One of our favourite road tripping activities is hunting for our next little slice of paradise, and we found it in the Alabama Hills.
Ironically, the Alabama Hills are not located in the state of Alabama. Far from it, in fact! These rolling hills adorned with elaborate jumbles of round, bronze-coloured rocks, are nestled between the tiny town of Lone Pine and the jagged, snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada in California. The curious name dates back to the American Civil War, when area mining prospectors sympathetic to the Confederate cause named their claims after the CSS Alabama Warship. The things you learn when you travel!
When we set out earlier this year on our Great West Coast Loop adventure, we’d never heard of this place. After spending a week adventuring in the Alabama Hills, it became one of our most-loved destinations of the trip (despite the surprise snowfall in April). In this post, we’ll share with you why.
Spectacular Scenery
The scenery in the Alabama Hills is like nothing we’ve ever seen. The blobby, bronze-coloured rock formations reminded me of the drip castles that we made at the beach as kids – but these ones were clearly constructed by giants. The contrast of bronze boulders against the jagged, blue, snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains is stark and beautiful. It’s a photographer’s dream and I became obsessed with capturing photos.
Town of Lone Pine
We were charmed by Lone Pine from the moment we drove down Main Street. It has western-style buildings, old mining town vibes, lots of old neon signs, a bakery, and at least one outdoor store per block. Now that’s our kind of place! We spent a morning wandering around town, taking photos, eating baked goods, buying outdoor gear, and getting beta (aka intel) for the local climbing. We loved that the Whitney Portal Hostel offers hot, luxurious showers for a fee… we were long overdue. Our only complaint about Lone Pine: expensive groceries!
Movie Road
The Alabama Hills have appeared in hundreds of movies since the early 1920s. This includes a huge number of old westerns, as well as a number of more recent sci-fi movies. Movie Road (yes, that’s the official name) winds through the jumbled rock piles, past historic filming locations. For real film aficionados, there’s an online self-guided tour brochure.
We weren’t familiar with most of the old movies but we have vivid memories of the 90s monster movie Tremors, which was filmed here. Marc did his best to recreate one of the iconic scenes, climbing the rock formation from the movie to escape imaginary Gabroid monsters.
Cheap & Free Camping
Not only were the camping areas that we found either cheap or free, they were also some of the best we’ve discovered… anywhere, ever! That’s high praise coming from a couple of travellers who’ve visited hundreds of campsites over the past few years. We had 2 favourites in the Alabama Hills:
#1 – Tuttle Creek Campground
This Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campground sits high on the foothills, sandwiched between the Sierra Nevada and the Alabama Hills. It offers 83 site primitive sites and each one is a gem, with views of the mountains, the hills, or the gurgling creek. It was so hard to choose just one (so we ended up staying in a few, lol). For $10 a night, it’s a steal. Every morning, no matter how frigid, we would bring our coffees out to the picnic table and admire the scenery while we planned our day.
#2 – BLM Dispersed Camping
The Alabama Hills dispersed campsites are sprinkled amongst the jumbles of boulders along Movie Road. These sites are free and highly sought after. We managed to snag a spectacular site on a Monday, once the weekend crowds had returned home. We left our camp chairs, levellers, and door mat on the site to claim it and crossed our fingers that our stuff would be there when we got back. It was! This was one of the most special and unique campsites we’ve ever had.
Hiking
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the formal and informal trails that zig-zag throughout the Alabama Hills; we hiked every day that we were in the area. Some of our favourite trails were Mobius Arch and Arch Loop. This area is home to the Whitney Portal: gateway to the famous Mount Whitney Trail and several mountaineering routes. The mere idea of hiking Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, is thrilling. It’s something we would love to do in the future, if we we’re visiting in season and lucky enough to score a highly sought-after permit.
Climbing
The only thing better than admiring and hiking through the stunning rock formations is climbing them, and there are climbing routes galore in the Alabama Hills. We were stoked to stumble upon this climbing mecca and as we only managed to get up a handful of the over 300 routes, we will be back! The views from the anchor were the cherry on top.
Stay Tuned
After 6 days in the Alabama Hills, 5 more than originally planned, we left reluctantly after promising ourselves that we would return another year. Yes, we loved it that much, and there’s more to explore in the area. But the clock was ticking and it was time for us to steer Slow Sally toward California for our Pacific Coast Highway adventure. More about that in the next post!
SLOW SALLY & CREW 