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)

The Cisco Kid Mine (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36° 36.145 W118° 07.080)

The above coordinates are close, but I just approximated them from Google Earth. I have probably taken readings here before, but cannot find the coordinates. The next time I go back I will update this. I have done something very close before nearby regarding a John Wayne location. Which means I am going to use one of the pictures I used there to make the connection. This one, used in tons of old westerns to Bad Day at Black Rock:

This is from the Cisco Kid and the Lady with Caesar Romero. The big rock formation is on the right side.
They are standing near the "mine" used in the movie.
This is where they would have been. The "mine" would have been part of that short incline there.
As Cisco and Gordito leave you can see more of the rocks.
I have one final blog I will post tomorrow on this little Alabama Hills trilogy that will connect them with each other.

This video is primarily about the Hopalong Cassidy movie filmed nearby, but it has this site shown at the beginning:

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)

Living Water

Youtube 

Martyr Padre Luis Jayme (San Diego Mission)

(GPS: N32 47.040 W117 06.350)

In the state of California, as part of California history, all 4th grade elementary students get exposed to the California missions. If they live close to one that usually means they get a field trip to it. I have visited a couple of them this year. Each one I visited will come up on here for different reasons in the next six months or so. In this blog entry I hope to lay part of the foundation for the epic project that I intend to present in 2011. In that project, the missions are not really the focus, but are part of the historical background of it. It will make more sense when I actually start presenting it.

This mission is important in that it was the first one the Spanish built in Alta California. As part of the colonization of the California region, the Spanish built the missions to convert and assimilate the local Indian tribes. In theory, each mission belonged to the local Indians that lived nearby. When the mission had been up for ten years, the mission was to be run by the local Indians, but that never happened with the missions in California. Later, when Mexico had control of the land, secularization took place when meant land grants were usually given to prominent Mexicans (with a few execeptions); that is where the missions land went.

Originally, Father Junipero Serra founded the first mission in 1769 near the Presido, but five years later it was decided by Serra and Father Luis Jayme that a better location was six miles to the east. That leads us to this location the mission was started in August, 1774.

Father Serra went on to found other missions along the coastline. Father Jayme had great success in conversions, but some Indians nearby were not happy with the changes. On November 4th, 1775, in the early morning hours, hundreds of Indians attacked the mission. While lighting it on fire, Padre Jayme confronted them. He is reported as greeting the attackers with, "Amur a Dios, hijos! (Love God my children!)" He was mobbed and violently killed. When I went there I faced the church in the above picture and then headed off to the right side.
The site of the cross is supposed to be close to where California's first Christian Martyr was taken from and killed. There is a monument dedicated to Father Jayme there. After going inside the mission I went into the church. The mission church is a basilca.
All of what you see in the church had been rebuilt a few times. What happened was Father Jayme's remains were eventually brought back and located here in a vault near the marble cross you see in the next picture. The remains of a few other significant padre's are here as well. However, the candle is supposed to burn continually in his Father Jayme's memory.
One thing to note in the following picture is that the arms of Jesus on that cross on that statue are missing. They broke off and were intended to be replaced, but that never happened.
Just as I was leaving the mission I checked out the area some archeological work had been done on the foundations.
In the video I show a few more of the areas. The rectory right next to the entrance to the mission was being worked on. After going in the church, I visited the garden which gives you the other side of the church bells. They do have a small museum named after Padre Jayme that shows some artifacts of the time period; all the missions I have visited have something like this.

Martyr Padre Luis Jayme (Youtube Version)

There is tons of information on the missions and the San Diego mission out there. Google is your friend on this if you want to learn more. I will list a few related articles:

Padre Luis Jayme Wikipedia

An old San Diego Journal Article

Another San Diego Journal Article on the Revolt

The San Diego Mission Wikipedia

The Official San Diego Mission Site

MissionTour (This shows a good graphic of the marble cross)

Finally, a good overview of the background on the missions and what happened to them.

