(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.Having Grit at Hot Creek (Youtube Version)
Having Grit at Hot Creek (Vimeo Version)
For the video I used the following music from Incompetech: Americana, Crusade, and In the West.
