Alabama Hills - Lone Pine, California - 9/8/18

Traveling the Dirt Roads in the Alabama Hills

Arch Loop Trail

Red Barrel Cactus in Alabama Hills

Having fun in the Alabama Hills

On the last day of the Bishop club excursion, seven of the nine remaining hikers checked out of the hotel and drove down to Lone Pine, California. There is a small loop hike in the Alabama Hills that some of these hikers had not seen before. Within this loop, there is a famous arch in the yellow granite boulders called Mobius Arch. It was a beautiful morning and early morning is the best time to photograph Mt. Whitney through the arches. So we turned onto Whitney Portal Road from the town of Lone Pine and drove up to Movie Road, a small signed road that turns to the right.

Cars parked at the Trailhead for the Arch Loop

The road is called Movie Road because several movies have been filmed in this area over the years. If you are interested, there are maps to these nearby locations. The road changes to graded dirt. We drove out until the road made a curve to the right. Immediately following, there is a large dirt parking area on the left. We pulled in there.

Alabama Hills

A small short sign indicates where the Arch Loop begins. Here, you can see Heart Arch in the distance. We dropped down into a sandy wash then climbed some steps. Wandering through the bouldered terrain was fun and interesting. The wide views were beautiful.

Mobius Arch & Mt. Whitney

Lathe Arch

 We circled around and came to Mobius Arch where there were a few people gathered around. With some cajoling, I got the two men sitting in the photo range to move .... We got our photos and so did another family that was there. Around the corner, we found Lathe Arch. More photos! We finished the small loop trail then got back into the cars to drive over to another of this area's famous arches, Eye of Alabama. A short hike up a hill brought us to this arch which was better photographed from behind this early in the morning. So, we scrambled up the backside and started clicking! A fun short morning! Next, we drove through Death Valley NP, ate lunch in Stovepipe Wells and continued home. We had a wonderful week of a lot of new stuff! New stuff is fun!

Arch Loop plus Eye of Alabama: 1 mile; 350 feet elevation gain; 1.25 hours

Eye of Alabama & Mt. Whitney

Scrambling up to Eye of Alabama

Club Members say Hi through the Eye