MOST INTERESTING SMALL TOWN IN AMERICA? | Solo Female Traveler

Good morning everyone. I have had a lot of requests to show some of the towns that I visit. People would like to see more and hear more about some of the towns that I pass through. So today I'm going to start with a town that is near and dear to my heart. I may be biased, but I think that this is probably one of the most interesting small towns in the U.S. If it's not the most interesting, it's definitely up there among the most interesting. It is Lone Pine, California. It's a little town in the eastern Sierra that sits at the base of Mount Whitney. That's one thing that makes it very interesting. It's an outdoors person's paradise, as well as a location for many TVs and films. And today we are going to delve deeper into the town of Lone Pine. I'm sitting here outside of the visitor center and that is our first stop for the day. The eastern Sierra visitor center is among the nicest visitor centers I've visited. It has a water spigot for fresh water filling at the front, as well as bathrooms and trash cans, and lots of information posted as to the local conditions, hikes, and things to do in the area. Inside you will find a plethora of information not only on Lone Pine, but also various parts of the eastern Sierra and Owens Valley, and also Death Valley. Towering as a beautiful backdrop to Lone Pine is Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states. There is so much to see here and in the surrounding areas. Come on in to see what might interest you. The view from the visitor center is incredible. Most hikes in the eastern Sierra do require permits. You can pick up a permit here at the eastern Sierra visitor center, including to summit Mount Whitney. There are also a wide variety of books on offer for different hiking trails, climbs, if you're looking for history on the area as well. If you need maps, they've got you covered there too. As you can see, it is a beautiful visitor center, and it is right as you enter town. It's about five miles outside of town. I would definitely recommend making a stop here. The town of Lone Pine is located in the Owens Valley near the Alabama Hills and Mount Whitney, between the eastern peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east. The town is named after a solitary pine tree that once existed at the mouth of Lone Pine Canyon. On March 26, 1872, the very large Lone Pine earthquake destroyed most of the town and killed 27 of its 250 to 300 residents. At the time, the town consisted of 80 buildings made of mud and adobe. Only 20 structures were left standing. Before we explore more of the town of Lone Pine proper, I am excited to show you more of the natural areas, which you've probably seen in a lot of my older videos if you've been around for a while, because I just absolutely love this area. But right now, we are going to head over to the Alabama Hills. I want to show you a couple of my favorite camping areas, and then we will see if we can get up the Mount Whitney Portal. A quick word about the sponsor of today's video, AG1. Well, hello from a random house in a random town out west where I am taking a brief layover from the road. One thing that is not random, however, is my daily routine of AG1. Having these little travel packets makes it easy to keep on a healthy routine even if I'm on the go. AG1 is a comprehensive all-in-one greens powder engineered to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet and support your body's nutritional needs across four pillars of health, gut health, immune support, energy, and recovery. It's packed with 75 vitamins and minerals and whole food sourced ingredients, combining the perfect amount of micronutrients, absorption, and taste to jumpstart your daily routine. I am asked constantly if AG1 really works, and all I can say is that I have better energy levels, I rarely, rarely get sick, and I have less stress. And I can attribute that, I believe, to AG1 after taking it now for well over a year and a half, going on two years now. AG1 is an essentialist nutrition company that has created a movement around simplifying your health routine. I absolutely love AG1 and I think you will too. AG1 is going to give my community and immune supporting free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Just click that link below. I want to once again thank AG1 for sponsoring this video. If you'd like to get yours too, go ahead and click that link below. Now back to the show. The Alabama Hills are a range of hills and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and the Owens Valley. Though geographically separate from the Sierra Nevada, they are part of the same geological formation. I'm currently in California for some family stuff, and I don't have my trailer. I'm staying with family, so I decided just to come up here for a fun day trip. And it happens to be Memorial Day weekend, so it's a very busy time, and so far so good. My absolute favorite place to camp here in the Lone Pine area are the Alabama Hills, which we will check out later. That is free dispersed camping with these incredible views amongst these awesome boulders. However, that camping does fill up because there are only a limited amount of designated sites, and they've actually reduced that recently to even fewer. So my second choice would be Tuttle Creek. It is a BLM campsite, but it is a fee site, and last time I checked it was about eight dollars. It might have gone up a little bit, but we'll check when we go over there. They offer large sites, picnic tables, fire rings, vaulted toilets, and incredible views of these mountains. So let's go check it out. Well as the sign says, the campground is full. It is Memorial Day weekend. Thankfully I'm not