The Great Silence

Hidden Ranch Location

2009-11-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

(GPS: N33 48.280 W117 39.180)

The final part of the hike I have been showing in the past few blogs was this point. Although one can continue another few miles to see the next historic spot I decided that I could hike to it on another day from another trail route. After I came here I wanted to turn around. This picture continues from the the lost blog where the turnoff is the Indian village. I was under the impression that I would have to travel much further to get to what was known as Hidden Ranch. I was mistaken since it was only about 500 feet down the dirt road. The ranch would have been down the road just to the right in the open field.
There was a cattle ranch that existed here: Hidden Ranch.

This is pretty close to it. If you are in the mood you can plug the coordinates into Google Earth, if you have it, and then go back in time to see the ranch in the past. I did it to verify what I was looking for. It was only a few years ago that they took it down. There is an old video of some guys exploring what I assume is the old ranch.
Again, where the ranch would have been.
One of the few remaining structures I could find.
The "wild west" story that I know about this place is taken from Terry Stephenson’s Shadows of Old Saddleback (1930):

"Perhaps no death by violence touched the public career of any man in the county so much as did the killing of James Gregg on June 9 1899, affect the career of its superior court judge, the late J. W. Ballard. The Hidden Ranch at that time was in the hands of Henry Hungerford of Norwalk and George M. Howard of Anaheim. At the ranch with them was Hungerford’s brother, Thomas L. Hungerford. On the evening of June 8, James M. Gregg of Centralia and his brother-in-law, Decatur Harris, and a 13-year-old boy, Clinton Hunt, arrived for the purpose of driving out some stock that Gregg owned. Gregg and Henry Hungerford quarreled. It seems that Howard owed Gregg $10 on a horse trade, and Gregg insisted that Hungerford and Howard accept $7.50 in settlement of their pasturage bill of $17.50.

That night, Gregg, Harris and the boy slept on the ground in front of the house. When Gregg was rolling up his blankets the next morning, Henry Hungerford came out and the dispute resumed. It ended in shooting. The Hungerfords, each armed with a shotgun, and Gregg, with a revolver, fought it out. When the shooting ceased, Gregg was on the ground with charges of birdshot and buckshot through him. The Hungerfords hitched up a horse and drove down Black Star and on into Santa Ana, where they gave themselves up to Sheriff Theo Lacy. In the meantime, Gregg was laid in a spring wagon by Harris and the boy and was being taken to a doctor when, near the Irvine Park in Santiago canyon, the wagon was met by Sheriff Lacy and District Attorney R. Y. Williams. A doctor was found at El Modena and it was at a house in El Modena that Gregg died. The trial before Judge Ballard resulted in the conviction of Henry Hungerford. In those days killings were infrequent and a trial of this kind created an interest that was widespread and intense. Public sentiment was against the defendants. Following conviction, a new trial was sought, and unexpectedly Judge Ballard granted the motion on the ground that not enough evidence had been produced to warrant the verdict. Having presented all the evidence available there was nothing for the district attorney to do but ask for the dismissal of the case. Soon afterward, Judge Ballard came up for re-election, with Z. B. West as his opponent. Judge Ballard’s decision in the Hungerford case was the outstanding issue of the campaign, which was vigorous and which resulted in the defeat of Judge Ballard."

Blackstar Canyon Indian Village

2009-11-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

(GPS: N33 48.140 W117 39.290)

Blackstar Canyon Indian Village (Youtube Version)

Blackstar Canyon Indian Village (Vimeo Version)

First, let me say that I spent a lot of time searching blogs on the afternoon of Halloween for those blogging about the topic. There are a bunch of blogs dedicated to the holiday and the various “creatures” that go along with it. There is definitely a lot of good stuff out there. I wish I could keep up with the so many blogs. After spending my time reading blogs dedicated to Halloween and other spooky matters it made me sad that the Halloween season is over. Now it is the quick change in stores for Thanksgiving and Christmas themed merchandise, off we go, and then we wonder where the year went.

With October out of the way, my “spooky” series to end the month is over too, but the whole purpose of the hike I did in my last blog entry was to get to this historic location. It turns out that this area has some spooky legends that go along with it, but that will not be the focus here. Although, as you will probably figure out, one can see how spooky legends would arise from this location.

Some years back I really desired to come to visit this Indian village. I had heard a lot about it, but never could find much about where it was actually located. There are a lot of general directions given online about it. I would read stuff like, “It is 6 miles from the trailhead.” Then I had read some people had trouble finding it, or missed it, and said they would have to go back. That is one thing about me, I really like to know where I am going if I have to hike very far into something. Just missing something on a hard hike can be really annoying. Then, at the time, I was hearing stuff about people getting confronted by the people who live there with shotguns and I was wondering if I would ever see this historical place. I decided to do a careful search, but knew that this location was just past the major switchbacks.

There was no real issue finding this place. If you saw my last video, I am overlooking it in the distance in the last 20 seconds or so. As you are descending on the trail after the switchbacks you look to the right for a big patch of trees. In my picture you can see a big post and a descent trail. Then, if you look really closely, you can see a sign: Historic Indian Village No. 217 (It is a California Historical Landmark).

I walked past the sign and started to investigate the area. After passing some of the tree cover the area opens up to some mounds with rocks.
On examing the rocks you will see many holes. These holes are the grinding rocks used by the Gabrieleno/Tongva Indians. They would mash up the acorns collected in this area in these holes.
Some of these holes are really big.
Looking inside one of the holes.
One of the stories about this area is that there was a skirmish between American fur trappers and a group of Gabrieleno Indians here in 1831. American fur trappers were attempting to recover horses stolen by the Indians here. The fur trappers moved in and killed several of the Indians. The horses were recovered and returned to the owners outside of the canyon. I have seen some really dramatic accounts of this, but the reality is it is based on one account we know of by oral tradition. You can find the source of it in the Blackstar Canyon part of this LINK.

In any case, it was a fun area to stop at after many years of trying to learn about it and find out just exactly where it was. I ended up eating lunch there sitting on a rock that more than a few Indians had probably done the same thing a few hundred years earlier.

Coincidently, the next historic spot on the trail is only about 500 feet more down the trail. It was not as significant to me, but still worth checking out since it is the site of a “wild west” story. I will show that next time.

The Blackstar Canyon Hike (Spooky Legends and Lore 2009)

2009-10-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N33 45.870 W117 40.680)

Here is the hike I like to think of as a cross between the movies The Hills Have Eyes and Deliverance. The video will be linked at the bottom.

Before I get into this hike, I thought I would briefly mention a few things that I was going to do in a separate blog entry. As one might guess from this blog I enjoy various aspects of history. One of the tricks of history is finding out what is true factual history vs. what is just mere storytelling. Most movies tend to emphasize the latter and that is why I do not really watch movies for history lessons. The best they do is stimulate interest in the historical subject.

One interesting thing that happens are legends can develop over time usually based on a few facts. There is some fun and some bad that comes out of this. Everyone likes a good story. The problem is over time when people look back on the history it becomes hard to tell what is fact and what is legend. Then, as John Ford told us in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it becomes a case of "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

One of my local areas has this problem. Turnbull Canyon near Whittier, CA has a lot of local urban legends, but when I go to examine the facts behind the story little come up. For example, this message on that forum claims to be heavily researched. Of course, there are no footnotes, the sources are conveniently not named, etc. There is this story that I find intriguing about a mental hospital located in the canyon. It would be cool to find out the story behind that, BUT I get the idea that is total internet fabrication.

