So guess what? The next day was also windy. The slide getting the brunt of the wind on Sol are in and Bob and I are off to Bishop. Maybe we can get a few caches along the way....wind permitting.
We were able to get some caches. One was a virtual at the turn-off for the ancient bristlecone forest. The visitor kiosk had a lot of interesting information including a sequoia which had been planted and named Theodore Roosevelt. Unfortunately, the road about 5 miles from the turn-off was closed due to winter weather. Maybe we will see the ancient forest on our next trip. We continued on to Bishop to have lunch at Mountain Rambler Brewery. It was recommended to us by a person we talked with in Lone Pine. The food and the beer were good.
On our way back to Sol, we were hoping that the wind had died down in Lone Pine as it had in Bishop so we could enjoy some time outside of Sol. There is nothing better than watching the mountains while listening to the creek! Once again we were disappointed as the wind continued to howl.
Friday dawned and all was quiet! We decided to do more hikes and geocaching around Alabama Hills. On our earlier hike of the hills, we saw two of the arches, Mobius Arch and Eye of Alabama. All I can say is that if you have been to Arches National Park, you will be disappointed with these two arches. Mobius is the larger of the two. Bob could stand in it and touch the top.
Eye of Alabama was hard to find and pretty much a disappointment when we did find it. It was no different than most of the other small arches we saw in the Alabama Hills.
So this day, we went looking for the cache in the 'belly of the beast,' which we drove by every day to get to town.
Then it was time to find the cache placed at Maverick's hideout--the area used in the movie starring James Garner and Mel Gibson. We hiked past quite a few people out rock climbing. Yes, that thing that looks like a lizard on the big rock is actually a climber! There is another climber/spotter near the crevice below.
Bob and I found Maverick's hideout and enjoyed the area.
There were some trees below the rocks where the hideout was located.
Hiking the Alabama Hills was enjoyable and the weather was perfect so we hiked the arch loop trails again just for the views. This is another of the small arches. We thought this looked like a heart.
And, yes, we did see a horned toad on the trail. This one must have had a close call because he doesn't have a tail!
The rock formations were all around us. It was fun trying to picture the different movies that were made in the area.
The high desert was also in bloom. These purple flowers seemed to just be laying on the ground--no leaves or stems in sight.
Saturday was another nice day so we drove south to Fossil Falls BLM Area to see the what was not a fossil and was not a waterfall. It was really a fossil waterfall.
The trail led through lava rock from ancient volcanoes.
In fact, after the beginning of the trail, the rest was on the smooth lava rock.
Near what used to be the falls, a mountain search and rescue team was honing its skills for the upcoming hiking/climbing season.
We had been at Tuttle Creek for almost a week. We were having trouble deciding what to do on our last day. Finally, we thought we would take the day and drive to Death Valley. This was the closest we would be for who knows how long and we wanted to see a different part than we had traveled through in 2010.
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