looking for camping, and that's one of the reasons I didn't want to camp either. It's because it's a big holiday weekend. However, we're still going to check it out. The Tuttle Creek campground offers 83 RV slash tent sites with 10 pull-through trailer sites. Maximum recommended RV length is 30 feet. All sites include a fire pit, picnic table, and a lantern holder. No hookup. Potable water is available seasonally. Dump station fee is ten dollars. No passes accepted. Closed in winter. The closest amenities are five miles northeast these incredible views? And a good side effect is it's great for solar. Wow, that is definitely the most busy I have ever seen Tuttle Creek. My rule of thumb is to not camp at popular places during big holiday weekends, and I'm sticking to that rule. I'm just visiting but not camping. I would have been very lucky to have been able to find camping as it is, but it's still nice to enjoy this beautiful, beautiful area of the Eastern Sierra. It was time to head up the Whitney Portal Road. Whitney Portal is the end of Whitney Portal Road, 13.7 miles west of Lone Pine at an elevation of 8,374 feet. Whitney Portal is the gateway to Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. It is the trailhead for the Mount Whitney Trail. It is also the trailhead for mountaineering routes such as the East Face, first climbed in 1931, and the Mountaineers Route, first and a restaurant are located at Whitney Portal. We are back down from the Mount Whitney Portal, and we are about to enter the Alabama Hills. This place has sentimental value for me because it's the first place that I ever car camped solo, and that was way back in 2017 before I even had thought about getting on the road full-time. It really was a growth experience, and after that I was able to solo car camp, solo backpack, and I did not have a fear of doing that. It's also very special because it's got these unique rock formations and boulder formations with a beautiful backdrop of Mount Whitney right there, which I'm looking at now. It's just absolutely stunning. The rounded contours of the Alabamas contrast with the sharp ridges of the Sierra Nevada to the west. Though this might suggest they are formed from a different orogeny, the Alabamas are the same age as the Sierra Nevada. The difference in wear can be accounted for by different patterns of erosion. The Alabama Hills location as a gateway to Mount Whitney and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains has made dispersed camping very popular with the overlanding and RV communities. I've camped here many a time. Unfortunately, I have been witness to seeing people that do not practice leave no trace principles. I've heard that they may require permits in the future, and I would imagine at some point maybe not allow camping altogether. Remember to please leave no trace. If you do visit, I highly recommend hiking the Mobius Arch Trail. The Paiute Indians inhabited the Owens Valley area from prehistoric times. These early inhabitants are known to have established trading routes which extended to the Pacific Central Coast, delivering materials originating in the Owens Valley to such tribes as the Chumash. A cabin was built here during the winter of 1861 to 62. A settlement developed over the following two years. The Lone Pine Post Office opened in 1870. During the 1870s, Lone Pine was an important supply town for several nearby mining communities including Kearsarge, Cerro Gordo, Keeler, Swansea, and Darwin. Today it is a resupply town for hikers hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail, and its economy is mostly fueled by tourism. I had worked up quite an appetite, so I decided to stop into the Mount Whitney Restaurant. This place is very charming and has lots of memorabilia from the various movies shot over the years in the area and in the Alabama Hills. The food's pretty good too, but I definitely come for the atmosphere. As I mentioned earlier, Lone Pine and the surrounding areas like the Alabama Hills have been used for many television and movie productions. They even have a museum dedicated to the topic. We're about to go in and check it out. The Lone Pine Film History Museum, supported by Beverly and Jim Rogers, highlights the area's frequent appearances in Hollywood feature films. The Alabama Hills west of town are frequently used as a filming location for western movies. Since the early years of filmmaking, directors and their production units have used the Lone Pine area to represent the iconic American West. Lone Pine has played host to hundreds of the industry's best-known directors and actors, among them directors William Wyler, John Ford, George Stevens, and William Wellman, and actors John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Clint Eastwood, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jeff Bridges. The Whitney Portal Road was used in the film High Sierra 1941 with Humphrey Bogart, which culminated with a shootout between Bogart's character and the police at the foot of Mount Whitney. More recent films using Lone Pine as a location are Iron Man, Tremors, Digital Man, Crossworlds, Star Trek 5, Star Trek 7, Transformer 2, and the list goes on. Well I had a great day showing you and sharing a little bit more about a town that's near and dear to me, Lone Pine, California. And even if it weren't, I think it would definitely be up there with one of the most interesting places in America. Hopefully you found this to be informative and interesting, and if you like this type of content, go ahead and comment below if you'd like to see more videos like this. Thank you all so much for joining me. As always, I appreciate your support and I will see you on the next adventure. See you soon. Bye-bye. you