Home » United States » MT. WHITNEY, CA

This trip includes information about a one day hike to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states.

MT. WHITNEY, CA

Dave
2004-02-21 15:17:05

Displayed times (last time: )

a judo hall, several schools, a hospital, an orphanage, 3 schools, and a music hall. Now you can drive down Interstate 395 and never even notice this location. The reason for this is 99 percent of the buildings are gone and except for one building and a few stone memorials, you would not know that Manzanar once existed. There are 2 or 3 stone/wood memorials right next to the road. These are good places to take photographs. If you look closely you can see the engravings of signatures left by Japanese Americans, some are old, some are newer.

There is a tour guide that gives tours here. I was not able to determine where he lives or where the tours start. There are many dirt roads leading west from US 395. They are almost all that remains from this large town. Check out the map on the first memorial. It shows you the old city blocks, and recreation areas.

Big Pine is a good launching town for several attractions. The ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest can be reached from town by taking the 168 (Westgard Pass Road) to the White Mountain Road which leads to Schulman grove. The trees are at an elevation of 10,000 feet and it can be quite cold here even in the summer months. Be very careful coming down the Westgard pass on the western side. The road is quite steep and narrow and I smelled over heated brakes from not only my own car but from other vehicles as well. The total distance from Bishop to the forest is a little over 20 miles (13 miles on the 168, and 11 miles on White Mountain Road).

These trees are often debated among scientists as being the oldest living species on earth. Some that are still living are more then 4000 years old. These dates are determined by counting tree rings on cylindrical cores that are extracted from the trunks of these trees. The dead trees do not disintegrate very rapidly at that high elevation so researchers have been able to date the wood back to over 10000 years. ...