Alabama Hill

There are landscapes so stunning and visceral, that it makes you gasp and then leaves you in silence. It is a quasi-religious experience. Yosemite Valley viewed from the Glacier Point high above the valley floor is one. The scene is so vast and yet feels so real, you can't help but imagine yourself soaring from where you are, fly to the cliff on the opposite side, circle the Yosemite falls splitting the granite wall in half and then swoop down to the valley floor, only to soar again. You are a mountain banshee.

Now I can add to the list Alabama Hill viewed from above on the hill at the end of Movie Road. The white and grey high peaks of Eastern Sierras rise up from the the brown valley floor strewn with boulders of Alabama Hill, and then spread from Whitney peak in both directions, seemingly forever.  

I got there in the evening just before the eastern sky started to turn pink. Soon the pink sky turned crimson and the Sierra peaks turned dark. I sat in my camping chair next to my car and watched the crescent moon and a star -- was it Mercury? -- rise over the peak while having Carl's Jr burger that I picked up in Lone Pine on the way. It must've been hot during the day, but it was quite balmy by then and the warm breeze added to the heavenly feel.

I've never seen so many stars. Yes, I probably saw as many while camping in Shasta. But the vastness of the valley below made the night sky seem so much bigger. I climbed onto the back of my car to sleep. Stars viewed through my read window got squished. They lined up like a squadron descending on the valley. I'm again in a SciFi movie. When I got out of the car to pee in the middle of the night, the big dipper rotated high up on the sky switching the position with Cassiopeia.  The middle of the sky was covered strip of pale cloud that was milky way.

In the morning the sky reversed and the mountains turned pink in the morning light. I got further up the hill took some pictures and then drove to Whitney Portal. A lot of people were camping and hiking there. All lots appear to be full. I'll come back here and do John Muir trail. Someday.