Memories of Lago

 So today marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. release of High Plains Drifter. It came out on April 19, 1973. Like a lot of movies, it did have a limited premiere release about two weeks before for a few cities, but I decided to use today's date as the official 50th anniversary. I started to prepare for this date about two years ago.

Yes, I had thought about another trip to Lago over the years. The pictures and video I took way back were good for the time, but over the years I told myself if technology improves where I can video the place at 4k and 60fps then I will do it again. Then during the pandemic period I watched a lot of blu-ray commentaries. One being High Plains Drifter with director and Italian western historian Alex Cox. It was after that I decided I need to get back to Lago, and another place that will be for some other time. 

There was a slight disappointment since the last time I had been here. When I came back during the summers of 2021 and 2022 some things had definitely changed. The dirt road has more sagebrush overgrowth on it now. 

You can definitely see it in my picture below compared to the movie picture. The main dirt road is still there, but the road one hikes to in order to get to Lago is missing. Well, sort of, I can see traces of it in my picture if I compare to the one above.

It used to be there was a sign warning people not to drive vehicles in that could not handle the dirt road there. I never drove in there since I have never had the vehicle that does it. I assume most people would not.

Here is what I was told. A bunch of people that did not have the proper 4WD off-road vehicle went in and were getting stuck in the area. So, the powers at be just blocked the road off. You can still hike in like I thought most people would do, but the issue is that now the sagebrush is growing all over the old dirt road.

So compared to what I was showing back around 2010-2012, the road through town is not as obvious.

Fortunately, as I was walking, I could tell where the dirt road through town was. The rocky tufa formation on the left is still there. It was a situation that you can tell when you are there, but it is not as obvious in my pictures.

So, this is another reason I am a little down on letting the public know exactly where certain areas are now. It is not like it used to be. All it takes is a few people to mess things up by being careless that it ruins it for everyone else. 

I say in the video it would be nice if some people got together to restore the dirt road for fans of the movie. I know that is not realistic these days, but you never know.

The video I think works, but the conditions were not what I had hoped for. Lots of clouds making it really hazy. 

Memories of Lago (Youtube)

With that out of the way I originally had planned a total of three videos to be released by around this summer. The second video I had put together was a "Silence of Lago" that used alternative footage. The third video was the same area as the video I call "Clint Spooks 'Em". The second video has the same hazy weather conditions as "Memories". So, I am putting that one off until I can go back on a different day. The third video will come out at some point, but I am not sure when that will be. So, I am not done with this area. 

This is the U.S. version of High Plains Drifter with the commentary I was talking about. It has the 4kHD and the regular Blu-Ray: HPD on Amazon.com.

For all my old blogs on this site click the label here. Please note it starts with the latest blog and goes all the way back as you scroll down: Mono Lake Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter.

Music used in the video: 

"Western Streets" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/