My picture from a distance. Although at first glance it may seem complicated, the rocks are easy to pick out. You can click the pictures to make them bigger and check.
The scene where Gregory Peck's comes to the house and Anne Baxter confronts him.
In the video I did not get it as precise as I normally might. Even here I would want to move a few more feet to the left. In any case, the conversation would have been close to here. The house would have been just to my right.
Later on in the movie, Peck uses a "white flag" in order to talk to Anne Baxter and her grandfather who are hidden in "sniper position" above in the rocks. Again, here you can see where the house and barn would have been.
This is where that would have been.
In the movie it really does look like Anne Baxter and grandfather are really high up in those rocks. After all they had to yell out to each other, and you hear the echo when they speak.
Not really. I would say it was just over 20 feet or so. A nice optical illusion they used.
My video for this one:
Monday, April 11, 2011
Yellow Sky: The House and Barn (The Alabama Hills Series)
Friday, April 01, 2011
"The Mammoth Mountain Hike"
Pulling back a little on this one you can see the clouds made things a little more powerful than it would have been. For that I was grateful. 
This is looking more toward the south. While it may not seem that impressive, it was interesting to look down this way. The reason being a year earlier I was looking up to here from down there. Somewhere down there is Rainbow Falls and the trail we took after visiting Devils Postpile. 
This is looking more to the south east. There are lots of cool things one might see in these clouds, but as Charlie Brown might say, "Well...I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie, but I changed my mind."
This is looking toward the east. 
This looking more to the east. You can see the Mammoth Gondola in action here. 
Finally, looking toward the north. You might barely be able to see Mono Lake in the background which we went to afterwords as I mentioned in February. 
In any case, this was not really much of a hike. We walked from the parking lot to purchase tickets for the gondola. Then in about eight minutes or so we were at the summit. There is a little extra climbing to get to the official summit.
The views are good and if you are not much of a hiker, then you might want to take the gondola to the top. You can also order a sandwich at the top and eat it up there too. It was a touristy one time thing for me that I probably will not do again.
I did put together a video on this one. Originally, I was going to split it up, but decided to include the gondola ride and the views from the summit in the same video. So, it is a little longer than I normally would do. Since this is not one I took too seriously I threw on some of the latest incompetech.com music which Kevin Macleod considers influenced by the 1990's "corporate music plague."
While I do not consider it a complete throwaway video because there are some interesting parts to it, but of all the days of the year to put this up I guess April 1st fits the most:
"The Mammoth Mountain Hike" (Youtube Version)
Until next time...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Ramona Epic #8: Ramona Catches Margarita
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Ramona Epic #7: Rancho Camulos (Part 2)
This is the second part of my visit to Rancho Camulos. In this blog I will spend a little more time on the fiction involved here. As I mentioned last time Helen Hunt Jackson spent a few hours talking to some of the family members that lived here. From the way she describes the rancho in Ramona it has made many people believe that this rancho is what she had in mind for her novel. So, it is considered the "Home of Ramona."
They filmed this at the south veranda of Rancho Camulos. The window to the right is supposed to be the window to Ramona's room; that's what the fictional history says at Rancho Camulos.
In the above picture, if you head staight forward you encounter where Felipe would have been resting at the beginning of the novel. A lot of the dialogue would have happened around here. The priest's room would be the door on the other side. 
This is the fountain and the chapel. I mentioned Ysabel del Valle in my last blog. She was very religious. Since living out here would be too far away from attending mass or church services she had this chapel built out here. Priests would come here and stay. Ysabel also had daily prayers anyone could be apart of. 
In the 1910 movie, the chapel is where Alessandro is introduced to Ramona here by Felipe. Here Ramona (Mary Pickford) watches as Alessandro and Felipe walk away. 
The chapel 100 years later! 
The inside. After the Northridge quake many items were stolen from the chapel. 
The following is the walnut tree. Unfortunately, it died some years back. It was said to be around 150 years old. Many old pictures were taken of it. 
