Saline Salt Tram Inyo Mtns California

[teotwaki]

After frantically loading up gear, my daughter and I drove up early Friday afternoon to Lone Pine and stayed overnight. Early Saturday morning the adventure started here:





and soon we were winding our way through washes and canyons with my daughter driving the first 17 miles. Her first time at the wheel for offroading and she did great!

two thumbs up :smiley_drive:

 

[teotwaki]

winding through the canyons





our first sighting of some of the massive towers of the Saline Salt Tramway!!

 

[teotwaki]

a lot of snow over by Mt.Whitney



and a little for us



Owens Dry Lake



How could we get lost?

 

[teotwaki]

How could we resist the detour to the Burgess Mine that we saw on the GPS? It was time for lunch anyhow and what a scenic spot!



and having lunch gave my daughter lots of energy!



interesting graffiti says we were not the first to drop in

 

[teotwaki]

After 17 miles of fun wheeling through mud, rocks and snow we reached the tram keeper's cabin to stay Saturday night.



But first we just had to explore the tram's highest transfer station

Left


Middle


Right

 

[teotwaki]

interior shots of the transfer station





the year they started pouring the foundation

 

[teotwaki]

The cabin is roughly at 8500' and has stunning views of the Owens valley and the Sierras. It has had a lot of restoration work done and a lot to go. Sure beat a tent!

spacious deck


good for naps before sunset


one of 5 rooms


"kitchen" area with a view

 

[teotwaki]

We made dinner by lantern light and turned in by 9PM. After breakfast we repacked everything and were on our way towards Cerro Gordo. Now it was my turn to drive. A funny thing happened along the way; the only car we saw the whole time was coming from the opposite direction and it was a silver 4unner like mine!

After another 7 miles of interesting trail we came to the official end of the mountain road even though we had a ways to go



We spotted the Cerro Gordo ghost town but elected to bypass it



saw this bucket WAYYYYY up high

can you see it against the sky in the upper left area towards the peak?


close up


and saw this too

 

[teotwaki]

What the heck is this? The Desert Militia? Terrorists?






Shhhhh! We don't want to be caught

 

[teotwaki]

Just Google "Stark Industries" who seems to be in the middle of this evil plot

 

[teotwaki]

Trail's end at Keeler








Hint about the "terrorists" here http://www.ironmanmovie.com/

Hope that you enjoyed riding along with us!

Jim

 

[teotwaki]

missed adding these in

 

[Darren]

Real nice set of pictures and thanks for putting up so many. It looks like it was a good trip. I assume you needed a reservation for the cabin? The weapon area sure is a bit peculiar looking to say the least. Interesting.

Edit: Okay, I didn't follow that this was part of a movie set.

 

[teotwaki]

Real nice set of pictures and thanks for putting up so many. It looks like it was a good trip. I assume you needed a reservation for the cabin? The weapon area sure is a bit peculiar looking to say the least. Interesting.

The cabin is first come first served. It was a joint restoration effort between the BLM and volunteers.

The "weapons" are all part of a movie set for yet another comic book hero named "Iron Man".

 

[kcowyo]

Nice trip and kudos for getting the kiddo involved.

I traveled some of that same area last November for the first time. Definitely some fun trails and random stuff to see. The views from the Salt Tram and the cabin were amazing.

Cool photos and nice looking 4th Gen.
:campfire: