Death Valley National Park (West) & Alabama Hills from Lone Pine CA

ahschneid
Nov 27
11 min read

Thursday 20 November 2025, we drove to Lone Pine California which is west of Death Valley National Park. We planned to stay there 4 nights as two of the days we were to be there had rain in the forecast. We arrived in Lone Pine to temps in the high 40’s! We got set up just before it started raining. The rain wasn’t hard as we were on the edge of the system moving through.

On Friday 21 November, we stayed in in the morning and after lunch we drove to the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine. They gave us maps and information on the area. For our next stop, we went through the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine. It was interesting to see how film crews shot the old westerns. Most of the actors of the 1920 -50’s were before our time, but we both recognized John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Steve even remembered Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Museum of Western Film History - Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Next we drove out to see sites in the Alabama Hills. The Internet describes Alabama Hills “as a range of hills and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California. Though geographically separate from the Sierra Nevada, they are part of the same geological formation”. Steve and Anita had no problem envisioning cowboys and Indians in the hills as we drove through them. Hundreds of movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills back in the 1920’s. More recently, 'Django Unchained' and 'Ironman' were filmed there. Alabama Hills got it’s name from the CSS Alabama, a Confederate warship that was active during the Civil War. Prospectors sympathetic to the Confederacy named mining claims after the ship in the 1860s, and the name eventually became associated with the entire area. It was still cloudy the afternoon we drove through Alabama Hills, but the hills were just beautiful.

Lone Pine California - 21 November 2025

Alabama Hills - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

Alabama Hills - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

Alabama Hills - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

Alabama Hills - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

Alabama Hills - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

Hwy 395 - Owens Valley California - 21 November 2025

One of the sites on the campground's points of interest in the area is the 1872 Earthquake gravesite and fault. We tried to find that, but had no luck. However, we did see three herds of Tule elk back in fields away from the road. They were too far away to get pictures, but we stopped and turned off the truck and we could here them bugling! Anita nor Steve had never heard that. We were both surprised that the rut was still going on that late in November. Steve thought these were Tule Elk, a subspecies of elk found only in California. They looked smaller than the Roosevelt Elk we saw in Oregon a few weeks ago. We also saw Manzanar National Historic Site, but it was almost dark, so we decided to come back another day.

On Saturday 22 November we planned a long day of driving with hopes of a hike during the day. We left the campground at 7:15am to drive to Death Valley National Park, a little over 100 miles away. The campground where were staying wasn’t our first choice, but Paramint Campground in Paramint Springs Resort inside Death Valley National Park was booked. Our first point of interest in the park was the Father Crowley Vista Point. Fr. John J. Crowley (1891 - 1940), often referred to as the Desert Padre, was a Catholic priest in California's large but sparsely populated Eastern Sierra and Death Valley. He served there from 1919 to 1924, and again from 1934 through 1940. Father Crowley is remembered for his endless efforts to help improve the economic well-being of all Eastern Sierra residents whose lives had been adversely affected by the diversion of water from the Owens Valley to the rapidly growing but water-deficient Los Angeles area 200 miles away.

Panamint Springs Resort and RV Village has a restaurant and restrooms, so a worthy stop. The drive through Death Valley is awesome, but goes for miles and miles with no facilities. We learned from the restaurant that there are no hot springs there in Paramint. He said at one time there were and that the name stuck, but today there are no hot springs. Steve had the idea to stop on our way to Pahrump Nevada for a soak. That wasn’t going to work.

About 50 miles later, we came to Stovepipe Wells Village. Again this was a good stop for a comfort station and amenities. We saw the turn out for Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, but kept driving as we wanted to reach Badwater Basin. Badwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, noted as the lowest point in North America and the United States, with a depth of 282 ft below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, is only 84.6 miles to the northwest and visible from Lone Pine CA, where we were staying. Our next stop was the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We watched a film about the park and leaned about the indigenous people, the Timbisha Shoshone tribe, who still live there after thousands of years.

We passed the Golden Canyon trailhead on our way to Badwater Basin and decided to stop there on our way back. It had lots of cars and turned out to be the most popular hike in the park. We made it to Badwater Basin and walked out to see the salt flats. We were happy to be there toward the end of November with temperatures being some of the highest in the US during the Summer months. We drove back to Golden Canyon and had our lunch then went for a hike. We just went one mile in and came back, as we were running out of time to make it back for mass at 5pm. That also meant we were running out of daylight, with the sun setting at 4:45pm. The hike at Golden Canyon was beautiful! To be so close to the walls of the canyon was very humbling. We enjoyed it immensely. After our hike we started our trip back. We stopped at the Harmony Borax Works site, but just drove through it. We had heard about the 20-mule teams that carried borax 165 miles from Death Valley to trains in the Mojave Desert between 1883 and 1889. The arduous journey took approximately 10 days to complete, as the teams traversed scorching heat and rugged desert terrain with wagons carrying up to 10 tons of ore.

We kept driving home and were amazed at the views going that direction. It was a cloudy day, but the sun pierced through the clouds at certain points and it was just spectacular! We enjoyed the drive just as much heading home as we had early that morning. Oh, that morning we had a few sprinkles of rain and we could see the sun trying to come out, and then to our surprise we saw a rainbow! We feel so lucky and blessed.

We made it home in time to shower and head back out for mass at Santa Rosa Catholic Church in Lone Pine California. It was just about 6 miles from the campground. There were only about 15-20 people there for the 5pm mass, but it was nice. We went out for dinner after mass.

Our drive to Death Valley National Park - 22 November 2025

Our drive to Death Valley National Park - 22 November 2025