This wraps up my time at Rancho Camulos. A lot more could be said and shown here. Near the end of the year as I start to finish up this series I will be coming back here one more time. Another reason I wanted to come here and do this series was I knew I would be able to get to the oldest movie location I will probably ever experience. At this point I can't imagine finding anything earlier than 1910, so this is probably it.
Ramona Epic #7: Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)
A few links:
Rancho Camulos (Wikipedia Article)
Rancho Camulos: a comprehensive history(Santa Clarita Valley site)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Ramona Epic #7: Rancho Camulos (Part 1)
One of the first things you see inside the museum is the winery. You will notice it has been stabilized. When the Northride earthquake of 1994 struck many of the historic buildings were damaged. Family members and others with historical interest decided something must be done to preserve the remains. That is when restoration was started. In the year 2000, the ranch was made a historical landmark.
In the above picture, one just goes along the side of the winery as you can see, then take a left, and then a right to reach the main U shaped structure of the adobe for Rancho Camulos.
The land was originally part of the San Fernando Mission. In 1839, during the Mexican period of California history, Antonio del Valle received the land as part of a land grant for his military service. Unfortunately for him, he died a few years after this and his family inherited the land. His son, Ygnacio del Valle, inherited Rancho Camulos and is credited for building the adobe.These next three pictures show you the U shape of the adobe. On the right of the next picture is where the cooking and laundry took place.
The middle section.
The southern portion of the adobe. In the next blog I will cover the southern veranda just on the other side which is what most people that know of the connection with Ramona will identify the story with.
This is the inside of the middle section I showed above. It is interesting to note that each of these doors lead to separate rooms. In order to visit someone else in another room you would have to enter from the outside since there are no passage ways from the inside.
Up until the early 1860's, the rancho was used for raising cattle. Then a drought occurred that bankrupted many cattlemen in the area. It was at that time that the rancho transitioned into growing agricultural products where everything from olives and grapes for wine and brandy, to chili peppers, appricots, figs, corn, oranges, and almonds to name a few of the things that were grown here. You name it they grew it.Ygnacio was over the age of 40 when he married a 15 year old Ysabel. Keep in mind that was common for the time period. Ysabel inherited the property when Ygnacio died in 1880. I will mention Ysabel again in the next blog, but it was during 1881 that Helen Hunt Jackon visited the Rancho for a few hours. She did not meet Ysabel, but talked to the del Valle children instead.
Later on in the 1920's, August and Mary Rubel family purchased the rancho. August Rubel was wealthy and educated. He served in WWI and WWII. Unfortunately, he was killed by a German land mine while driving an ambulance in Tunesia. Rubel family members are still connected with the rancho and are credited as helping to create the museum for the public today.
All of the above people have fascinating stories of their own. Much could be said of each of them. While a few of the above people will be mentioned again in the next blog as I continue this I want to transition more into the fictional history as I show the southern veranda.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Jack Palance at the Best Western in Lone Pine
I've stayed here a few times. I am not sure the trees are the same as the ones you see above in 1955, but they are close to the same place. 
I recently went back to the Alabama Hills. Part of my quest this time around was to do new updated videos of a lot of the "classic videos" I had done before. I had not been on Movie Rd. in quite sometime. So there was some "good news" and "bad news" about this trip. Let me give you some of what I considered the "bad" part of it. This trip had been postponed for quite a while. I had wanted to be there last year about this time, but it did not work out. Then I wanted to do this about a month ago. Well, it turned that my only chance of doing this trip was to go "there and back again" within 24 hours. I did get parts of two days to do this since I stayed overnight, but I knew I would have to rush a bit to get a lot of what I wanted done.
The weather conditions were okay, but not great. A little too warm and cloudy. I can handle it being warm, but if the clouds are blocking out some of the mountain features it can mess things up. Don't get me wrong, clouds can create really good photo opportunities to get that Ansel Adams shot. However, when I am trying to show where some scenes from a movie took place and Mt. Whitney is completely blocked it just does not work very well.
