Day 58 + 59 : Lone Pine and Manzanar

16th + 17th June 2013
No miles
Mileage : 0

Lone Pine is one of several small towns strung out in a line along the bottom of the Owens valley floor. Lone Pine itself is located right at the base of Mt Whitney, and from most parts of the town you can see it. Oddly though, from the town it doesn't look like the highest mountain as there are a couple of other mountains closer to Lone Pine that look higher. The reason we chose Lone Pine as a rest stop over any of the other small towns along the valley floor is that it is relatively compact, a major consideration when thru-hiking. But apart from the compactness, and Mt Whitney, it doesn't have a lot going for it, although it did do at one stage in its history. In between Lone Pine and the Sierras, which rise almost vertically up from the desert, are a small range of low brown hills, the Alabama Hills. These hills, with the mountains behind them, have appeared in dozens of Western films showcasing the archetypal rugged american west, and the hills are still used today when a rugged, wild landscape needs to be portrayed. Apparently, and I say apparently as I have yet to verify the claim, Mt Whitney can be seen in Gladiator, where Maximus is riding back to Spain after being betrayed by Commodus. Can anyone confirm this? The DowVilla motel, at which we were staying, played much on this film, and in particular western, film history and indeed John Wayne had stayed at the more historic part of the motel, but mostly the town was pretty nondescript. The only other thing worthy of comment in this area of the Owens Valley, is the preserved remains of the Manazar Internment Camp. Shortly after the USA entered the war in 1941, all Japanese Americans, over 150,000 in all, were rounded up and imprisoned for the duration of the conflict. After the war, all but a couple of the War Relocation Centres, as they were called by the authorities, were dismantled, so there is little evidence of what  happened in these camps. Manazar, just outside Lone Pine, was preserved. The site, with its either surviving, or replica watchtowers,is visible from the road and has a decidedly ominous feel to it as we drove past. The climate is decidedly harsh on the desert floor, with blisteringly hot summers, and bitterly cold winters, and i can't imagine what conditions must have been like for the prisoners enduring that for the 4 years that the camp was in operation.

The remains of the Manzanar Internment Camp

Mt Whitney is in the centre with the 2 jagged teeth below and left of the summit, also in the foreground are the Alabama Hills