On the other hand, Blackstar Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, CA does have some facts involved regarding its legends. My main goal was to reach the historical locations, and that will come in the next two blogs. This one will cover the hike through most of the area. Part of what I wanted to do was a sort of debunking of a lot of the nonsense one hears about this area. I do believe a lot has been "made up" regarding this location. There are people that do live in this very secluded place in the back of the canyon. One might think that if you wanted to keep people out of an area then lots of spooky legends would do the job. No, not at all. This sort of thing attracts people, and not always the people with the best intentions. I do sympathize with the people that live in there. In fact, I noticed a blog created by some of the relatives of the people that live there was started a few years ago that seems to be a form of damage control over some of the claims people have made over the years. On my hike, I did come away understanding why this place is considered haunted.

It is more spooky to go during the night, but I wanted to actually see the area like any other hike. So, naturally, I hiked the canyon in the middle of the day. I got to the trailhead as a man with his bicycle was leaving; it is a popular place for riding bikes. You do have to be careful you park legally off this road since police officers routinely make the rounds on this place. Also,If you are there during the late night hours you will be ticketed here. I parked and went past the gate. Only those that live back in the canyon and police officers can take vehicles past this gate.

The next quarter mile is a paved road. There is barbed wire that runs on each side along it. You are not to leave the road at anytime or you are on private property. I show it in the video, but at this point if you look to the right there is a huge white cross on top of a mountain. This is sort of the basis for rumors of Ku Klux Klan activity out there which I must say is highly unlikely. There are stories of Satanists coming here during the 1980's. Which would not totally suprise me that a few weirdo's that like secluded places have come here. In any case, you continue down the road and eventually you turn along the road around the corner to the right at the end of the paved road.
Now here is where I did a feel key clue as to why this area is a spooky legendary area. Part of the trick to this place is you are going back deep into a secluded canyon. The real creepy part of it that I felt is, even during the daytime, that you can not really see too far in front of where you are going on the road due to trees and the way the road curves around corners. This area is fillled with what I call "ambush points." At any moment going around these turns you just wonder if someone or something is on the other side of the corner ready to pounce on you. At two different points along this hike I could hear someone or something in the bushes along the road. My guess is that it was some animal, but it did feel like I was being watched by someone. The road continues to narrow as you go around corners and over a few bridges.
Ah, yes, during the 1970's a group of school children were on a field trip in this canyon, and their bus mysteriously ended up in this river bed. The students, the driver, and their good teacher were all killed. NO, that did not happen! In fact, you can see a picture of the bus on the road before it went down on the blog I mentioned listed as the "Scary Bus". It is a spooky sight to see this bus just down into the river bed. Just after you pass this point you see the sign by the local residents that it is a private road and permission to pass can be denied at anytime. This has been the real controversy going back to the 1980's from what I can see. I did not take any pictures or video through this area, but this part of the road is where the locals live behind their lots off the road. In the past, those who live here have come out with guns and threatened people passing through. Legally, the authorities and the rest of the public have the right to pass on this road at anytime. So, even though I sympathize with the locals with issues regarding wierd people trying to stir up trouble, the trespassing signs one might see can be ignored. I never saw anyone during this part of the hike. It was very silent, and it was most creepy part of the trip because again I heard rattling in the bushes wondering if I was being watched.

You really cannot see many of the trailer homes the people have back in the lots. You do see some and an occasional vehicle. The last house on the right (lol!) before you start climbing the switchbacks is actually a very nice looking lot. They have a type of small putting golf course, a bridge to the place, and it looks setup for picnics. Once you pass by that last residence you encounter the above concrete cylinder. Then the road starts to get steep and starts to switchback and forth. The following picture is looking back from where I came.
You start to see the cliffs that rise above the canyon.

One can see how the wind might howl in this canyon causing people to freak out. I am not sure about the ghosts, but I can understand how the mind can play tricks on someone going through this area during the day and, especially, at night. Personally, I would not suggest coming here during the night because of ghosts, but for whatever living humans (be it teenagers, gangbangers, etc.) that might wandering around.

At this point I conclude my short October location series. I had one more hike I recently went on that I could have added, but there is always next year! However, I will continue the hike to the historic locations in the next two blogs.

Here is my video of the hike:

Blackstar Canyon Hike (Youtube Version)

Blackstar Canyon Hike (Vimeo Version)

Happy Halloween!

The Old L.A. Zoo Ruins (Spooky Legends and Lore 2009)

2009-10-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N34 08.015 W118 17.305)

If you like creepy videos I think you will really like this one I did:

Zoltan's Tomb Location (Youtube Version)

Zoltan's Tomb Location (Vimeo Version)

Technically, this area has not produced any well known legends. You might find something online where someone has come up with something about ghost animals haunting this place. For example, this L.A. Times article written in 2002. However, it still is a spooky place for a few reasons and one of the areas I thought would be worth showing during this Halloween season.

The site of the old zoo was built around 1912 and continued to be built on over the next few decades. By the mid-1960's it was decided another zoo was to be built about a mile to the north that everyone knows today as the L.A. Zoo. The old zoo had problems from almost the beginning. Animals died here under the poor conditions, and it was thought the Health Department was going to shut it down for good. More can be read about it history HERE.

It is a well known site for making scenes for movies. The most recent movies being the ending of Anchorman and Eraser with Arnold Schwartnegger. The movie I am going to talk about that had a few brief scenes done here is Zoltan: Hound of Dracula. I have to admit this movie is not something you should run out and buy. It is probably not one you should rent from Netflix. It is the type of movie a kid might get nightmares until he or she grows up and sees how silly that movie actually is. A few years back the L.A. Times mentioned that the dog, Zoltan, had his tomb here. So, I thought I would check it out.

The frustrating thing for me is the first time I went to check out the area the site was all closed off. I went on a week day when I figured no one would be there. That ended up not being a good idea since for some reason they had guards posted all around. I saw a bunch of vehicles parked around, and I had thought someone might have been filming something there. I talked to one of the guards, but he suggested I talk to someone else since he had no idea what was going on. So, I ended up driving out there for nothing. It was only recently that I went back. The sky and clouds were grey out, but that ended up being okay since I wanted the place to look as spooky as possible in my pictures and video.

Now if I understand correctly, Russian soldiers that not only look American, but speak normal American English create an explosion that opens up the remains of a tomb. This was not just a tomb, but a Dracula family tomb. Here Zoltan, who was bitten by Dracula himself to become a vampire dog, comes back to life. My picture is close by looking at a few of the stone cave like structures of the old zoo.
There are a number of these structures along the sidewalk.
I passed these and went up behind the stone cave structures. There are a bunch of monkey cages around. I kind of knew what I was after based on that old L.A. Times article I had read.
In the movie, Zoltan comes back to life, kills the Russian guard that is in the tomb, opens up the casket with his former owner Igor. They take this stairway out of the tomb in order to find their new master, a relative of Dracula, who happens to live in America.
My video does a good job showing how I got here. Behind the stone caves is a fence, but fortunately there are some holes in it. I was able to pass into it and visit some of the stairways. I examined two of the four possible stairways. I could not tell exactly which one they used. One of the four I am certain they did not use. The other three I could not tell. According to the L.A. Times article it would have been the one below. In any case, it does not really matter that much to me since I was just trying to recreate the effect of what they did here.
This is looking back up one of the other ones.

