Movie Flats
Just off Whitney Portal Road (Click To Enlarge)
On Thursday afternoon we drove down to Lone Pine (about an hour away) to check out the “Movie Flats” in the Alabama Hills.
On the drive there we passed Manzanar which was a Japanese internment camp during World War II. It’s now a national historic site which we’re definitely going to visit during our stay in Bishop.
Movie Flats Jeep Trip
At the start of the Movie Flats Road there’s a plaque that says:
“Since 1920, hundreds of movies and TV episodes, including Gunga Din, How the West Was Won, Khyber Rifles, Bengal Lancers and High Sierra, along with The Lone Ranger and Bonanza, with such stars as Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Gene Autrey, Glenn Ford, Humphrey Bogart, and John Wayne, have been filmed in these rugged Alabama Hills with their majestic Sierra Nevada background.
Plaque dedicated by Roy Rogers, whose first starring feature was filmed here in 1938.”
What a great place to film! Mountains, foothills, desert, valley, weird rocks, . . .
To get to Movie Flats we drove down Whitney Portal Road which leads to (wait for it) Whitney Portal (elevation 7,800 feet) the jumping off point for Mount Whitney (14,500 feet) climbers. Whitney Portal is on our To See list.
Here are some photos from the trip:
This is a movie of us driving to the valley floor . . .
rvSeniorMoments 
I hope Manzanar made a real impression on you. It was NOT a Japanese internment camp. Like all of the others created as a result of Roosevelt’s misguided order, it was an AMERICAN concentration camp for primarily American CITIZENS of Japanese descent. So what value citizenship if one is not white?
Ken Harrison
What adventure.. What fun! The scenery is fantastic. Love those washboard roads.. woo hoo!
Mary
Hi Tom and Jan. Ken Harrison is certainly correct in his comment about Manzanar. I worked with a woman whose family lived there during World War II. The experience is not something you ever get over, according to her. It’s one of America’s shameful deeds. The Sierra Nevada Mountains surely serve as a rugged but beautiful backdrop to your drives. And the trip down that road had me picturing many scenes in those western movies. Thanks, I enjoyed the ride. Kath
Really love the rock formations. Very interesting place. I can see why it was used for TV and movie sets.
This is a wonderful country but sometimes people make terribly inhumane decisions out of fear and ignorance.