Offroading In Calif's Inyo Mtns

[teotwaki]

Friday the 23rd

After frantically loading up gear, my daughter and I drove up early Friday afternoon to Lone Pine and stayed overnight. Early Saturday morning the adventure started here:





and soon we were winding our way through washes and canyons with my daughter driving the first 17 miles. Her first time at the wheel for offroading and she did great!

two thumbs up

 

[teotwaki]

winding through the canyons





our first sighting of some of the massive towers of the Saline Salt Tramway!!

 

[teotwaki]

a lot of snow over by Mt.Whitney



and a little for us



Owens Dry Lake



How could we get lost?

 

[teotwaki]

How could we resist the detour to the Burgess Mine that we saw on the GPS? It was time for lunch anyhow and what a scenic spot!





and having lunch gave my daughter lots of energy!



interesting graffiti says we were not the first to drop in

 

[teotwaki]

After 17 miles of fun wheeling through mud, rocks and snow we reached the tram keeper's cabin to stay Saturday night.






But first we just had to explore the tram's highest transfer station

Left


Middle


Right

 

[teotwaki]

interior shots of the transfer station





the year they started pouring the foundation

 

[teotwaki]

The cabin is roughly at 8500' and has stunning views of the Owens valley and the Sierras. It has had a lot of restoration work done and a lot to go. Sure beat a tent!

spacious deck


good for naps before sunset


one of 5 rooms


"kitchen" area with a view

 

[teotwaki]

We made dinner by lantern light and turned in by 9PM. After breakfast we repacked everything and were on our way towards Cerro Gordo. Now it was my turn to drive. A funny thing happened along the way; the only car we saw the whole time was coming from the opposite direction and it was a silver 4unner like mine!

After another 7 miles of interesting trail we came to the official end of the mountain road even though we had a ways to go



We spotted the Cerro Gordo ghost town but elected to bypass it



saw this bucket WAYYYYY up high

can you see it against the sky in the upper left area towards the peak?


close up


and saw this too

 

[teotwaki]

What the heck is this? The Desert Militia? Terrorists?






Shhhhh! We don't want to be caught

 

[teotwaki]

Just Google "Stark Industries" who seems to be in the middle of this evil plot

 

[teotwaki]

Trail's end at Keeler








Hint about the "terrorists" here http://www.ironmanmovie.com/

Hope that you enjoyed riding along with us!

Jim

 

[purplehazek4]

Lovin it! Thanks for sharing!

Dan

 

[V8Limited4wd]

so all these props were left unattended? did you take a souvenir?

thanks for sharing btw... looked like a lot of fun. how come you didn't drop by the ghost town?

 

[teotwaki]

I took only pictures

 

[PaulSula]

yeah that was awesome!

 

[SciRunner]

Nice pics. Wish Maryland had similar trails. Are the trails free or did you have to pay an annual offroad use fee similar to us Marylanders? By the way, your daugher's hot.

 

[HiVel-JR]

wow, nice pics, what a neat adventure. The weapons had me for a second, I thought that was something of a real terrorist threat, but then I noticed the stark industries paint... Tony Stark, of course from the Iron Man comic book... pretty cool... I would have taken some of those long storage containers. They can be used for all kinds of things. anyway

That is really cool that your daughter went along, I hope that when my kids get older they will want to take adventures like that with me. That is really special in my opinion, glad you two had a good time!!!

 

[Falls]

Just awesome !! A great play by play pictorial.

Beautiful country , always visualize these places when the were in flourishing production and now just abandon.

I personally think your daughter out 4wheeled you and you just wont admit it to us.

Glad you had such a nice time and were safe.

 

[teotwaki]

Nice pics. Wish Maryland had similar trails. Are the trails free or did you have to pay an annual offroad use fee similar to us Marylanders? By the way, your daugher's hot.

Thanks! From what I've read the East Coast has old 1800's mining towns too. Some are not well preserved because of the climate.

Regarding "hot daughter";

You don't have to worry about her Dad because she is a crack shot with a rifle. Dad just keeps the shotgun out in order to put some fools out of their misery! :biggrin2:

 

[teotwaki]

Just awesome !! A great play by play pictorial.

Beautiful country , always visualize these places when the were in flourishing production and now just abandon.

I personally think your daughter out 4wheeled you and you just wont admit it to us.

Glad you had such a nice time and were safe.

I was so proud of her because I hadn't even gone 100 yards off road when she turned to me and said "Can I drive?!".

Then she drove all of the hardest parts of the trail and left me the easy stuff. So she did out-wheel me!!