Of all the videos I have done, I really think this one creates the effect I was after. The music I used helps, but the weather and just the general atmosphere of being there was like being in a spooky old horror movie. When I got there there a bunch of cars were parked all around that morning. I got to the zoo about the same time as a scruffy looking older man sat down at one of the benches. I do not believe he was homeless, but it was kind of creepy being there. He eventually took off on one of the hiking trails into Griffith Park. Then while I was up filming some young Mexican guy was up behind the cages. I never got close to him, but he was there for a long time. There are older people that walk around the trails early in the morning, but the place tends to be isolated.

Legend of Deadman (Spooky Legends and Lore 2009)

2009-10-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N37° 44.990 W118° 59.015)

It is around this month of the year that if I have found anything I can relate to Halloween I like to put it up. This year it looks like I have three areas I investigated that are just spooky enough that I decided I will share them in the next two weeks. The one I am showing today I do not consider too spooky if you are there, but the history is.

Many pass this area when they are traveling just north of Mammoth, CA on HWY 395. What you see below is the southern portion of HWY 395 and the nothern road direction is just on the other side of the divide. This area is called Crestline. It is the area between Mammoth and the June Lake Loop or, if you go a little further, Mono Lake. Just for frame of reference for what is mentioned in the plaque below, if you head up another mile or so north on the road you pass Deadman Summit.
From the picture above, if you turn around looking west you encounter this plaque off the side of the road.
You can read what it says here. Click the plaque to get a bigger picture in your browser.
They found the remains of Robert Hume nearby, but his head was found near what we know today as Deadman Creek. That creek runs under where you see the guard rail in the picture below.
I do not have too much more to say on the history other than what the plaque above tells you. I have found very little about each incident other than the basic facts listed above. The question has always been, "Was there a serial killer nearby, or was this just a good ambush point?" I suspect it was the latter.

In the picture above I wanted to point out Mt. Morrison. It is the mountain on the right with the impressive face giving it the name of "The Eiger of the Sierra." I showed it from the eastern side when I talked about Jimmy Stewart at Convict Lake a few months back.

The odd thing is the smoke in the picture. That is the rest stop area that has the plaque mentioning the "Lost Cement Mine" that was supposedly around there somewhere (GPS:N 37° 43.885 W118° 58.160) . When I went by there the place was blocked off, the police and some fire trucks were in there, and, of course, the place had a smoke smell. On my side of the road it smelled like someone had burned out their brakes; you know, that melted rubber smell. I do not know if that was related, and I never did find out what happened on that. I did see an ambulence flying down a summit grade about thirty minutes later. They may or may not have been heading to this rest area.

I put together some short videos of both the Legend of the Deadman plaque and the one that mentions the Lost Cement Mine (Fortunately, I visited it two days prior to the above incident so I did not have to deal with whatever the issue was there shown above).

Legend of the Deadman (Youtube Version)

Legend of the Deadman (Vimeo Version)

A Silent Sunset (Short Timelapse Video)

2009-10-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

This was partly an experiment to figure out how to do a time lapse. There was some wind that evening that made this one a little less than perfect, but whatever...

A Sierra Sunset from The Great Silence on Vimeo.

My youtube version is HERE.

Mono Pass (Yosemite) Part 3

2009-10-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N37 51.300 W119 12.465)

We got back on the trail and looked back at Summit Lake.

The goal now is just too see Mono Lake from up here. It is not too much further after you reach Mono Pass. We are talking maybe a 5-10 minute hike after Summit Lake. Follow this trail for a few minutes.
This is one of the lakes you see. This is Upper Sardine Lake.
Looking toward the east you can see Mono Lake. Coincidentally, you can see some of the South Tufa and where "Lago" was in High Plains Drifter.
The trail descends down here into Bloody Canyon. If you look closely you might see another lake which should be Lower Sardine Lake.
If you look toward the north you see Mt. Gibbs. Mt. Gibbs is a peak that is easy to climb, but not a high priority on my list. Nearby Dana is more interesting too me. Funny thing though, in a mathmatics 3rd grade text book there is a math problem that lists a bunch of Yosemite mountains (Dana, Matterhorn, Hoffman, and Gibbs) by elevation and it turns out that Mt. Gibbs was the answer to the math problem.
A couple of historical notes about this area:

1)I mentioned that the Native Americans used this trail for centuries, but it is thought that the first time Mono Lake was encountered by Euro-Americans was when Lt. Tredwell Moore and his scouts were pursuing members of Chief Tenaya's Miwok tribe down this canyon. The tribe members were supposed to be responsible for the killing of three prospectors in Yosemite. In any case, the above views are what they would have had looking down the canyon and seeing Mono Lake. From then on the area was the main trail for coming and going from the east into the Yosemite region until Tioga Pass came about. Most books about Yosemite or this area talk about this, but here are two other links to look over:

Prospectors & Pioneers (Official Mono Lake Site)

Yosemite Nature Notes (1978)

2)No one really knows why they call the canyon below "Bloody Canyon." One story is that in taking up mules or horses up and down the trail the rocky steepness caused the animals to bleed a lot. Then you could see all the blood on the rocks. Some of these animals died here too.

3)This is just a fun folklore tidbit that I and others have found funny in the past. In the book Mono Diggings by Frank Wedertz he mentions someone called "The Wildman of Bloody Canyon." Supposedly, this man in 1882 and in 1883 showed up in Bodie heavily armed and with a fistful of dollars. He rarely spoke and was sort of a mystery man. It was later revealed in the newspaper that he was Tom Fitzsimmons. He had come to Bodie to work as a miner, but left after his sister died in 1869 and became a hermit in Bloody Canyon. He wore a bearskin (from a bear he supposedly had killed), had buckskin pants, and a fur hat. Wedertz wrote that the Bad Men of Bodie were frightened of this individual and left him alone. I always get a kick out of a historical guy like this knowing Clint Eastwood's film was made nearby; Also, a lot of westerns have used the image of a guy going into town and everone watching from behind their windows or from a safe distance.

Okay, let me wrap this up but linking the concluding video:

Mono Pass Part 2 (Youtube Version)

Mono Pass Part 2 (Vimeo Version)

One thing I did not mention is that after this hike we drove to eat. I was happy I had gotten the new video footage. I tried using the video camera again, and my flashcard came up as an error! I could not access my card! I was seriously demoralized. I regrouped by getting a new card, but left my card with the Mono Pass hike alone. I had hoped that when I got home there would be something online that would recover at least some of it. I had to wait a week and when I got home was able to recover most of the card. There were some defects in the video. So, the videos you see of this hike were the best I could do with what remained. There were some things left out that were lost, but what you see pretty much represented what happened. This was one of the many epic problems I had during my visit in August.

Mono Pass (Yosemite) Part 2

2009-10-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N37 51.020 W119 13.025)

Everything was silent until we came to Mono Pass. There, the winds started to pick up around me. We spent a few minutes at the lake. Looking back, I could see some clouds there were mixed with the smoke from Yosemite Valley. How long would it be until more and more smoke would come and it would be a waste of time to take pictures?

