SOAK UP A DRY LAKE’S VISTAS AND HISTORY
BY SARA LESSLEY >>> For our family, Lone Pine was the road-trip stop with the fast-food-adjacent park where our toddlers could play. Later, it was where we got sweet treats at the reopened Frosty Chalet. And it remains a great spot to fill up the tank bet
THE BED
What’s not to like about the affordable, family-run, historic Dow Hotel (think 1920s and limited Wi-Fi) with a lobby exhibit dedicated to John Wayne? Walter Dow, who built the hotel, recognized early that Hollywood crews on location in the nearby Alabama Hills or snow-capped Sierras needed lodging. The attached, modern, AAA-approved motel has several wheelchair-accessible rooms. Upstairs in the hotel, it’s like grandma’s house, with high ceilings and radiator heating.It’s spotlessly clean yet simple, suitable for the active traveler. THE MEAL
Food servings in Lone Pine come in one size: generous. Strong coffee and a huge avocado and bacon omelet launched my day at the cozy Alabama Hills Cafe & Bakery, where the imaginative wall drawings hint at what you may “see” in the rock shapes on a self-guided road tour nearby.
THE FIND
Remember William Mulholland and that aqueduct? Well, about 100 years after diverting most of the river water that supplied Owens Lake to an emerging ‘burb named Los Angeles, something is being done about the dust pollution blowing off the desiccated lake bed. As part of the Owens Dry Lake Dust Mitigation Program, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and others have restored habitats for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds at the sprawling site. I took a wrong turn after the Highway 395 turnoff for the Boulder Creek site, and instead of the promised overlook, I encountered industrial tanks, construction equipment and warning signs about the years-long dust mitigation. I eventually found the Plaza area,its public lake access and the walking trail on the eastern “shore” off Highway 136. As I strolled along the still barren area near one of the new rock and metal “land art” installations, I tried to imagine this lake so full that in the late 1800s it supported mining barges.
THE LESSON LEARNED
Make time for history. My lake misadventure cut short our regular stop at Manzanar, the wartime relocation camp now a national historic site. We found on the memorial wall the name of an ex-inhabitant we recently met. Living history, all around.