Independence Day in Independence CA

This last weekend was an amazing trip and my first non-local escape ion a little while, we headed up to the Alabama Hills Just outside of Lone Pine Ca and positioned at the foot of the eastern sierras and Mt Whitney.  I was lucky enough to get invited along by my buddy Brice from BriceWeaverPhotography.com who is an amazing outdoor photographer and popular speared for our camp stories in the past. This trip was an easy three day jaunt up there for him to grab some shots

We headed out Friday morning Brice picked me up in Ramona and we took off for the hills… the traffic was pretty light, and we made good time though it was a little warm in the desert. We stopped in Adelanto for gas and something to drink and then where back on the road ready to get up there. We made great time to Lone Pine completing the drive in around 5 hours from Ramona so not to bad. It’s not a bad drive and a perfect adventure for a three-day weekend. When we got into town, we grabbed a bite to eat then headed over to Elevation to say hi to our buddy Jon.

We were kind of taking our time and figured we would mosey on over to the Alabama Hills since its Managed by the BLM and is a free for all dispersed camping. Well that almost bit us on the butt, even though it’s not a super packed place it being the 4th and a long weekend meant it was relatively packed. Like we were able to find a spot, but it wasn’t easy and took a drive through the hills. We gambled and one this time… when got our spot we were able to relax a little mote and set up camp.

Brice was out there to get some pics of Mobius Arch and we headed over there around seven thirty, with it getting dark around eight fifteen. It was cool as we waited for the light to get right and the other photographers where setting up. But I will write more about that next week when I talk about how cool it was to tag along with a real photo shoot.

After Brice finished, we had a short hope back to camp and it’s like the second the sun went down it became perfect weather. It was nice to hang out and have a couple beers, but it was an early day for Brice as he was up at four to get the perfect shot. I slept in but this being the desert sleeping in is a relative term, you get until the sun hits your then then your up. And once we were up it was off to town to grab some food and scout out spots for other shots.

We had heard of fireworks going in Independence also what a cool place to be on Independence Day! So, we set our exploring, we drove all the way to Onion Valley to see what we could see and what vantage Brice might get, then we drove up by the Mt Whitney Fish Hatchery and back into Independence. I got ice-cream from a great new shop, the Eastern Sierra Ice Cream Company that opened that day! We ended up following some dirt roads out of town and found a cool old mining site to take some photos from. Unfortunately, it was kind of far from the fireworks when they went off, so we moved closer. The fourth was a fun adventure and we got back to the camp late in the evening. It was nice to relax a bit before hitting the rack and waiting for the sun to rise.

The morning came pretty quick and it appeared that a lot of the campers from Friday had left, either it was too hot, or they had moved along to their next adventure. It was another end to a great weekend as we packed up and headed into Lone Pine for some chow and got on the road by nine, the traffic was light and we made it back to San Diego in like five hours so I had time to wind down after a busy weekend.



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