In the previous blog I pointed out a trail you take by the pond that takes you to the historic miner cabins on the other side. We reached the area near the cabins. Summit Lake was still in the distance where we had just been.
There are a few remains of cabins on the way to Mono Pass, but here you find about 5-6 cabins that are still standing.
This is the main cabin that still has the roof on top.
I went in. On the other side connected to this appears to be the remains of a stable for mules or horses. I am not exactly sure what they did here. Maybe a way to keep warm here?
Looking back outside.
The roof. This are at the pass must be really cold during the winters, but I guess miners, mountain men, and Native Americans got used to it.

A funky looking tree behind one of the cabin remains.

I will wrap this up in the next blog and show the final video as well.

Mono Pass (Yosemite) Part 1

2009-10-04T18:51:00.001-07:00

(GPS: N37 51.335 w119 12.995)

This is a hike I had previously had done about five years ago. I wanted to go back for higher quality pictures and video. I had mentioned a few blogs entries back that Yosemite was on fire most of the time I was there. Our strategy was to go early before the smoke would hit in the afternoon. That actually worked out that day, but another of the many issues we had happened to me a few days earlier. While doing some lifting I injured the lower part of my back. I could not walk around at all, and I thought I would not be able to do anymore hikes this year. Fortunately, I recovered quickly, but wore a back brace during this hike and did feel some pain as I was doing it. I will post the video links to the first part of the hike at the end of this blog.

What I like about this hike is it does have a lot of history to it. You will see more as I go along in the next two blog entries. For the moment let me just say that this trail goes along a historical Native American trail that has been used for centuries. There are a bunch of signs at the beginning that go over the natural history, wildlife, and people history of this trail.

There are two areas people refer to as Mono Pass. I will show the other one at a later date. This one is on the eastern side of Yosemite and only a few miles from the eastern entrance. The hike itself is about four miles one way with about 1,000 ft. of elevation gain. I consider it a "tourist hike" in that it is not really that demanding, the trail is well maintained, and you will probably encounter other people at some point on the hike. It is a common Yosemite tourist hike. It is one of those hikes I feel is scenic, but never really feel that I am way out in the backcountry.
The picture above should be Dana Fork. This is the only major stream/river you encounter on this hike. Most of the hike is following a trail back and forth through the forest. You do get some points where the trees open up for you on one side or the other, but for about half of the hike trees are on both sides of you.
This is the crucial part of the hike. There is no chance of getting lost out here because of the signs, but all you do is stay left anytime you see the trail split or go off in another direction. The right side takes you to Spillway Lake which I have never been to. At this point is where just about all the elevation takes place. Most of the trail to this point is level, but now you have to put some real work into your legs. Since my back was still in pain I did not really go that fast on this hike so my pace was slow on level or higher elevation portions of the trail.
There comes a point when you are about 75% of the way done that the area starts to open up. When we were here five years ago my brother saw an army of mule deer out in the field there. I only saw two out there this time.
If you can imagine heading south on a map and then finally turning east that pretty much describes what is going on here. The trail goes by the base of this mountain here which was on my left side. I liked that tree there. Then below looking toward the right (west) there is a big pond. You might see a faint trail that leads you down below. That will be in the next blog.
Finally, after about 1 1/2 to 2 hours you get to the sign marking Mono Pass and the entrance to Bloody Canyon. This is another Yosemite border that enters Ansel Adams Wilderness. You will notice the lake in the background. They call it Summit Lake, but keep in mind that some of these lakes are just big ponds. It is beautiful to look at no matter what you want to call it.
This ends the first part. There are a bunch of things I left out so you may want to check out the video:

Mono Pass Part 1 (Youtube Version)

Mono Pass Part 1 (Vimeo Version)

Next time you get to see the historical cabins built by the miners.

My Decision on Where to put the HD Videos

2009-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have said this before, but for those that are new to the blog I will explain again. When I originally started this blog I wanted to have not only pictures, but video as well. The idea was that rather than me upload pictures and videos separately to different friends and relatives by e-mail over time I would just put them here. Then it is just a case of sending them a link and then coming here to view.

I never did, and still don't, really try to promote myself on here to create traffic, but over the years more people that have shared some of my interests have come here. Which is fun and I have met a lot of new people online this way. It is really cool that I have other people around the world come on here to see what I have been up to. My approach is the people that really care about the areas and interests I have will find me somehow so I have never really been too concerned about constantly advertising my links all over the web. A lot of my stuff is just a google search away anyways.

I started out with youtube and I wasn't sure how serious I would be about uploading videos to that site. Eventually, I figured out some of the tricks and started using it a lot more in support of this blog. I have expressed my disappointment with youtube in the past on here. They have certainly changed over the past few years, so my old ways of doing things just do not really work on that site anymore. I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the way they were going and had pretty much gotten to the point where I said it was time for me to stop. At that point I was seriously sick of youtube.

I have allowed some months to go by and to how I feel about this. I purchased a new video camera a few months back to start doing new HD videos. The question then was where do I want to put up the new stuff, that is, if I want to even do that anymore.

I don't want to put them up on the old thgreatsilence channel. It was good for the time, but really I want to start over fresh. I have decided to put up videos on two sites:

OverwhelmingSilence (Youtube)

I still do not like everything about youtube. However, they have made some good improvements on the HD side of things. My style of doing things will probably be different though than the old channel.

TheGreatSilence (Vimeo)

Vimeo seems to be more to my liking. At least it seems to be a bit more mature that youtube. In the past the stuff I have seen does not seem as "screwball" as the stuff on youtube. They do have some weaknesses in that you only have 500mb per week and only one HD video per week, but this should work out. I want to keep things free right now so this will be what it will have to be.

If I see other sites in the future I might try those too. However, the above two will be the sites I refer to in this blog in my posts. Under normal circumstance I will be either posting the same video or something very close to the same video on both sites. As far as my old youtube channel goes all I can say is what I have been saying over the past few months: I intend to keep it up as is as long as I can. I do have about 100 subscribers on there so I would like to keep it up, but we will see. Although, for all practical purposes I am done with that channel, I might upload a few older footage videos in the next few months and let my subscribers know I am doing my thing elsewhere now.

In the next day or two I will start using these sites to talk about my Mono Pass (Yosemite) hike.

The Small Mystery of Monument Peak (Part 3)

2009-09-26T14:27:00.001-07:00

(GPS: N34 14.730 W117 21.205)

Note: these coordinates should be close. The coordinates I took while there are on a harddrive of a computer that is not working right now. I will come back and change the coords when I get them.

I knew I was not going to be rewarded with really great views, but getting to this monument was the important thing. Here is close up:
This is California Historcal Landmark NO. 618 the GARCÉS-SMITH MONUMENT. You can try to click the picture to read or read my transcription below.
"The Mojave Indian Trail
Traveled by Francisco Garces
March, 1776, and Jedediah S. Smith
November, 1826."

This monument marks part of the old Indian trail from Needles to San Bernadino. The first person of European heritage that came through here would have been Francisco Garcés. Then, in 1826, mountain man Jedediah Smith came through here. Smith is important for being the first American to explore the land. When he came through here with his party he ended up at the San Gabriel Mission for a time. Since he was on Mexican foreign soil at the time he was checked out as being a possible spy by the Mexican govenor of San Diego. He was eventually told he had to go back the way he came. Smith came back this way, but then cut through to the San Joaquin Valley. Then he found a way through the Sierra Nevada. He eventually came back this way the next year on another expedition.

