Death Valley. It was about a hot hour of driving to Lone Pine but the temperature seemed to moderate a bit as we rolled into town. Lone Pine has a single stop light which I suppose comes in handy during tourist season.

There is a lot of government land around Lone Pine. There’s land controlled by the City of Los Angeles (for water supply) also National Forest Land and areas looked after by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). The ranger at the info center suggested some areas close by that were worth exploring. 



One of those is an area that was used by Hollywood back in the days when westerns were popular. Over 300 movies were shot in this area. There are roads and trails all through this area and you can even camp just about anywhere you want on these lands as long as you pull off the road. I decided that I’d like a little company and so tonight we’re camped at Tuttle Creek Campground in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. All this for a fee of $5.

Tomorrow morning we’ll check the weather forecast and see where we go from here.