4 Day High Desert Trip - Ojai to Alabama Hills *Very Pic Heavy*

[inv3ctiv3]

High Desert Trip May 2017


My gf was heading out of town for a bachelorette party for a few days so I took off to do some camping and had a few friends come a long for a bit, one of the most fun trips I've done in a long time! Started off by leaving SB around noon on Friday towards Ojai where we were gonna camp for the night in a campground we all like but first we had to hit a secret swim spot.

As you can see my on board water set up now has the connections in the rear wheel well:

It was cool getting all of our trucks together and comparing the different set ups:

After a night of just hanging around the fire we did a nice hike up to one of the peaks near by then parted ways cause they had stuff to do, from there I headed up the 395 solo and hit a bunch of off shoots and dirt roads I'd always wanted to go up.

I got into Alabama Hills kinda late cause I spent so much time exploring off the 395 but because I had no schedule and no one else with me I just found some spot right off movie road which was pretty cool, kinda packed in with people for me but I met a cool guy who wanted to know everything about my truck so we chatted for a while:

It was my friends Bday the next day so her BF and her left LA to meet me in Lone Pine late in the afternoon so I spent the whole next morning/afternoon just going around every 4WD road I could find and marking cool camp spots and roads in the valley to get away from all the people around Movie Rd.

Moon rocks

Spent a lot of the day photographing snakes and lizards....Long-nosed Leopard Lizard:

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard:

Western Zebra-tailed Lizard:

Desert Horned Lizard:

This was really sad to find, this was the first Panamint Rattlesnake I'd ever found and it had just been ran over by some ************** but what was interesting was this Long-nosed Leopard Lizard was found just a few feet from the rattlesnake with no obvious injuries from being ran over leading me to think it had been bit by the snake and was about to get eaten when the snake got ran over.....

Look one way and you see this:

Look behind you and you see this:

I headed back towards town to meet up with my friends since they were in her Audi and I needed to show them to where I had picked out to camp which couldn't be too far in due to her car.....

After picking them up and dropping their car off at our spot we loaded up into the truck so I could show them all around as they'd never been there:

We came across this beautiful Great Basin Gopher Snake crossing the road so I moved her to safety:

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Now if there is one thing I can do when taking new people out is showing them how important the local wildlife is and my friend was terrified of snakes, he wouldn't even get out of the truck when I went to move her off the road so I slung her around my neck to show him that it was not aggressive nor was it going to bite him and he actually got out and interacted with the snake which was awesome:

My friend caught me laughing at his reaction when he saw me put it around my neck, he lost it haha

We also found a Mohave Patch-nosed Snake just laying on the trail so I got out and moved it off as well

So after all that we decided to retire back to camp and cook dinner and watch the stars, thanks for looking!

 

[twblanset]

Cool write up. Thanks for sharing. I grew up in Bishop and it makes me homesick.

 

[GoodEnoughforGabe]

Damn your a ************ snake wrangler! Growing up in the PNW, an encounter with a snake is far few between. Much more often I run into mammals like otters, beavers, opossums, coons. All we have for snakes up her is Garter snakes, and Rattlesnakes on the eastern side of WA. But at least they usually try and let you know if you're getting too close to them accidentally. Once I had a run in with a momma black bear and her cub, that was pretty cool. The scariest one by far was my encounter with a cougar and her cub.

Gotta respect nature, she'll take away everything she gives to ya in a matter of minutes if you are not aware. Seems like you know which snakes are dangerous and not, which is absolutely awesome!

Great write up, and photography

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

I spent some time that way coming back from Baja in November. I only dedicated a day and did not have nearly enough time. ( had to be back for thanksgiving, barley made it) Alabama hills was so cool, It was awesome how much BLM is down that way, I was able to find a BLM 2 track that took me from Alabalma Hills to Manazar, it was a nice little road, not technical but good to get off the freeway and onto some dirt. I agree great job w/ the reptiles. Thanks for posting, Happy Trails

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Cool write up. Thanks for sharing. I grew up in Bishop and it makes me homesick.

Thanks man I go up to Mammoth allllll the time so the 395 is like my home away from home and I make it a point to stop at the Burger Barn when I can.

Damn your a ************ snake wrangler! Growing up in the PNW, an encounter with a snake is far few between. Much more often I run into mammals like otters, beavers, opossums, coons. All we have for snakes up her is Garter snakes, and Rattlesnakes on the eastern side of WA. But at least they usually try and let you know if you're getting too close to them accidentally. Once I had a run in with a momma black bear and her cub, that was pretty cool. The scariest one by far was my encounter with a cougar and her cub.

Gotta respect nature, she'll take away everything she gives to ya in a matter of minutes if you are not aware. Seems like you know which snakes are dangerous and not, which is absolutely awesome!

Great write up, and photography

Thank you very much and yea it's so important to respect nature and it's wildlife for so many reasons.

I spent some time that way coming back from Baja in November. I only dedicated a day and did not have nearly enough time. ( had to be back for thanksgiving, barley made it) Alabama hills was so cool, It was awesome how much BLM is down that way, I was able to find a BLM 2 track that took me from Alabalma Hills to Manazar, it was a nice little road, not technical but good to get off the freeway and onto some dirt. I agree great job w/ the reptiles. Thanks for posting, Happy Trails

Yup I've spent my whole life catching and photographing reptiles, I do a lot of out reach and educational work with rattlesnakes cause they're such a misunderstood and unfairly prosecuted species.

 

[v_man]

Beautiful photography , nice report...

 

[1MK]

Killin' it like always.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[inv3ctiv3]

Beautiful photography , nice report...

Killin' it like always.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys!

 

[1leglance]

great write up and pics, actually amazing pics!
Very cool you went to that much trouble to get your friends educated on the reptiles.
Keep posting this kind of cool stuff!

 

[mph]

Love the post...Need to check that area out sometime

 

[C-Fish]

Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing. Photos are :victory:

 

[Martinjmpr]

:26_7_2: Great pics and great writeup.

Love the snake and reptile pics, too. Well done.

 

[Triplesnake]

Great photos! Snakes and lizards are one of my favorite subjects too. I especially like the one of the long nosed leopard lizard. The sharp focus and the depth of field really make him pop out.