The above picture is looking toward Mt. Baldy and HWY 15 below. If I were to continue to the right side of this picture over the next peak I would see into the Lake Silverwood area.
In the above picture I am looking toward the east. The high peak in the middle and in the background is very close to San Gorgonio. If that mountain is not it, then it is directly behind it. The mountain in the background to the right that seems dwarfed by haze except for the top is San Jacinto.

You can see San Jacinto below too. The trail I took hugs the mountain on the right.
I was certainly happy to solve what appeared to be a mystery to me. There are a few sources that give brief explanations about this site, but this is not your typical California Historical Landmark where big signs identify where it is, nor does it have the typical monument logo.

Okay, so it was time to head down which seems like it should be easy since all I would do is descend back the way I came. Here is what I did not tell you in the previous blogs. I was told that I would have gatorade in my trunk when I drove out here. I specifically asked about this the morning I came. It turns out I did not have any. Okay, no problem because I had a few bottles of water.

That was okay in the morning, but it was still dry. As it got warmer I started to feel it on the way down. I used the water, but I was still not feeling good. If I were hiking in the Eastern Sierra somewhere this probably would not be an issue. I can go quite sometime in cooler conditions without any drink. In fact, about a month ago I did just that a bunch of times.

This area was different for me. The lack of electrolytes from gatorade started doing strange things to me. I finished the hike and kept drinking water. On the way home I had a real woozy feeling. I should have stopped off and purchased a drink, but I just kept going home. I did get something to drink at home, but the effects of the heat and what I assume was dehydration stayed with me. For some reason my anxiety level was up for the next few days. This was something I had never experienced on any hike I have done before from Mt. Whitney to Towne Peak in Death Valley. The lesson: make sure you have your gatorade with you!

The Small Mystery of Monument Peak (Part 2)

2009-09-24T21:50:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the lost blog, I could see into the beginnings of Cajon Pass. On a clearer day it may not be too bad.
However, looking towards the west on this day was not a pretty sight. This is somewhat to be expected in hiking the southern parts of California. Usually, to avoid something like this you have to wait until just after it rains.

I continued up the road after that big switchback. I kept thinking, "How much further?"
There were a lot of burned out trees up here. There were some ravens flying over me. These types of bushy trees were becoming more common as I made this turn.
It started to level out a bit. At one point there was a patch of snow in a shady part of the road. Make no mistake, it was very dry, but I was still feeling okay at this point. I kind of knew I was about to reach my goal. My problem was I was not sure of the exact area I was looking for. The trees started to blot out what you could see ahead.
I was almost a bit unlucky on this one. I kept thinking I had passed the area I was after. As I went through the final half mile I finally saw a split in the road. I could continue to my right, but to the left is the final short ascent to the top of where I was going.
If you look closely in the picture you can see that there is a monument. That was what this whole hike was about. I will wrap this up next time with revealing what the story is behind this place.

The Small Mystery of Monument Peak (Part 1)

2009-09-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N34 12.520 W117 21.010)

This is one of those hikes I have done that was not really intended to be a scenic one. There is nothing in this one that I experienced the "wow" factor while hiking and viewing the area. This one I had interest in mainly because it was historic, and there was a little mystery involved.

The mystery was that in doing the research for it I could not find very much about it. There are lots of areas called "Monument Peak," but the one I was after is near San Bernadino east of the Cajon Pass. I have driven by this one lots of times going up the pass, but knew very little about it. The actual monument you will see in one of the next blogs is a California Historical Landmark, but everything I read in books about the historical landmarks said to visit the local ranger office for directions. At the time I was not sure if you needed some sort of permit or what to get to it based on what I had read.

I eventually found out enough to get me going, but it was a case of just doing the hike and figuring what was really going on as I was doing it. The morning I did it I drove south of Devore on the 215 HWY. I ended up at Pine Ave., past a residential area, and stopped there. The road I hiked on is called Bailey Canyon Rd. Now it turns out that if you have a good 4WD you do not even have to do any serious hiking. I was there to hike it though and did expect to do about 3,000 ft. of elevation hiking. I cannot remember how many miles it is, but it seemed to me about 5-6 one way.
This is the type of road I hiked on. It is a gradual hike on a dirt road. On the way up I did not encounter anyone, but I did see a man and his dog taking a short cut.
These types of hikes are much different to me than Sierra hikes. Southern California hikes always have a different feel to them in that even though I may encounter forest areas I always feel like I am in the desert going through them. The smell is different, it is much warmer, and I just do not feel as good. Normally, these types of hikes are just exercise hikes to get me prepared for the summer in the north. What kept me going on this one was the end goal and not going up this road to some unknown mountain.
The road goes back and forth through the mountain side with a switchback or two. You do get to see into the beginning of the roads to where Cajon Pass is. I believe the mountain with the most snow on it is Mt. Baldy (Mt. San Antonio)
This next picture shows you how the road goes and then switchbacks higher.

The hike itself was gradual like this, but I kind of got sick of how long it took to do this. It did take about 3 hours which is the normal pace for a 3,000 ft. mountain. As the sun came up the dryness of this hike would start kicking in. It was something that did not affect me on the way up, but it would do some strange things to me on the way down, going home, and over the next few days. I had never had anything this strange happen to me before on a mountain hike.

I will continue this in the next blog.

Recent Youtube Uploads

2009-09-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

I recently posted the final videos on my youtube channel that I did last year. I mentioned I might do that on my Pulling the Plug on Youtube entry back on May 4th. Let me list them, but make sure you watch them with HQ mode on youtube.

High Sierra Car

The Shootist Coat

Clint Snipers the Sniper

John Wayne at Hot Creek

These videos mark the last of my old style of doing things on youtube. I am still considering what I want to do with my videos that I have shot recently which were done in HD. I won't be using that youtube channel for that, but am considering another channel and/or different site altogether. I will let you know when it happens.

The Dark Side of Yosemite

2009-09-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Note: I believe I have responded to every e-mail sent to me in the past month. If you have sent anything to me during Aug./Sept. and I have not responded go ahead and send again. I usually respond to whatever I am sent so you are not being ignored. It is just I get tons spam mail and it may get mixed in with that. e-mail: K_Closson@hotmail.com

Alright, now for my negative rant. For the past few weeks I have been quite irritated and angry. I have let a week go by to let me calm down a bit. If for some reason you get the idea that everything I do for this blog runs smoothly when it comes to the location hunts or hiking I do then I must say that this is not the case at all.

When most people go on their vacations or trips it is usually thought to be a relaxing time compared to the work of normal life. For me that is not really the case. As soon as I leave town the work begins...fun work, but still work. There is a lot of planning involved that in my case usually starts a year ahead of time depending on where and the scope of what I intend to accomplish. Of course, if I intend to hike then a certain amount of training takes place as well.

Typically, I know what to expect and all possibilities before I get there. I do expect somethings to go wrong. Most of the time I am prepared for those types of things. Stuff like taking the wrong trails or driving to the wrong areas do happen. Other times you have to have more than enough money with you in case emergencies happen. In the old west, they used to use the term "pluck" to describe a person's preparedness, skill, but a little bit a of luck involved.

