Day 8 and 9 Boondocking in the Alabama Hills

Can you see the MoHo tucked away in the boulders?

Photos here

Some time ago, Laurie (of Semi-True Tales) blogging fame, wrote about how much they loved boondocking in the Alabama Hills on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Mo and I tried to get there last fall, but were stymied by a winter storm that closed the passes. This time Mo traveled the desert for a week before I caught up with her in Kernville, and I'll write about that a bit later, but I wanted to share some photos of the hills where we spent two dark and quiet nights, all alone, free of charge.

Funny thing, we found a BLM campground not far away on the other side of Whitney Portal Road, 10 bucks a night, and even at half price with our Golden Age pass, and couldn't for the life of either of us figure out why someone would pay to stay there instead of tucked away among the boulders in the perfect boondocking site.

The hills were a great jumping off point for a couple of days exploring Old Highway 395, checking out the fault slip generated by the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake, driving up to Whitney Portal, and getting as high in the White Mountains and the Bristlecone Pine Forest as the roads would allow, and of course, searching for wildflowers.