I just noticed that the past few blogs I have created "walls of text" so I thought I would throw up some pictures before I get into one more "wall of text" in the next blog. This was related to a video I intended to have up around Christmas, but decided to postpone that one until a later time.
One of the things I wanted to mention last time, but cut out, is how I like to integrate and make connection between things. Once in a while I will get a message that says something like this, "The hikes are alright, but I love the movie locations." That is certainly fine, and I can't change personal preferences. There is a sort of "look and leave" mentality with blogs anyways where people look for what they are after and then leave. However, it does show a one dimensional view of how I go about doing things.
What I usually do in my blog entires is show the connections between the locations, the history, the movies, natural history, etc. I like to cross over into different ideas and areas. So, when I have climbed Mt. Whitney or Mt. Langely that is very much related to the movie locations of the Alabama Hills. In fact, I always like to show what the Alabama Hills look like from what up there. Those mountains always show up in movies.
It is the same way with the history and any other subject. This is why I love the backcountry because it is the closest that a 21st century person can get to the days of the old west, mountain men, and anyone else exploring the frontier in the past. Let me give you another example of something I noticed this last year.
There is a Alan Ladd movie called Whispering Smith that was made in 1948. I have not watched the whole movie yet, but I did see the opening credits. I know most of the rest of the movie was filmed on a town set so I know this was the main outdoor footage that must be stock footage. It is supposed to be Alan Ladd's character, but I think a double filmed this.
Unfortunately, I do not have exactly the same shots here, but it is obvious that the above picture from the movie was looking toward the west near the eastern entrance of Yosemite. I thought I had something better, but the above mountain peaks were taken from my Mt. Dana hike from over two years ago. Those mountains are the same, but I was much higher up. The above picture from the movie was taken from nearby Tioga Lake.
The picture below from the movie was taken from nearby Tioga Lake. You can see the big rock formation or buttress that is part of Mt. Dana in the background. If you hike Dana getting past that marks about 1/3 of the way up.
This next picture was taken from the road on the way to Tioga Lake back in November. You can see the same big rock buttress.
This was taken on the trail to Bennettville. The summit of Mt. Dana can barely be seen much further in the background.
Then the footage in the movie shows the area near Saddlebag Lake. What you are seeing here is the mountain range near Mt. Conness. They are near the stream that comes out of there.
My picture from November. Like all of these pictures, the angle is not right, but you can see the obvious feature to the the right. The main mountain in the center of the picture.
Finally, they show more into the direction of Saddlebag Lake. Tioga Peak is off to the right. The mountain you barely see way in the background is near Mt. Excelsior.
There is another movie called Chuka that was made in 1967. I do not have it, but I am pretty sure it uses this exact same footage at the beginning of the movie. It may be used in other movies as well. I truly wish they really had made a full movie back here. Maybe there is, but I do not know if any at this time.Now my hikes back here really do not need any connection to movie history, but I thought I would show you there still is a connection. This blog will relate to what I will show in the next one.