A Gary Cooper Shootout (Red Rock Canyon Series)

(GPS: N35 21.560 w117 59.170)

Compared to the last two blog entries this one took a little more work to figure out. When I originally started to visit Red Rock Canyon this is the one I wanted to find the most. I had the Reagan one in mind too, but I knew this would be a good one to show if I could just get it right. The reason this one took so long to finally put up is that each time I would come home, look at what I had, and then few weeks later I thought I could do a little more fine tuning the next time I would get there. So, I kept putting this one off until now.

Man of the West is not only a Gary Cooper movie, but an Anthony Mann directed western. I always liked Mann's movies, but most of his best was done outside my geographical range, at least for the time being, so I was happy to at least get one of his movies in on here. It may not be the best he did, but the use of the landscape for the final confrontation is very well done. There was also some luck involved with the clouds too.

Here Gary Cooper confronts our bad guy, Doc (played by Lee Cobb).

You should be able to see where Doc was standing.

They both move from the above points a few hundred feet to the west. At that point, they both continue to "yell" at each other.
In the above picture, the movie camera is down below looking up at him. In my picture, I am off to his side looking at the rock he was standing against.
Cooper is down below looking up at him.
You can see how the rock is that Cooper stands behind.
Eventually, Cooper starts heading up to him and takes care of business. If you see the video you will notice that after the gunfight they end up right back down here.

A Red Rock Shootout (Youtube Version)

SPECIAL NOTE: this we be the last blog I do for at least a few weeks. I have spent a lot of time on the computer over the past few months and I need some down time. I think I am suffering from "information overload" by reading too many Yahoo.com meaningless "news" articles. ;) The reason I am mentioning this is that if anyone sends me e-mail over the next month I may not respond right away. At some point in August I will resume everything. See you then!

Corriganville Diving Rock (Corriganville Series)

(GPS: N34 16.030 W118 38.990)

This is also known as Jungle Jim Rock. This is another one that is well known and easy to find while walking around Corriganville. It is best known for its use in the Jungle Jim movies with Johnny Weissmuller.

No water anymore in what was known as Robin Hood Lake, Jungle Jim Lake, and a few other names.
Other movies or tv shows would use it as well. In the video I added a short scene from the Annie Oakley tv series. I go up above it and show some of the remains of what Hollywood did to the rock.

Corriganville Diving Rock (Youtube Version)

The Revenge of Blackstar Canyon (Black Star Falls)

(GPS: N33° 47.850 W117° 39.300)

Note: the above coordinates are approximate and just useful for looking at something like Google Maps to get the idea where this is at. The hike, although not easy, is primarily following a streambed. A gps is not really useful to take along due to the interference of the trees and rock walls around.

Let me give the background on me doing this one. A few weeks ago I posted the Beek's Place hike that was done in the middle of February. In the video I pointed out exactly where I intended to go at some point in the following weeks. It had been raining at lot during that time so I knew it would be the best time to visit the falls. I was preparing to go.

Something to keep in mind, like a lot of Black Star Canyon, the falls have been somewhat mysterious for a bunch of reasons. Very little has been written about it. I have seen at least one book written during the 1980's that has a picture of them. Occasionally, over the past few years, someone might post the pictures of the falls online somewhere. Yet, the exact location was not really that well known, that is until the recent O.C. Register article. It was almost the time I intended to go at the end of February that I saw the Whiting article on Black Star Falls in the O.C. Register. At the time, this was somewhat discouraging because it felt like all of southern California was going to be heading to this one right after the article came out. So, I decided to not go that weekend or any of the next few weekends, but wait until I had a spare mid-week day/afternoon to do it. Sure enough, lots of people have reported going to the falls since that time. So, that gives you some of the background on what happened during that time and why I just waited until now to post about it.

Of course, I had been to Black Star Canyon before which I have covered in a few blogs at the end of October and the beginning of November last year. I had experienced fall conditions. This time I was getting winter and almost spring conditions. It was a lot more green out this time which made it a lot more enjoyable to look at. You will notice the day was very overcast and almost looking like I could encounter a storm at any moment.

