The Thunder Mesa Hideout (The Alabama Hills Series)

We cannot let Uncle Ben (Gabby Hayes) get killed two blogs back without having Hopalong Cassidy avenge him. This one will connect the last two blogs. The first one showed you where Hoppy was resting, but then finds out Uncle Ben is dead nearby. The clue written in the sand by Uncle Ben was Thunder Mesa. In the real world, the picture they show in the movie is a well known Red Rock Canyon rock formation. However, Hoppy ends up taking his posse about 1/2 to 1 mile south of where he was resting to where the Thunder Mesa hideout was.

Here is Hoppy leading the posse on the assault of the Thunder Mesa hideout.
Something like this:
Now I will connect this to the last blog. This was the picture I used to show the mine that would have been on the slight incline in the middle of the picture.
Now looking at the movie picture below can you see where the hide out would be in the picture above?

I do not have any pictures with the exact camera angle as the one above, so I just took my picture above into photoshop, zoomed in, and cut out the part I wanted. The hideout would have been right next to where the rock(s) is that look like someone folding their hands together in prayer.

And, just because I am in the mood...they never knew what hit them.

So, this is not rocket science. Once you find the patterns of the rocks you start seeing them again and again. In this case, when I originally wanted to find this one years back, I saw it used in the movie I referred to in the last blog. I showed in that blog a feature that helped me figure that mine location out. In the past I have pointed out that sometimes watching other movies helps one figure out other movie locations.

 
This was the 1st of 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies. A good percentage of them were filmed in the Alabama Hills. It seems to me about half of them were, I used to have stats on this in notes I was taking, but I would have to look. So, the Hoppy movies are usually good examples of filming in the Alabama Hills. At one point I had most of the general areas used listed in notes I had taken. I was going to go out and start then listing them all on here. I decided against this mainly because I would rather mix in other movies to show some of these areas.

Shootout at Thunder Mesa (Youtube Version)

Hoppy Takes a Nap (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36° 36.610 W118° 07.460)

Some years back I came across a blog that had a picture somewhat like the first one below. It was actually a better picture and more direct to the point as to what I want to show here. It was his first time visiting the Alabama Hills and said that he must have seen this location in some old western. I told him that he was right about that, and I knew for sure that it was used in the first Hopalong Cassidy movie in 1935. I then proceeded to give him some of the worst instructions (face palm) on how to get to Gene Autry Rock.

This is one that I have delayed and delayed putting up on the blog since the beginning. It is an easy one to find, and most people have driven by it while driving on Movie Rd. Basically, you just follow Movie Rd. north, then when it turns right continue on the road, but look to the right and you should see the rock formations below.

You can walk at this point; I would not suggest taking this dirt road with a vehicle (off roaders can and do). We want the rock formations to the right.
This is what we are after.
You can see where he is resting.
Hoppy would have have taken a nap right here.
This is one of those areas that you have to come at the right time to avoid the shadows. This is part of the reason I have delayed putting anything up. My other problem is I thought I had better pictures than some of these above. If I ever find them I will come back and replace these.

I should mention that, in this scene in the movie, Hoppy is resting and hears a voice. Uncle Ben (played by Gabby Hayes) had just been shot in the previous scene. Unfortunately, he died before he could tell Hoppy the important information, but Uncle Ben had written the words "Thunder Mesa" in the sand. Hoppy, realizing that was the clue to where the bad guys hideout was, gets a posse together for the final confrontation at Thunder Mesa.

As side story, the last time I was here a year ago I was driving down Movie Rd. I decided I wanted to video the arch. The problem there, is that over the past few years since they added the tourist trail, it has become more well known and more people visit the Alabama Hills just to see that. So, I knew I would have to really work a bit to video it right without people showing up right as I was doing the video. I would have to time it carefully.

As I was driving along Movie Rd. I passed a bunch of cars. They were all going very slow along the road. I made the right turn and then proceeded to the big turnoff for the short trail to the arch. No one was there! Great! As soon as I stopped, everyone must have realized I knew where I was going. All the cars I passed decided to park there. So, I was not quite alone.

I decided to cross the road and do this location I showed above, along with a bunch of others I have shown this past year. There must have been about thirty people at that parking spot going off to the arch. I came back about an hour later for the video, but the footage was not what I wanted.

The Death of Uncle Ben (Youtube Version)

Seven Men From Now Riding Pictures and Hopalong Cassidy Dangerous Venture Spot (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 36.237 W118 07.702)

Here is another one taken in Cattle Pocket.

The top two pictures are from Seven Men From Now. Randolph Scott rides between the middle of the formation on the upper right picture then comes down the side of it as you can see in the upper left picture. My picture, on the lower left, was done in the morning so there were a lot of shadows. One interesting thing about the formation is what I call Bigfoot. If you look at the picture on the lower right it is taken from the Hopalong Cassidy movie Dangerous Venture. You can see him walking his horse Topper right next to some rocks that to me looks like a really big foot with four toes. If you click the picture and make it big you should be able to see that Bigfoot in each picture.