The Owens Valley
Lying just east of the Sierra Nevada and north
of the Mojave Desert, the Owens Valley is one of
the least known and thus most underrated places for
vacationing in the state. With the High Sierra to
the west and the Inyo and White Mountains to the
east, this spectacular valley provides the entrance
to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48
states, and to a wealth of other outdoor adventure
attractions including the John Muir Wilderness, and
Death
Valley National Park.
Sidetrip to Red Rock Canyon
Highway 395 begins its northward trek at
Interstate 15, a few miles westr of Vistorville. It
passes the small town of Adelanto (motels, store)
and runs through 30 miles of open desert. Before
reaching the Owens Valley from the south, we
recommend taking a 20 mile side-trip eastward (via
Hwy. 58) to Red Rock Canyon -- north of the town of
Mojave on Highway 14. Red Rock Canyon State Park,
with a campground situated in a setting of uplifted
layers of sandstone, lava and tuff. There is a
short nature trail and the whole park&emdash;with
its canyons and unusual rock formations&emdash;begs
to be explored. Beyond Red Rock Canyon -- if you
take Hwy. 14 north to return to Hwy. 395 (about 35
miles) -- the Owens Valley appears.
Back on Highway 395
If you miss Red Rock Canyon and continue
northward on Hwy. 395, you drive through flat
desert, close to the Edwards Air Force Base dry
lake, and then passing the old mining towns of
Randsburg and Johannesburg. Randsburg is a
funky ghost town, well worth visiting. Ridgecrest
is a modern town a few miles east of the highway.
Then you approach the Owens Valley -- passing the
exit to Death Valley and circling around the
northern edge of the dry Owens Lake bed. A
short trip around the southern edge of the lake bed
provides access to Dirty Socks Hot Springs
-- a long-deserted pool in the desert, off a side
road from Highway 190. Be warned, the hot water
stinks from sulphur like its namesake hosiery.
Before the early 1900s, this long, narrow valley
east of the Sierra Nevada was home to the Paiute
Indians&emdash;part of the Shoshoni
people&emdash;and to pre-historic natives. The
Paiutes were nomadic desert inhabitants who were
hunters and harvesters. In the winter they lived in
pit houses, covered with aspen branches, grass and
shrubs. And during the hot summers, they built more
simple shaded lean-tos. Jedediah Smith, and other
mountain men discovered the valley in 1827 and
white settlers soon followed. They brought their
cattle and horses, started farms, irrigated the
land from the Owens River, and drove the
natives from their homelands. In the short space of
38 years, Indian life in the valley was
extinguished.
Farms prospered throughout the valley and then
the tentacles of a growing Los Angeles reached into
the valley and its ravaging truly began. In 1904,
Los Angeles began using the water of the Owens
River for its water supply. By 1907, the first part
of the aqueduct was completed, without too much
effect on valley farming. However, Los Angeles
needed even more water and in 1921, more water
rights were needed and many more farms were bought
up, more water was pumped into the aqueduct and
farms quickly disappeared from the valley. Wells
dried up and the desert reclaimed what the early
settlers had made green. What used to be Owens Lake
is now dry -- hard-baked salt and sand. Yet even
after this environmental calamity, the valley
remains a treasure house of mountain beauty and is
a superb recreation area. In recent years the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power has been
ordered by the courts to provide enough water to
eliminate the lake bed from producing duststorms.
You can see some moisture on the lake bed and more
Owens River water is to be added.
Traveling up the 110 mile length of the Owens
Valley is a vacation treat that everyone should
undertake for historical and recreational
enjoyment. Highway 395 is the main north/south
route through the valley, passing through several
distinctive towns including Lone Pine, Olancha,
Independence, Big Pine and Bishop (the largest).
Near Lone
Pine are the Alabama Hills with unusual
twisted rock formations, where many of the early
western movies were shot including films starring
William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and
Gabby Hayes, Gene Autry, Gary Cooper and
others.
The star attraction of the valley is Mt.
Whitney, at 14, 495 feet the tallest peak in
the contiguous United States. It is possible for
experienced hikers to walk to the summit from
Whitney Portal, a delightful park situated high on
the Mt. Whitney slope, easily reached by driving
west from Lone Pine on a paved, winding road. The
Portal offers astounding views of Mt. Whitney
amidst pine and sequoia forest with mountain
streams tumbling to the valley below. There are
four campgrounds along this road: two near Lone
Pine, another half-way along the route and one at
Whitney Portal. North of Lone Pine is
Independence, the seat of Inyo County which
includes nearby Death Valley. A visit to the old
(and still operating) Winnedumah Hotel will
restore memories of the days of the western movies,
when the actors stayed in this very inn while
filming in the Alabama Hills. The Museum of Eastern
California features displays on the valley's native
heritage and mining history; outdoors is a
collection of early farm implements.
The peaks of the White/Inyo Range have
elevations of 11,000 feet and over, and with the
even higher Sierra peaks to the west, the views up
and down the valley are awesome. An excellent place
to view the Inyo Range and valley scenes is from
Onion Valley Road. This road runs west for
14 miles with campgrounds along the way and in the
high Onion Valley. A trail through Bishop Pass
offers eastern access to the Kings Canyon area. The
trailhead is at the end of Onion Valley Road and
the trail climbs to the Sierra crest through the
John Muir Wilderness.
Highway 395 leads further north, past the
California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Area (on
the eastern Sierra) and through the Big Pine
Volcanic Field, where cinder cones and black
basaltic flows are seen on both sides of the
road.
The highway crosses the lava field at Taboose
Creek.
Big Pine, a town of nearly 4,000 people,
is close to Sierra glacier country. For glacier
views, take Glacier Lodge Road, west of town. To
see the oldest living trees in America, take
Highway 168 to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine
Forest, where there is an information center
and then the road continues to the Schulman and
Patriarch Groves. One of the largest of the pines,
"The Patriarch", is more than 1500 years old and
has a circumference of 36'8". The trees are burly,
much shorter than sequoias and have twisted,
gnarled limbs and trunks. Bishop, a city of
4,100 people in the Chalfont Valley, has a good
range of motels and visitor services. Highway 395
continues north, passing the ski and summer resort
town of Mammoth
Lakes, on the way to Carson City &
Reno.
North of Reno, the route heads back into
California, passes west of the Cascade mountain
range and crosses the Oregon border. It ends at the
Washington/British Columbia border.
Fraser Bridges
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