If you have read my previous Black Star Canyon blog I did for Halloween, you know that this area of the Santa Ana Mountains is notorious for being "haunted." One of the locals that lives back here has a habit of being confrontational to check up on who goes back there. The main thing I need to say here is the public has the right to walk on the road. If you go off the road you are probably on private property. I have noticed since the last time I covered this area that some people online have reported bypassing the barbed wire fence to visit where the bus is. That is not something you are supposed to do. Stay on the road and you are fine.
The conclusion I came to last time is the spooky thing about this area is that at some points you can not see too far ahead on the road you are walking because of the turns it makes. The dirt road gets smaller too at times. It is a great area for setting up ambushes. In any case, I passed all the familiar landmarks along the road and finally got to the concrete cylinders. At this point, instead of going left up the switchbacks, I went along the stream to my right that started the jungle adventure.
The rains caused a lot of water for this stream which was a good thing. There really is no trail here. You just walk along the stream, through the stream, over the boulders, and bushwhack through the poison oak. That was one thing I knew to expect so I wore lots of clothes. I was lucky in that I did not get a major case of poison oak like I have read others have.
The rock above was the crux of the whole adventure. I had a hard time getting up that one. I kept slipping since it was a very smooth rock. Eventually, I got up it, but I had wondered if I might have to turn around. I might have been able to bypass it going through that pool to the right. At the time, I decided against it because, if I recall correctly, it was a little too deep.

Keep in mind this "jungle" part of the hike is a total distance of about a mile, but when you are doing it the pace is not really fast due to the boulder hopping, bushwhacking, and moving along the stream. The elevation does increase here. So, it really felt like a four to five mile trip one way.
In the above picture, I encountered the small twin falls. There were lots of small waterfalls on this hike. The above small falls are key to know you are near the end. I did not know that at the time. I looked way up in the distance and saw some falls coming over the hillside much further up. At the time, I was thinking how was I going to get up past that? Well, it turned out I was at the end of the hike.
The area was not exactly the way I had imagined it. I thought the area would be more opened up at this point. That turned out to be the way most of this hike was. All throughout, the area to be traversed was very compact. Usually, this meant there was only one way to go with very little options. At the falls, this meant I could not back up and capture everything in the way I would have liked since I was so close to them.
The falls are about an 80 ft. drop and land into a pool. Some of the water goes through a cave that you see forming the double falls.

I spent about 30 minutes here. I was not too thrilled about heading back since the downhill on the boulders and the rest of the jungle adventure was really rough on the legs. I did fall down a few times during this one. Of all the crazy stuff I do, this hike was one that seemed a bit more dangerous to me than normal. Some of the pools were deeper than what they appeared to be, so that was another issue I had to be concerned with.

I did not encounter anyone on the way up to the falls, but on the way back I did meet two separate groups hiking up there. I gave them the information they wanted to know, but I was not too happy or friendly at that point since I was getting tired of walking on boulders and bushwhacking. I got back to the main road and then it was an easy walk to drive out.

So, it is an interesting sight for what one normally would not expect to see in southern California. I suspect it is really dried up or close to it now. Sometime in the future after some rains I would like to see the source of the falls from up above. The area is still somewhat mysterious to me. One curious thing, looking back at some the pictures and video I took, and keeping in mind the legends that have come out of Black Star Canyon, is that a lot of the rocks look like that have faces on them. Sort of like aliens, monsters, or skulls. LOL.

About a week after this I did another "jungle adventure." That will come at another time.

The Revenge of Black Star Canyon (Youtube Version)

The Golf Ball (Beek's Concluded)

(GPS: N33° 49.060 W117° 38.160)

Continuing from where I left off in the last blog entry, I went up behind the main cabin's ruins to the smaller cabin's ruins. Apparently, this one was where the caretaker would stay for the family.

There is not much left to this one either. If you looked at the O.C. Register article I linked last time there was a picture of this that showed some of the roof still up. Not much now.
I went in and looked around. Lots of weeds were growing in there. I looked out the "window."
A little beyond there is something known to the locals as the "Golf Ball." If you have seen the beginning of the video I did of the Indian Village back at the beginning of last November, then you saw it for a few seconds as I zoomed into it. It is a NEXRAD WSR-88d; a weather surveillance radar.
Up close I thought it should be renamed the "Volleyball."

