Road Trip to Awesomeness - End of Day Four

We left the JPL in the early afternoon, went via San Bernardino, Kern, and Inyo Counties, and headed up through some dry territory, dotted sparsely with small towns of varying sizes.  It is still beautiful and fascinating countryside, so we enjoyed the low end of the east side of the Sierras greatly.  We made it to Lone Pine by late afternoon and spent the night there.

Joshua Trees.  The Joshua Tree National Park wasn't on our route, but it was close, and thus, tempting for the park passport stamps we collect.  We didn't go, but there were some Joshua trees for us to enjoy along our way.

The view from our car windows

I'd gone through Kern County last year, but hadn't photo'd the sign.

Here's our entry into San Bernardino Co., another new one for my list.

And here's Inyo Co., also new since I began my list.

Back on the road to Lone Pine

Pearsonville - Hub Cap Capital of the World!  We had a Subway sandwhich at the truck stop there.

Don't know who she is, but she's fabulous!

We've reached Lone Pine, secured a hotel room, and are going out to introduce me to the Alabama Hills before dark.  Mt Whitney is the sharp peak to the right above the telephone pole and below the windshield blob.

Looking eastwards toward the Panamint Hills, with a tiny segment of Alabama Hills in the foreground.  The Panamints are the western range of Death Valley.

Jeffery on a giant "sandworm" rock formation.  The Alabama Hills are sort of illusory.  Farther away and bigger than they appear when you decide to go check the formations out, they startle with their presence. This blobbous formation wasn't even one of the more noticeable or intricate  things that we looked at, but it was still super-neato.

Looking south from a gap

A pointier set of formations (with Mt. Whitney)

The texture of the roof of the rock grotto

How was this formed?  What happened here?

Jeffery gives perspective to the previous photo.

And then there's this sort of perspective, too, using a different rock

Loved this one - so smooth - but if you put your hand on the rocks, they were extremely rough textured.

Another strange sandwormy structure

See me among the rocks?

Being silly

The sun is going down

The shadows are lengthening in the Alabama Hills

I call these The Meister-singers.  I think site maps call them ghosts

My car against the dying of the day with Mt. Whitney in view just above it.

Back in Lone Pine, we walked much of the length of town before retiring for the night.

The restaurant was actually a round building.

Sporting goods and Hardware

fun touches around town

Jeffery points out Mt. Whitney on the pictorial map

The maps shows what a funny geologic occurance the Alabama Hills are in the area.  You can't really even see them from much of a distance; they become so discrete, yet when you're in the Hills, they are impressive.

Lloyd's of Lone Pine - Western Wear

See this barrel?  It's the attractive trash receptacle on this block, this side of the street.  I am particularly enamored of municipalities that offer regular trash receptacles to the people walking along.  It is civilized.

One small section of wall held this sign, and another sign said that there was a bit more somewhere we didn't go.

Another civility in Lone Pine - frequent artful benches along the way.  This is just one of them.

It was a long, glorious, unbelievably fabulous day, and 80 degrees with a pleasant summer breeze when we finished our walk and headed to our Motel (not hotel) to crash and sleep like babies.  See you tomorrow!