(GPS: N37 36.345 W119 01.135)
The final stop in my day in Mammoth, CA last summer. Although I had never been here before, my father had taken many pictures here years ago that I had seen. I knew what to expect and what I was after.
The first thing one notices at the parking lot is all the dead trees around. Mammoth is a volcanic area and the high concentration of carbon dioxide started killing off the trees here about twenty years ago.
On to Horseshoe Lake, it is here that Mariette Hartley met up with Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Ron Starr.
My picture:
A close up of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea:
My picture:
In the video I also show a scene from Gene Autry's Melody Ranch done here on this beach and a little more of the lake.Ride the High Horseshoe Lake (Youtube Version)
Ride the High Horseshoe Lake (Vimeo Version)
Some of Rose Marie (1954), a musical, was shot nearby too. I know someone uploaded that whole movie in different parts on youtube so you can do a search for that one if you care about that.
This ends everything I did in Mammoth on that day. There are other things I want to do there when I go back, but that will probably not be anytime soon. I already have some ideas as to what I want to explore next when I do go back there.
Let me say a little bit more about Ride the High Country. It is one of my favorite westerns. Originally, it was supposed to be the retirement movie for both Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. For Scott it was, but McCrea did come out of retirement. More of this movie was supposed to be filmed in Mammoth, but they were there during October which one always runs the risk of encountering unexpected early heavy snow winter conditions. In the past, I have encountered this myself when everything was nice then all of a sudden a heavy snow storm came and I wondered if I would get snowed in a for a while. I have read they were there for only four days before they were forced to film elsewhere. That is why they ended up shooting the mining camp scenes in Bronson Canyon.
However, you can still tell they were in Mammoth during the shootout on the mountain side. It looks like they were just north of these last two locations I have shown because you can see some of the mountain features when they look south. I would have to watch the movie again, but I suspect I could probably find out where they were and there are probably trails that go by there. It is probably just off of Mammoth Mountain. If I am every in the mood I will go back and figure it out.
Edit August 26, 2013:
Originally at the end here when I wrote this I mentioned how the farm used in the movie, which is the location of the final gunfight, was a mystery to me. I asked for some help if anyone knew of where it was. I finally have followed up to this and reveal where the location is here:
Shootout at the Knudsen Farm
