With Chris back on the East Coast I decided to do two road trips myself – on Saturday to the coast at Rancho Palos Verde and on Sunday a full day trip up Rt 395 to Lone Pine and Alabama Hills BLM.

Rancho Palos Verdes

Rancho Palos Verdes is a city in Los Angeles County, California atop the Palos Verdes Hills and bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. A suburb of Los Angeles, it is known for expensive homes amidst large tracts of open space with expansive views of the Pacific Ocean. The highlight of the trip were the views of Point Vicente Lighthouse as you walk along the coastal trail. Point Vicente Lighthouse is 67 feet tall and stands on a cliff with a height of 130 feet.

Alabama Hills BLM Rec Area

The Alabama Hills, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada just west of Lone Pine, is one of Hollywood’s favorite filming locations. This monumental landscape provides a myriad of settings for movie backgrounds and evocative scenes. The beautiful rock formations of the hills bordered by a vast open plain rising majestically to the snow capped mountains beyond has been a prime filming location since the early 1900s. The rounded contours of the Alabama Hills appear in stark contrast to the chiseled peaks of the Sierra Nevada and, although considered geographically a separate range of hills, they were formed at the same time and are geologically part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Percolating water rounded the granite blocks and sculpted the many outstanding formations of the Alabama Hills. (per the Lone Pine visitors center.)

Fossil Falls

Along the way I stopped at turnout along rt 395 that we have passed numerous time on our way to Lake Tahoe – should have stopped here sooner. It’s a most a 3/4 mile hike through the lava field with a rewarding view. Located just off U. S. Highway 395 on the east side of the southern end of California’s Sierra Nevada, don’t expect to find either fossils or falls.  What you will find, rather, is a spectacular lava flow sculpted by rushing water and wind late in the Ice Ages—a “fossil” of nature’s handiwork. As you hike the rocky trail through the formation, you’ll wonder at first where the “falls” are because the land immediately before you is relatively flat, but abruptly, you’ll come to the chasm that reveals the spectacular lava falls. Read more: https://www.desertusa.com/desert-activity/fossil-falls.html#ixzz5lejDhWm0