USA road trip, Post 3: Alabama Hills

On Saturday morning, July 3rd, we awoke to this view from our motel room in Lone Pine...



We enjoyed a pancake breakfast at the adjacent Sierra Cafe, which was decorated patriotically due to this being the Independence Day long weekend.



After breakfast, we checked out some of the old photos and newspaper clippings on display in the Dow Villa Motel - mostly to do with various Westerns that were filmed in the area (Transformers was also filmed there). This led to us picking up a pamphlet that showed how to get to the nearby Alabama Hills and a couple of interesting-looking rock arches, so we decided to go and find them after we checked out.

We hadn't heard of the Alabama Hills before, but ended up being very glad we took the time to see them. They consisted of huge piles of boulders, quite unlike anything we had seen before... and they definitely made us realise why the area was a popular filming location for Westerns!! We half expected to see a bunch of horse thieves come galloping around the corner, pursued by the sheriff and his men!



















We drove a little bit further and parked the car so we could go looking for the rock arches. I might mention that it was probably almost 40 degrees - and yes, that is snow on the distant mountains!!



We found this little heart-shaped arch (that's how the pamphlet described it; we may not be on quite the right angle!)...



...And then walked a few minutes further, where we found what we thought was the main arch we were aiming for. It was okay...



...But we were somewhat disappointed about its size. The pamphlet had led us to believe it would be a bit bigger!



Hahaha!

Luckily, Delle walked a little way around the corner and found the real thing!!







So that was the Alabama Hills! Quite spectacular, aren't they?

After that little detour, we hit the road again - our destination for that night was San Francisco, 7 hours away... via Yosemite National Park. To be continued!