2020 November TD News -- Owens Valley
Dean Eppley | Published on 11/2/2020
TD4WD Club members had a splendid fall colors trip to Lone Pine for a few days of 4WD exploring. On the way down we skirted the West Shore of Tahoe, over Luther Pass and on though Hope Valley. The fall colors were amazing! We continued over Monitor Pass and up to Leviathan Fire Lookout to get a high vantage point. There was some lingering smoke from the still burning Creek Fire east of Fresno, but we were above the haze and enjoyed the views. The smoke was really thick in the Mammoth Lakes area but improved once we got in Lone Pine.
Raring to go the next day we headed west to Alabama Hills – a must visit area where numerous movies were filmed. The main dirt roads are Subaruable. We hiked the Arch Loop Trail and enjoyed seeing the unusual rock formations. Then we convoyed up to Whitney Portal to get a different perspective on this awe-inspiring landscape. We returned to the hotel via the paved Turtle Creek Road for up close views of more unique rock formations.
The next day took us above 10,000’ to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest and on to the Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains. Trees there are over 4000 years old! We did several hikes to view these ancient trees up close.
Homeward bound we took the June Lake Loop and saw more fall colors. Thankfully the smoke had cleared.