This is something I had seen for years from far away and down from the freeway below. There was one day a few years back I was hiking to nearby Sierra Peak and it was a really foggy morning. Visability was really bad and I remember finally seeing it across the way. It was kind of mysterious at the time and decided I wanted to see what it looked like up close some day.

I really have learned to like a lot of the Santa Ana Mountains over the past few years. While it is not as fun and epic as some of the Eastern Sierra stuff I do, it does have some mysterious stuff I like to explore.

My concluding video:

The Golf Ball of Death (Youtube Version)

Finally, again, if you have further curiosity about this place, the links I posted in last blog should answer some of the questions and be a good start for finding out more.

Beek's Place

(GPS: N33 49.220 W117 38.310)

The day I did this it was overcast so the conditions for doing a video were not that great. So, I just made this one a little more silly while editing it and not something I took too seriously.

Beek's Place (Youtube Version)

Here is one of the local hikes I did back in February. At different times of the year I go out and hike some of the places nearby just to keep in some sort of shape. Normally, they are not worth putting on this blog. The next few that will show up on here in the next month all have something worth noting.

This hike starts in Corona, CA. Technically, if you work it out right, you do not have to hike it. One could take a drive up the dirt road. Once while I was exploring the beginning of this road, I had lots of vehicles passing me up. The trick is you have to be sure the gate is open and stays open when you return. I do not know the details to that, but I know people have had the gate closed on them when they return. There is a number listed on the gate if you get stuck.

The second thing to note is there was a part of the road, that due to the recent rains, really looked split up. You would have to park and continue on foot anyways otherwise risk being stuck in a really bad way. In any case, I intended to walk the whole thing. I cannot remember the mileage or how much time it took me. It seems like a 12 mile roundtrip and maybe a little less than a 2,000 ft. elevation change.

This picture is early on in the hike, but I have gained some elevation. In the background you might be able to see a tiny white round ball-like structure and some trees below it. That is where I ended up.

The video shows more of the I encountered on the hike. It is just a long dirt road that switchbacks a lot then flattens out a bit, but a few uphill portions remain. Here is what used to be at Beek's Place:
Here is what it looks like now:
In the early 1930's, Joseph Beek purchased the land and built a cabin here for his family. It was the family getaway place to spend time at. Vandals have take over and decimated what was once here. The sad thing is I have seen pictures taken in the 1980's which had the structure a lot more intact than what is left.
This is one of the unsolved mysteries that I do not know the answer to. What are these old towers? Supposedly, they did have electricity up here. Maybe this is what helped generate that. This area was also supposed to be a fire look out point. Also, I have read somewhere that this area was used by the military during WW2, but I do not know anymore than that.
Under these towers the initials of Joseph Allan Beek are listed here with the date being 9-26-41.

I will finish this hike up with another blog in a few days. In the meantime, you can check out these few links with give more information on this area.

The Mystery Above (O.C. Register Article)

Beek's Place (Dirtopia)

Joseph A. Beek (Wikipedia Article)

As the Summer Approaches (Update on What's Up)

Since I have a little more free time right now I am in the mood to reflect and mention what is going to happen this summer and beyond.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, I am practically finished with all the hikes I want to talk about from last summer. There were a few others I did, but they were the type that I always do during the summer and felt there was nothing worth showing this time around, or the type I will probably do again soon with better pictures and video, so I do not feel the need to put them up now.

I did do some hikes last October that will come up this summer, but before I get to those I want to show some of the local southern California hikes I did in the past few months. Normally, for me, these type of hikes are not worth talking too much about. However, the few that I intend to show do have something worth putting up. These lead to what I mentioned a few months back as my "jungle adventures."

I am finishing up the videos about the local hikes right now. I have been working on fine tuning some of the techniques I have learned on Sony Vegas. I am only now starting to understand the basics of the program. It was sad to find out that I only needed to make a few adjustments and my videos could have been better than what I put out. Oh well, live and learn, or, better yet, learn and live. So, when you see them come up, you will notice I played around with the editing a little more than normal and just had a load of fun with it.