This year was a bit different. I prepared like I normally would. I did do a few interesting hikes this summer. I did have a few setbacks, and after each one I thought once it was over there would not be another. There was something that happened to make things very difficult this year. As we finished a hike in Yosemite we decided to drive into Yosemite Valley. I had not been to the valley in about five years. I was eager to go back and had planned on going back for about a year. There were a bunch of things I intended to do there which were to show up on this blog. So, as we were driving HWY 120 we passed Tenaya Lake and then saw Clouds Rest. I have good memories of climbing that. Then I knew we would see Half-Dome below it next on the drive. Wait, uh oh! Something is not right! The smoke was everywhere. Yosemite Valley is out there right?
After driving as far as we could we eventually turned around. I got word from some rangers that it was a "controlled fire" that got out of control. The interesting thing is they had not tried something like this since 1990. However, on August 26, 2009 they decided to do it.

Okay, I was slightly irritated at this point. Now, at first, I thought they would have it taken care of in a few days to at most a weeks time period. Then I could go back and visit the valley. This was not the case at all. In fact, not only was Yosemite contaminated with smoke the nearby areas outside Yosemite, including where I live in the summer, to Carson City, NV were poisoned with smoke. On some days it would be clear in the morning and I would think things would change only to get the heavy smoke in the afternoon. Sometimes I would wake up at 4am only to smell the heavy smoke coming through my window.

As the days went along other setbacks would take place, but the fire in Yosemite was a major catastrophe for what I had planned. It really is not fun taking pictures or video of scenic areas with the haze of smoke lingering. Some of what I did was not that bad, and I will show some of it over the next few months.

On the last few days I was there we had planned a hike to Mt. Hoffman. We held off doing it as long as we could with the hope that even if there was some smoke we might still enjoy doing it and have some views from the top. We then found out that the fire was 50% contained. It was now or never for this trip.

We passed the unmanned ranger station entrance before 7am, but as we got to road to the trailhead the smoke was the worst we had seen. You could probably see about a 1000 ft. at most during that morning hour. We decided to turn around.

Back at the entrance we told the ranger we had drove up and back for maybe about 30 minutes and the smoke was much worse that expected. Technically, that was not really true when we looked at our watches it was really about 50 minutes; our sense of time was lost. He immediately gave us a hard time saying he had been there since 6:56am (We must have come through around 6:45-50am). He was really being pedantic about this. True, it was only a $20.00 fee to enter the park, but we really did not even do anything so we really did not feel like we had to pay. He eventually became a little more reasonable, and we told him we stayed on the road so he let us go.

I thanked him, but I have to admit though, as we drove out and I thought about it, I really wanted to hit him for acting that way. I was pretty much demoralized at this point over all the major stuff I wanted to do this summer. Of all times of the year, they did a "controlled burn" in the heart of the summer during tourist season. Why not wait until after Oct. 15 or sometime in Nov. when the season is practically over?

So, I have to admit that Yosemite is sort of a bad word to me right now. I really do not have the desire to enter the park again right now. Eventually, I will be posting what I did this time around when I get some enthusiasm back, but I think I am just going to show other things in the meantime.

Jimmy Stewart at Convict Lake

2009-08-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N 37 35.650 W 118 51.085)

When I originally came to Convict Lake last year it was in the morning before I went to Hot Creek. The two areas are not that far away from each other. I would say within about a 10-15 minute drive. I did not spend too much time here. It was early that morning and the conditions were less than ideal, but I had the chance to come here so I took it.

How the West Was Won is one of those movies I like parts of it, but not the whole thing. Since it was intended to take advange of the Cinerama process (note the Wiki link has the same scene seen in the picture below), have an all-star cast, a few directors, a collage of different storylines, and tries to appeal to everyone it just seems to be a bit uneven. Still, it is a movie worth watching.

This is the scene at the very beginning of the movie where Jimmy Stewarts rides up.

It may seem like there was not many people here that morning in the parking lot, but they were around. The camping area is behind me where everyone was either still sleeping or just getting up.

Here Jimmy Stewart is leaving in the canoe.

These areas are close enough for what I was after that morning.

What is really interesting about the Convict Lake area is some of the mountain features, like the ones you see in the background on Laurel Mountain with the grey and brown colored rock, are the some of the oldest rocks in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the surrounding areas go back to Cambrian era rock; we are talking over 400 million years ago.
This is the road you take to get to Convict Lake. Mt. Laurel is on the right and Mt. Morrison is on the left.
Mt. Morrison is one of the most impressive looking mountains as one drives by on HWY 395. It probably won't be any time soon, but I do hope to climb it someday.
Although I shot some video and intended to do something regarding the old west shootout that took place here, I decided I will wait until I go back. So, why the lake is called "Convict Lake" will have to wait.

As a side note, way before my time, my grandparents knew the people that owned the resort at Convict Lake. There was some thought that they may purchase the property at the time, but they decided against it. If that would have happened I think my life would have been way different than it is. They also decided against getting the historic house in Bridgeport that was used in Out of the Past. My grandmother was the one that wanted that one.

The Long Beach Car Show

2009-07-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

The July 4th weekend was fun, but pretty wild for me. You are only getting the tail end of the weekend story in this blog, and the rest will probably come out at a later time. This blog entry is one of those that is not as important to me, but I do know that I have people that read here that like this sort of thing so I decided to cover it.

I am sort of the "odd man out" in my extended family. I am not as hardcore into cars as my relatives. Whenever I say, "The use of a car is to get you safely from one area to another," I get a strange look back at me that I totally have no clue what I am talking about. I have attended car shows with people in the past, but I tend not to make a habit of it.

I decided to go to the Long Beach Car Show this year on July 5th. It was a Sunday evening, it was near the beach so I knew it would be cool, and it turned out not having an overwhelming amount of people so it was easy to park and wander around.

I noticed this car right away and it was one that I think ended up getting a major award that night.

There were a bunch of others that were cool looking.

"The Flying Coffin" They had a green one like this called the "Border Patrol." It is one of those things that is only funny if you live in California or some other border state.

I got some really good chicken and excellent cole slaw there. I then listened to a punk band and a rockabilly band. They were alright. The reason I stayed around was to see an old 80's hard rock and blues band Great White. It was probably about 25 years ago I saw them open for another band in Costa Mesa. Back then they were a little more wild and had a lot more hair.

The singer, Jack Russell, had broken his pelvis a few months before so he was not dancing around on stage very much. He ended up singing pretty well though from what I could hear. Stay healthy and clean Jack! The guitarist Mark Kendall seems to be looking right at me above.

I know exactly what part of the song, "Rock me," Michael Lardie was using his harmonica for.

The bassist is new, but the rest of the band including the drummer who you can't see, Audie Desbrow, are the same guys I saw 25 years ago. The band gave a pretty solid performance.

During the last song two young girls got up on stage that I assume were either related to the band members or their associates. They ended up singing the last song with the band and I thought it was kind of cute. You can see a clip of them on stage with the band here.

I had a good time. The one thing though is it seemed like I was one of the very few with out tattoos at this thing. The "odd man out."

Okay, in the next blog I will get back to what I normally do on here.

Movies This Summer and the Classic Locations

2009-07-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

First, I wanted to say if you e-mail me about anything try to mention something in the subject that makes it sound non-spam-like. I get lots of spam that automatically goes into a junk folder if it does not recognize the e-mail. I usually check all the subject lines before I delete what is in the folder. There have been a few times where I almost deleted someones messages as spam before I clicked it. Usually, I can tell just from looking at the e-mail address and subject, but I may not always do that without making mistakes. I always try to respond to whatever I am sent so if you do not hear from me within a few days or so retry.