The bugs! What the heck were those things?! They were not mosquitoes, but boy were they swarming me out there. These small things were flying all over me. No bites or anything like that, but I have never encountered bugs like this out there before.
There were lots of people there. I have never seen this many people out in the hills before. I had a couple of areas that I wanted to video and people had parked right in my way. Although I did talk to a bunch of friendly people out there, this was the first time I felt that there were some "shady" people in the Hills and in Lone Pine. Like people eyeing what was in my truck when I was parked in town. Reading the Whitney Portal forum here at home I see some of what I was thinking was justified. Even with a quick stop in Red Rock Canyon while walking back to the truck there were some people doing the same thing and then took off. Very odd!
The sad thing is at the end of the day I started looking at the clips of what I had done on my laptop and realized one of the settings on the video cam were not right! Oh no!
Alright, the "good" news side. On the second day, which ended up being most of the morning, I did get back to almost every area with my cam settings right this time. The weather conditions were slightly better. It is going to take me some time to decide this, but I think most of the footage I took will work well. The video of one of the things I did I almost shot it perfectly, but I think it may have been to early in the morning for it. No big deal though, I will just go back at some other time later in the day and get it right.
What was great was right before I was leaving I was able to see a rock formation from a rare movie that I was wondering about. I had the right idea about where it should be, but could not place it. Then seeing it from the distance confirmed my intuition about where it should be. It is one of those I will have to go back to and hike into it. One of the techniques I always tell people to do is that it is important to take pictures of every area and direction so that you can analyze some of these places from home. I took pictures of it from the distance. When I have time I will go over it and prepare for next time I can visit. So, I intend to get back to posting more videos taken in the Alabama Hills. It will not be something I will do right away though.
Monday, March 07, 2011
The Snowslide of March 7, 1911 (100 Year Aniversary)
AKA Nature Does Not Play By Rules
The people of Lundy Canyon were busy mining and safe most of the year. The big problem they always had was during the winter they were vulnerable to avalanches. While we often talk about the violence in these old mining towns because of what you see in westerns, but those isolated events tended to be rare and a temporary concern compared to other environmental factors that could wipe out a whole town.
In the distance you can see the modern Jordan plant. The older plant was just to the right and Copper Mountain is further to the right slightly out of picture. The main destructive avalanche came down from the Copper Mountain and wiped out the concrete facility and homes.
From the above picture I just turned around to show you the cemetery built for this tragedy. We hiked out here from HWY 395. Most of the people buried here are from the Jordan avalanche.
The first graveside is dedicated to H.M. Wier. He was an electrician from Pasadena, CA.
D.O. Knowlton. This is the one gravesite where of a person who was killed in the avalanche in Lundy Canyon and not at the Jordan avalanche.
You will notice that during the summer it is nice and warm here for the guardians.
R.H. Mason. His wife actually survived being entombed for 60 hours before she was rescued. It is said that the family dog kept her warm.
Patrick Stromblad. There are two markers here with different spellings of his last name. At the time of his video I assumed the right marker was added with corrections, but now I am not sure about that. I will list a link below that talks about him.
There are a few more markers. In the video I briefly cover them all and probably butcher a name or two, but you will get the point. This is with my back to the cemetery gate from the other side.
I do not talk about this too much, but there are usually a few deaths each year in the High Sierra. Normally, this happens when people underestimate the snow conditions, but tragic events like this can happen at any time. Even for those with experience in the backcountry.So no matter where you are, keep these things in mind. The video:
A few links:
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Ramona Epic #6: Father Salvierderra Leaves the Rancho
"Ay, Ramona, I am tired," he replied. "Old age is conquering me. It
will not be many times more that I shall see this place."
