Left Northridge on a Monday morning, stopping by the local Arco to fill up my Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Left the truck at home, the rental will get three times the mileage. Up the 405 to the 5 and then curving to the right on the 14 past Vasquez Rocks and through Palmdale and Lancaster to meet the 395, stopping along the way at Red Rock Canyon to snack on some sandwiches left over from the party the day before. We continued up the 395 to Lone Pine, driving through town for a look and to check out the gas prices - they all seemed to be $2.69 per gallon.

After filling up we returned back to the south end of town and the new Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History that has opened to honor all of the movies filmed in the Alabama Hills just outside of town. The museum was a pleasent surprise with no admission charge, just a request for a donation if we liked the museum - and we did! We started by watching a 15 minute film that showed scenes from many of the great movies that were filmed in the Alabama Hills just to the west, between the town and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, capped by Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States. Not only were many westerns filmed here - the Alabama hills pretended to be most of the western states - the Alabama Hills also stood in for Afghanstan, Pakistan and other foreign locations in movies such as Cary Grant's 'Gunga Din' and Gary Cooper's 'The Lives of the Bengal Lancer.' Even Science Fiction movies, such as 'Tremors' and 'Star Trek V' were filmed in the area. The film ended with a tribute to all of the old western stars in a song by the Statler Brothers, 'Whatever happened to Randolph Scott.'

After walking around the museum for a while we picked up a free map that listed many of the places in the Alabama Hills where various movie scenes were filmed. As we exited the museum, we walked to the south side of the building where they had a large mural depecting many of the movies that had been filmed so close to the area. We then drove a couple of blocks north to the center of town, with the only stoplight in town, and turned left on Whitney Portal road, following a school bus that was in no hurry to get anywhere, until we reached Movie Road heading off to the right. The road was pretty easy to find as there was a film crew at the intersection, getting set up for a shot.

We drove along the dirt, but graded, road noting some of the locations on the map. Unfortunately, with the drive from LA and being November, it was getting dark as we drove along following the directions on the map. After several miles of kicking up large amounts of dust behind us, we reached the intersection of Movie Road and Hogback Road, which wasn't on the map. We turned left on Hogback and followed it for a mile or so not knowing if it would take us back to Whitney Portal Road. Finally, as it was getting even darker, we decided to turn around and follow the bread crumbs back the way we came in. We want to do the road again, but will look for a more detailed map (found that Microsoft Street and Trips shows that Hogback Road returns to Whitney Portal - too bad I hadn't booted up the computer!).

Back to Lone Pine and then south a couple of miles, past the spot where Ansel Adams shot his famous photo of Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills, to turn on highway 136 towards Death Valley. At the 136 intersection we stopped at the Information Center run by the forestry service and then continued on until forced to stop to take some photos of the beautiful sunset over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Continuing on we drove the windy road in the dark up and down until reaching Panamint Springs Resort. Being dark, and the signs were unlighted, we weren't sure where the actual resort was so we stopped and went into the cafe. Entering the café we saw the bar which was a wonderful large slab of wood supported by a jumble of tree branches and we met Russell, the bartender. When we asked him about Panamint Springs Resort he said we missed it - it was 38 miles back the road to Lone Pine - and then smiled and said we had found it. He checked the computer and found our reservation and gave us the key to our room, stating it was on the third floor behind the café. We didn't believe him as there was only one floor of rooms. The rest of the time we were ‘entertained' by Russell's humor. After checking into our room, acceptable but not one to write too much about, we returned to the café for dinner. To start with we tried some beers from the Indian Wells Brewery Company, I had a Lobotomy Bock while Jackie had an Orange Blossom Amber. Both were excellent! For dinner I had the Telescope penne pasta (named after one of the mountain tops in the area) and Jackie had a chicken dish with real mash potatoes. Jackie described the place as having character and characters.

During dinner we started talking with the assistant manager, Keith. Somehow photograpy was mentioned and he asked if I would like to shoot some photos of his scorpions, they glow under blacklight. Never having seen that, I went back to my room and got my equipment. We met in front of the cafe, in the dark, and he had his cages with two scorpions and a couple of battery powered blacklights. Turning on the lights, the scorpions would glow in the dark, just as some rocks do.

After several shots, we went back into the cafe for some more beers and a look at the excellent collection of photos in the cafe that have been donated by various photographers. Keith told us about some of the photos and asked if we would be interested in photographing some of his snakes in the morning, and we said yes. He said he was in the process of getting a permit to open a wildlife interpretive center, hopefully by spring 2007.

We started the next morning just after sunrise by driving back up highway 136 to Father Crawley' Point to get a good view of the valley and so Jackie could see the road we had driven down in the dark the night before. The Point was a little cold and windy, but very nice.

Back down the hill to the cafe for breakfast and to check out of the motel. I had the Panamint Pancakes and while very good, too much for even me to finish.