Lone pine: one-stop-light town has it all
by Catherine Felty, Outpost staff
Your first stop in Lone Pine is should be at Frosty Chalet drive-in on the north end of town. Pick up a chocolate-dipped frosty to eat across the street in the tree-filled city park.
Sit back on one of the many tables and benches and admire the 14,494-foot peak of Mount Whitney, the gem of the Sierra Nevada and the highest mountain in the continental United States.
Main Street offers alternative to malls back home
Main Street, Highway 395, cuts through the center of town. In fact, the highway is most of the town. A few dozen shops line the road, and everything is located either north or south of the town's one stop light.
On the west side, you'll find a western wear shop where you can buy moccasins or jeans. Across the street, the hardware store has just about anything the average camper forgets, plus a few items you might want just because you've never owned them. These are things you won't find back home at the mall: a 14-cup-capacity, blue-speckled enamelware coffee pot or a bright red kerosene lantern.
A block up from the hardware store, the drug store sits on one corner and the grocery store on another, so you can pick up all your supplies in one stop.
To support the fishing crowd, the town boasts at least two sporting goods stores. But the stores will tempt even the non-fishing visitor with hundreds of colorful and somewhat humorous lures that make you wonder why a fish would ever think of eating them.
If fishing lures aren't interesting enough, check out the T-shirts that most stores in Lone Pine carry. Motifs range from fish Ts with a variety of leaping brown, golden and rainbow trout to shirts that proclaim "I Climbed Mt. Whitney" and show the popular, monstrous peak.
Chicken-fried steak, pizza, iced tea fill hungry bellies
If you've spent the night in a sleeping bag or if you're just passing through, head into town for breakfast at the Bonanza Cafe. Try to get a booth near the front window so you can admire the eastern Sierra Nevada while you eat a huge breakfast. Windows wrap around half of the restaurant, so finding a good view isn't too difficult.
Offering a menu that is not particularly geared for the vegetarian or those watching their fat intake, the Bonanza has a chicken-fried steak that rates high on the breakfast menu. I have to take the word of my husband, our family's carnivore, on that.
Non-meat eaters may be content with fluffy buckwheat pancakes and fried potatoes. For the two of us, the bill usually comes to $10 to $12.
If you want to take a drive further south or are heading to Los Angeles, try the Ranch House cafe at Olancha, 18 miles south of Lone Pine. The Ranch House, whose décor lives up to its name, has the best iced tea in the world. For a quaint touch, the restaurant serves up the tea in little fruit jar mugs, and it tastes great.
Perhaps I'm just thirsty every time I drive by the Ranch House. But I think the reason that the tea is so good is thanks to the snow-fed water supply Olancha. In fact, the water there is so tasty, Crystal Geyser water company has a spring water bottling plant on Highway 395 near Olancha.
Although the food runs about a dollar more per entree than might be expected in the middle of a desert valley, the Ranch House serves up a mix of California cuisine and homestyle cooking with exceptionally fresh ingredients. If you don't have time for a leisurely meal, food can be packed to eat on the road.
If you enjoy fishing for your dinner, the catch of the day may be caught in the regularly stocked creeks that spill down the mountainsides from Mount Whitney. During trout season, Lone Pine is a popular destination for anglers.
But if you only catch a new "one-that-got-away" fish story and need a quick dinner, try a thick-crusted cheese pizza at the Pizza Factory, on Main Street, south of the town's only stop light.
The Pizza Factory, who's motto is "We toss 'em, they're awesome," also has lasagna, pitchers of beer and sodas and a good salad bar. Their video arcade is popular with the younger crowd, but on a recent trip, my husband and his friend battled at a game of "Mortal Combat" for so long they almost forgot dinner.
Follow sunsets west into Alabama Hills
Evening is a special time in Lone Pine. The setting sun plays magical games with the mountain ranges, splashing waves of softly colored light over the hills and peaks. In the Alabama Hills, west of Lone Pine, sunset turns the giant, round rocks into eerie formations reminiscent of nightmares or moonscapes.
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Whitney Portal Road winds through the Alabama Hills West of Lone Pine. Photo by Catherine Felty |
The Alabama Hills are easy to reach. Drive west out of Lone Pine on Whitney Portal Road &endash; it's the road that heads west at the stop light. After three-mile climb into the hills, the road flattens out on top of the Alabama Hills.
After you pass the first rock formations, turn right dirt road marked "Movie Road," or you'll find yourself heading up the steep ascent to Whitney Portal, an 8,000-foot elevation oasis of lush mountain vegetation. This is the end of the paved road for those venturing on to climb Mount Whitney.
Throughout the Alabama Hills and on Movie Road you'll find yourself surrounded by the round rock formations, huge boulders that form miniature mountain ranges all by themselves. The smooth boulders of the Alabama Hills may make some visitors think they've left Earth and landed on a strange new planet, filled with round rocks straight out of a "Star Trek" scene.
If these rocks look familiar it may be because you may have seen them hundreds of times in movies, television shows and commercials. These rock formations have appeared in the "Star Trek" movies and television shows, along with hundreds of other westerns, mysteries, dramas and comedies.
On moonlit nights, the rocks and the desert glow, and wandering around them is can be an out-of-this-world experience. Be sure to take a flashlight for evening excursions because these hills have deep canyons that hikers could easily stumble into on a dark night.
If you're still searching for that elusive peace and quiet, you've come to the right place. The hills are so still that that you'll hear nothing other than your own breathing. Occasionally, owls will fly overhead in search of a wandering mouse or coyotes yelp to each other off in the distance.
And along with the owls or coyotes, the ghosts of filmmaking past may pay you a visit. If your imagination is as good as mine, you can almost hear Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger galloping off in a cloud of dust, with Trigger and Silver whinnying into the wind that whistles through the canyons and across the sagebrush.
Posted Nov. 11, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Outpost