I wanted to mention that the movies of this summer have some of the classic locations in them, but you have to look or you may miss them. I have to admit I have not seen any movies this summer. It is rare for me to go to the theater anymore. I have mentioned a few of these in the past, but I think I will do it again here. I have heard and read some of these movies aren't that good, but let's not concern ourselves with that right now.

1)Star Trek

I do not know how much of it is used in the movie, but I did see the classic Vasquez Rocks formation in some movie clip many months ago. Of course, it was used in the original tv series, but it looks like they took the rock formation and used CGI to make it look like a lot of them.

2)Up (Shoutout to John for e-mailing me on this one)

It looks like they used a CGI Garden of the Gods from the Iverson Ranch on this one. I looked at a trailer online and saw that from the distance a reversed Garden of the Gods can be seen at one point.

3)Land of the Lost

In the trailers I have seen they used a lot of the Trona Pinnacles. Although I have not done anything on this blog about this place I have relatives that live in nearby Trona and Ridgecrest. I don't think I have been to the Pinnacles in over 25 years. Some day I will go back. Sci-fi movies get made here once in a while.

4)Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The very beginning scene has Lone Pine Peak and the Alabama Hills. I mentioned this back in October.

5)G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

They did shoot some footage from the Lone Pine/Alabama Hills area. I don't think it was a major location for the movie. Whether they use it for the movie and how much is actually in we will find out next month. They were to have shot some footage at the Los Angeles National Cemetery too. Since my recent posting on the cemetery I have been told it has shown up in the tv series Bones too.

Most of the big blockbusters tend to use all parts of the world these days, but it is nice to see some of the classic areas come up once in a while even if they are small parts.

I am going to take some time off of blogging for the next few weeks. See you then.

Tribute to John Wayne #10 (The Shootist Coat)

2009-06-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

It is kind of fitting that I started off this tribute in Lone Pine and we are going to end there. John Wayne's career began with movies made here, and he ended here with filming a commercial for Great Western Savings in the Alabama Hills.

This is the coat John Wayne wore while filming The Shootist. It is in the Lone Pine Film Museum.
I remember they had it on display when the museum opened. For some reason I did not take pictures of it. Then when I came back, paid money to get in assuming it was there, they did not have it out for some reason. That was the whole point I went in there for, or I would not have done so. Some items are on loan so I assumed it might have been shipped out. Then during the last festival I saw in in a this display in a different area. So, this is what I took.
Naturally, it is behind a glass case making it hard to take pictures of it without reflections.
One thing to notice is you can see the "bullet holes" and "blood" in the coat in the above and the picture below. I lightened up the picture more that I normally would below so you can see what I mean.
Those holes and fake blood represent the final death of John Wayne on camera. Maybe it is more of a fitting way to remember the actor and the character that he played in The Shootist than his death in the real world.

This has been a fun month doing this tribute to this icon. It was something that I had wanted to do over the past year or two. While I do have other locations with John Wayne, the month is over and will probably show those at a later time. I hoped you enjoyed this tribute.

Tribute to John Wayne #9 (The Shootist at Washoe Lake)

2009-06-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N39 14.320 W119 46.160)

As I have said before, sometimes when I go location hunting I am not always trying to find exact spots. Sometimes I just enjoy getting the general feel of the area. This is one of those that I kind of knew before going there that I was not going to find exact camera spots.

Washoe Lake State Park is not that far from Carson City, NV. After I visited the place in the last blog I continued on to this Lake which was about a 15-20 minute drive away.

In The Shootist, this is the scene where John Wayne and Lauren Bacall take a ride out to this lake.

Okay, in my picture they were not exactly here, but at least I got the horizon correct if you compare the mountains/hills in the background. One thing to note is the water level was probably down a lot than usual mainly because of the dry year(s) we have been having.
I have not looked to see what this mountain is. Most of the high mountains in Nevada are not as high as the ones in the Eastern Sierra. Still, it was one I am curious in.
My picture looking across the lake.
Zoom in. There are some antennas up there.
This is when they were leaving.

You can see where the ridgeline goes down.

So, I was close by, but it looks like so much has changed in the last 30 years that this is the closest I was able to get.

It was warm so once I got some pictures taken I took off. I was content with what I got, but I probably will not come back here. There was an interesting looking trail on behind me from this lake on the otherside of the road, but it is a low priority on my list of hikes right now.

Tribute to John Wayne #8 (The Shootist at the Krebs-Peterson House)

2009-06-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

One of the rules I have on here is, under normal circumstances, I do not like to share areas that are privately owned. There are bunch of places I know of or been to that I would love to share, but I do not blog about them for this reason. Most of the fun I really have on my adventures is being out in the middle of nowhere with no worries of the sensativities of the big city.

This is an exception. The reason I am allowing this one is that it is a well known historic place in Carson City, Nevada. It is on part of an official tour of mansions known as the "Kit Carson Trail" which is a tribute to the towns namesake. I am not going to list GPS coordinates for it, but there is a map on the official site that leads you right to it. Still, please be respectful when you go there. They have a radio broadcast you can listen to as you drive by. In fact, a John Wayne impersonator talks about the history of the house. Let me link the podcast here (right click and open in your browser) and you can listen to it as you look at my pictures.

The Shootist is probably my favorite John Wayne movie. In someways I feel like I am watching a tv movie they way it was done, but I like the story. Some of the inspiration for the original book was based on the end of the life of John Wesley Hardin, and if you have read this blog in the past you know he is the old west personality that I have spent the most time reading about. The importance of this movie is that it is the last movie John Wayne did. His character, J.B. Books, is dying of cancer like Wayne was. It was a nice movie to end his career on.

Here John Wayne is meeting up with Ron Howard in front of the Kreb-Peterson House.
Normally, I do not like to show really bad shady pictures like your going to get here. Trees are not the best things to reference compared to rock formations. Usually, trees die and are replaced over short periods of time. It turns out the three trees out in front are the same trees from the movie. The area is not as open, but the way the trees branch out from the base is the same.
Seeing how there is more tree coverage in the area there is a lot of shade. Since my time was limited the morning I did this I had to settle for less than ideal lighting conditions.

In the story, Wayne lives at this place and Lauren Bacall plays the owner and the mother of Ron Howard.

Most of it is the same now. The extended patio area looks like it was taken down. OH! See that little tree in the first picture that Wayne is riding towards? It looks like it has grown up!

One final thing is I do believe they did use the insides of this place to film the movie. What is odd is while facing the front here all you have to do is turn to your right and move a couple of homes down and you find the Nevada Govenor's Mansion. Here its podcast (right click and open in your browser).

I wanted to list one more of these mansions here. This is on the official register of Nevada's historical places. This is the Rinckel Mansion. You can listen to its podcast here.

There are a bunch of really nice places here. It is quite impressive to drive by them and check them out if you are not gambling your money away.

Tribute to John Wayne #7 (TG at HC Continued)

2009-06-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

As I have been saying over and over in the past few blogs, there is enough to know you are in the right area here, but when you really examine things a lot has changed. From the last blog, I walked up a little higher to see if I could see how the small home could have been climbed onto.
Okay.

So, just movie to right a bit should get us to where he climbed up on the top of the small home.

