couple of teaser photos, just got back!

 

After frantically loading up gear, my daughter and I drove up early Friday afternoon to Lone Pine and stayed overnight. Early Saturday morning the adventure started here:





and soon we were winding our way through washes and canyons with my daughter driving the first 17 miles. Her first time at the wheel for offroading and she did great!

two thumbs up

 

winding through the canyons





our first sighting of some of the massive towers of the Saline Salt Tramway!!

 

a lot of snow over by Mt.Whitney



and a little for us



Owens Dry Lake



How could we get lost?

 

How could we resist the detour to the Burgess Mine that we saw on the GPS? It was time for lunch anyhow and what a scenic spot!



and having lunch gave my daughter lots of energy!



interesting graffiti says we were not the first to drop in

 

sweet! keep them coming if you have more

 

After 17 miles of fun wheeling through mud, rocks and snow we reached the tram keeper's cabin to stay Saturday night.



But first we just had to explore the tram's highest transfer station

Left


Middle


Right

 

interior shots of the transfer station





the year they started pouring the foundation

 

The cabin is roughly at 8500' and has stunning views of the Owens valley and the Sierras. It has had a lot of restoration work done and a lot to go. Sure beat a tent!

spacious deck


good for naps before sunset


one of 5 rooms


"kitchen" area with a view

 

We made dinner by lantern light and turned in by 9PM. After breakfast we repacked everything and were on our way towards Cerro Gordo. Now it was my turn to drive. A funny thing happened along the way; the only car we saw the whole time was coming from the opposite direction and it was a silver 4unner like mine!

After another 7 miles of interesting trail we came to the official end of the mountain road even though we had a ways to go



We spotted the Cerro Gordo ghost town but elected to bypass it



saw this bucket WAYYYYY up high

can you see it against the sky in the upper left area towards the peak?


close up


and saw this too

 

What the heck is this? The Desert Militia? Terrorists?






Shhhhh! We don't want to be caught

 

the hills have eyes no jk looks like yall had fun nice pics

 

Just Google "Stark Industries" who seems to be in the middle of this evil plot

 

Trail's end at Keeler








Hint about the "terrorists" here http://www.ironmanmovie.com/

Hope that you enjoyed riding along with us!

Jim

 

wow! so were those boxes of stuff full? kinda creepy. awesome pictures.

 

I tried not to be too nosy as the set owners had only one security guard down the road and were trusting off-roaders to not mess with their property.

 

so wait, what was the deal with all the stark industries stuff?

 

"Stark Industries" is the company owned by Marvel comic books' action hero
"Iron Man". This is a secret set for the movie to come out in 2008. On line they are misdirecting people to Olancha or the Alabama Hills.

The set special effects guy put a lot of work into the detail of the props and they looked very authentic.