The same goes with the movie location videos. Some of the footage I took last summer I look at now and do not think I shot them well with the then new video cam. Well, I have picked up some techniques in Sony Vegas that will make them more useable than I thought. I just have to use a little more editing than I was going to.

Meanwhile, as far as what I am currently doing "out on the field," I am in the process of putting together my most ambitious project yet. Unfortunately, I was not able to make the "old west" history trip happen just yet as I told some I would be doing a few months back, it will come eventually though. However, what I am doing now I think makes up for it. I had been looking for something new to explore for this blog. I found it. It has taken me to places that are really not that far from me and really just expands on the history, movie locations, and hikes I like to do. The theme fits in with everything I do on this blog, but I will be curious what type of additional readers/followers it brings in. In any case, this epic will start at the beginning of next year and take most of the year to present. I will mix in other stuff during the year so it will not be only the epic that I do next year. I will have a "prequel" type of blog/video coming this summer that indirectly shows you a little of what is to come.

I was going to mention two or three other things, but those can wait. If for some reason you thought I was running out of pictures, video footage to play with, or stuff to talk about, well, talk to me again in 2012. ;)

The Silent Cathedral Hike

(GPS: N37 50.720 W119 25.345)

The Silent Cathedral Hike (Youtube Version)

Here is what the deal was on this hike. We decided to get up early and do something simple in the morning and then drive into Yosemite Valley. It had been some years since I had been into the valley so I wanted to take some updated pictures/video and examine a few other areas to prepare for a much bigger hike (ex. Half-Dome).

The hike to Cathedral Lakes seemed like the perfect choice. A short tourist hike with a little uphill to a nice lake. I cannot remember how long it took us, but I suspect it was about an hour and half. The hike was nice while you are experiencing it, but nothing I want to spend too much picture/video bandwidth showing. There was a lot of glacial polished rock everywhere which is what Yosemite is known for, and even showed up at the lake edges we were at. We saw Cathedral Peak:

Then just turning around from the above picture we encountered one of the Cathedral Lakes. In the video, which shows how it was when we first got there, you can see there was an awesome reflection in the lake. That lasted about ten minutes.
I believe that is Mt. Hoffman, in the picture below, in the background. That was definately one peak I intended to bag during my time there last summer.
I did not add music to the video because I wanted to show how quiet it was during the time I was there. It really felt like to make much noise there was the wrong thing to do.

So, after spending about a half-hour there we headed back to Tuolumne Meadows and there were tons of cars parked along the road. We got in and headed to the valley. After passing Tenaya Lake I had the video going and turned to see that I could hardly see the area over the valley due to the smoke. I cannot remember what I said, but I know it was recorded on the video. I was not too happy because I kind of realized what was going to happen. Eventually, we were forced to turn around.

That fire was an ongoing story while I was there last summer. I had high hopes of doing many more climbs, but never got to. I remember one of the information desk people I talked to in order to get the latest on the fire, told me as one of his final comments to me that, "There is plenty of stuff to do over here." Well, maybe for the first time tourist, but for a guy that plans out my long backcountry hikes a year in advance that was not too helpful. Or, in other words, to respond to this guy I should have said, "Google 'Great Silence Blog' and get back to me." ;)

I think I mentioned back in September how we spent the final day trying to force a Mt. Hoffman hike, but after driving there we were forced to turn around and did not even try. The problem we had is we never knew how much of it was contained. The reports made it seem like it was almost contained, but when we drove in that last day the visibility we had off the road was the worst we had seen.

We salvaged that day by hiking around the loop of lakes that start at Saddlebag Lake, but our enthusiasm was pretty much shot at that point. As I remember, I was kind of angry too that day. So, we came home a few days early. I did take a bunch of pictures and video of that hike, but I think I would rather do that hike again with better conditions than the smoke you would see. I will think about whether I post that one in the next two months. I kind of hope this is the last blog I do that I have to mention any Sierra fires.

So, this marks the end of the Sierra hikes I did last summer that I want to show. I did do some more hikes last October that will eventually show up here soon. I will have an "update" type of blog sometime this next week on how this summer and beyond should be with this blog.