"Oh, do not say that, Father," cried Ramona; "you can ride, when it
tires you too much to walk. The Senora said, only the other day,
that she wished you would let her give you a horse; that it was not
right for you to take these long journeys on foot. You know we
have hundreds of horses. It is nothing, one horse," she added,
seeing the Father slowly shake his head.
"No;" he said, "it is not that. I could not refuse anything at the
hands of the Senora. But it was the rule of our order to go on foot.
We must deny the flesh. Look at our beloved master in this land,
Father Junipero, when he was past eighty, walking from San Diego
to Monterey, and all the while a running ulcer in one of his legs,
for which most men would have taken to a bed, to be healed. It is a
sinful fashion that is coming in, for monks to take their ease doing
God's work. I can no longer walk swiftly, but I must walk all the
more diligently."
While he eventually leaves the rancho and is no longer an active character in the story, his influence is still felt as various characters refer to him and what they think he would say about their situations.
In the play he gives a few final blessings and leaves. It is the final time we see him in the play. The video gives you an idea of how natural surroundings are used as part of the performance:
Check RamonaEpic Youtube channel.
There are two historic ranchos that many think Helen Hunt Jackson based her story around. When I come back to this in a few weeks I will show you one of them.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ramona Epic #5: You Are Going to Stay and Help Us?
In the book, Alessandro's violin was stuck in Temecula. So, he had it brought to him. The distance from Temecula to the rancho will come up in a later blog or two. It is not that important to the story, but it is a minor issue regarding which location is where. It will make sense later.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
The Return to Lago
This will be the third time I have discussed this locaton on this blog. I did not mean for it to be like this, but it has turned out to be an important place for a lot readers. I will link everything I have done below in the past here, but unless I find out something new this blog should wrap it up for good.
In fact, the only reason I am doing a new blog on this area is that the conditions were really different. Although I was the guide for this place that day, I had no control over the order of the areas we visited. I would have preferred to come here first with clear morning skies because this just happened to be the same day as what I showed in December. We visited another place to the south, and then we returned here. I was kind of disappointed because I had hoped to have clear blue skies for the video.
Then looking on the "bright" side of things I thought gloomy pictures of where Lago was in High Plains Drifter might actually turn out to be a good thing for the blog. This is looking to the west:
The following is at the beginning of where the town of Lago was in the movie. The set buildings would have been on both sides.
At the end of the town I turned around and looked back. The conditions started to lighten up at this point.
We then visited the lake. A bunch of seagulls were down there and what I call the "viking ship" in the distance.
Back in early December there was a lot of excitement over newly discovered "arsenic based life" here. Like I thought might happen when the hype was over with, a bunch of people examined the research and started poking holes in it. Until some show otherwise, it appears that it maybe back to the drawing board on this one. Or, more appropriate, keep searching.
Since it was important to me to have better conditions for the video I did come back a few days later. I will go ahead and link the video and other related links below:
The Return to Lago (Youtube Version)
High Plains Drifter at Mono Lake (All three blogs on this area, including this one)
Clint Spooks 'Em (Youtube Version)
Clint Spooks 'Em (My blog on the other HPD location nearby)
Regarding what I wrote up on the "alien life discovery" in December.
You can also check any of the labels on the right side that deal with Mono Lake and any other nearby area. I have often pointed out this area from up above elsewhere.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Mono Mills
At the kiosk that stands over the site they have a bunch of signs:
This is looking down on the what little remains of the mill area. You can barely see a tiny part of the Mono Lake in the background.
So, what they did was build a train track from the mills through the east side of Mono Lake to Bodie. Some more of the debris:
This is from the mills looking west. I just wanted to show that trees that grow here.
The area is a little odd for tree growth. What you see above seems normal for an area like this. If you have seen High Plains Drifter, then you may remember the scene where the outlaws get out of prison. That area is just to the west of here. It has a sandy white dirt look to it, yet some trees grow out there.
In the above picture you can see little tiny trees just starting to grow. I am not going to post the other picture I have, but if I were to turn around to other side of the road you would see a few full grown trees like that.