This is what I got out doing that.

A lot appears to be going on here. Erosion and other geological issues are probably an issue here. I kind of think there has been some man made work done here too. You can see there is a sign at the bottom that fell over. From what I can tell that dark looking rock on the far left does seem to be one that was here from the filming, but all the rest do not seem right. You can compare the other side of the river with the movie picture if you want.

Tribute to John Wayne #6 (True Grit at Hot Creek)

2009-06-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N37 39.750 W118 49.650)

Some years back I was reading an exchange back and forth on an e-mail list about various movies filmed in California. At one point a person had mentioned True Grit, along with others, being filmed in California. One of the next messages was something like, "Oh no! True Grit was filmed in Colorado. I lived there. I have been all around California and nothing there looks like Colorado!" When I had read that I thought, "He is for a shock. The best scene in the movie takes place in California!" Well, maybe best scene is debatable, but it does take place at Hot Creek. Certainly Colorado is a beautiful place and most of True Grit was filmed there, but for some reason they chose this place to film this scene.

This area of Hot Creek was the one I was after this particular morning. I had driven up HWY 395 almost six hours that morning. I had about another hour I had to drive before I could get to the summer home. I had been at another nearby location I may show at another time. Even though I adjust to high elevations pretty quickly, driving long periods and then walking around areas starts to get me tired. I was starting to fatigue, but I told myself that it was important I get this area then I would be done.

True Grit was what got John Wayne his Best Actor Academy Award for his potrayal of Rooster Cogburn. This scene is the one where he confronts the men in this small house. He has them "smoked out" by having the top of the chimney covered so the smoke stays inside.

In the last blog I was down below on the other side of this picture. I knew I had to do some climbing which usually is not that big of deal, but considering that I had been up since around 3am and had driven a few hundred miles the fatigue was starting to kick in.

I felt pretty good about this picture. What I call the "island barge" in the middle is the my main point of reference with the movie picture. It looks like the land next to where the house was has broken off over the years. A few rocks are the same, but like I mentioned in the last few blogs this is an area where the geological features have changed due to its environment.

In the previous blog about Nevada Smith I mentioned that Brian Keith was camping down here. This is essentially the same area used in that movie. If you watch that movie all the rock formations in the distance they show are the same. Here is John Wayne near the "island barge" confronting the men in the house.
This is the main picture I was after that day and probably my favorite.
It looks like they filmed this scene sometime around October to get that orange look. Mine has the August green look. Almost anytime of the year, except during the late summer time on a dry year, you will see snow on the mountains in the background. Usually, sometime during September or October the first snow fall will leave snow on some of the mountains.
I wanted to show the rocky cliff formations on the other side of the creek.
You can see how they have the trail that keeps one out the areas below. Look for the moon between the goal posts. ;)
What you do not see in the above pictures is there was a lot of steam coming out of the creek near where the small home was in this movie. I will show that next time.

Tribute to John Wayne #5 (North to Alaska at Hot Creek)

2009-06-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N37 39.640 W118 49.720)

North to Alaska was another film that used this location. And, surprise, it was not filmed in Alaska. Once in a while, online, I will see this movie get the complaint it was not filmed in Alaska. Well, duh...most movies are not filmed where the story claims there are at. There are lots of reasons for this, but the bottom line is that it does not matter.

The following captures are from a television recording I took of the movie some years back. I have not watched the movie in quite some time, but if my memory is correct John Wayne and his partners had two places they were living at in Alaska. One was on one side of the river and the other was on the other with bridge between them. You can see one of the homes on the other side of the river.

From the last blog, I moved down the trail a bit below and took this picture. I added the white circle to show where it looks like the house in the above capture would have been.
This is from the movie showing the bridge and the house from close by.
The frustrating thing about Hot Creek is the fences and gated off areas around it. Had I been able to go over the roped off areas I could have gotten almost the same picture as above. The following picture should get the job done showing the above area as it is now.
The rock formation you see above in the middle of the two pictures is shown below. I just kept walking until I was parallel with it.
I kept walking past it. The fences you see were a common problem in trying to get around this area. Some areas were blocked off. I cannot remember if there was a sign further up telling me not to go any further. The area I was really after this time was behind me anyways. So, I went back.
Although you cannot see too much of it here, there was steam coming out from the other side. The sign there tells you to stay out.
So, what I got that morning for this movie's location was okay. I was satisfied. I could probably watch the movie again and figure out a little more if I really wanted to. What I was really after was the True Grit location that was filmed here. I headed back to where I came from for that. It will be what I show next time.

Steve McQueen at Hot Creek Location

2009-06-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

(GPS: N 37 39.730 W 118 49.610)

I thought I would interrupt my tribute to John Wayne with this since in the next blog I am going to continue with the tribute with more on this area. Hot Creek is just east of HWY 395 outside of Mammoth, CA. Movies filmed here are at a higher elevation than the ones filmed at the Alabama Hills. When I think of the Sierra Nevada I think of forests and high mountains, not deserts. The general rule I go by is anything going west of the 395 is going to have the cooler forests and mountains, but anything going east of the 395 is warmer and deserts. When I drive it I usually like looking towards the west than the east of the 395.

(Note: my gps readings seemed a little off when I checked the google maps at home. Like all my gps coordinates I post they should get you really close, but it is up to you to figure out the rest. The next time I am there I will have to recheck them.)

The whole Mammoth area has a volcanically charged geological history. At Hot Creek the cooling, but HOT, magma below heats the water. The water is very warm here with lots of steam at some points. If my memory is correct, they had a bunch of signs warning that somewhere around 13-16 people have either been severely injured or died here. This was a popular area to swim at, but has been prohibited for the past few years due to the unstability of the area.

Nevada Smith is a Steve McQueen movie that the used a lot of different Eastern Sierra locations. The movie is good, but they really did do a lot of work on trying to show different locations in the movie. This is probably my favorite one.

You may notice the rock in my picture on the right looks it has been cut in half. I am not sure what to make of that. I will say more about this below.

Many, many years ago I came here, but I was much further down the creek to the west. A lot of people fly-fish that side. Although I knew of the movies that were filmed here I was not really as into the locations then. In the years after, I had a hard time visualizing where they shot the movies. For the above picture all they did was go up the road more to the east. There is a nearby parking lot. In fact, there was a road right behind me near where I shot these pictures.
Steve is looking down on Brian Keith below. This rock formation was really strange to me. It really felt right, but when I looked it did not look quite right. These rock formations seemed to have changed a bit quicker over the years compared to stuff I show from the Alabama Hills. Red Rock Canyon is a little like this too. In any case, you should be able to see indentation under Steve's right arm and compare with mine.
One thing I wanted to note is trying to get the right angle for how the camera was positioned to film Steve was very tough. I think the camera may have been close to where I was and zoomed in. This area he is looking down is a cliff. I had to be careful around here in where I was putting my feet. It was slightly exposed; if I were hiking I would consider this class 3 terrain. It seemed like a lot of work and risk for a camera man to film here. Steve (or his stuntman Loren James) would have dropped down right below where he was standing. There is an area to do that, maybe it was not so bad almost 45 years ago, but it not something I would want to quickly go down today.

In the next blog I will go down below. I will continue the tribute to John Wayne, but I will try to point out some more of where Nevada Smith was filmed as well. It is mostly the same areas.