Highway 395 Along theEastern Sierra Nevadas

When we woke up in Lone Pine, CA we knew we'd have a full day to explore the several towns along this highway and find a place to camp.

It is crazy that when you finally ascend out of Death Valley you are in Lone Pine and have a view of the east side of Mt. Whitney (and Sequoia National Park is just on the other side of Mt. Whitney).  Here is the view across the street from the Comfort Inn (the guys made fun of me because I couldn't wait to step outside--I just took the photo from the breakfast room at the hotel:

When we left the hotel we drove up a street in Lone Pine called Mt. Whitney Portal which leads to the hiking area for Mt. Whitney.  The area is called Alabama Hills (named after the WWII battleship) and a zillion western movies and TV shows were made here with John Wayne, etc. years ago.  We saw several campgrounds on the way--and they have metal cabinets for your food because there's bears out there!  Our plan was to camp further north on Hwy 395.

Our next stop was just 30 minutes north in Independence to see the Manzanar Internment facility that our gov't implemented after the Pearl Harbor attack.  Interesting how I was never taught this in school.  Paul teaches it as part of his 5th grade curriculum--and what we saw and learned was phenomenal.

Above is the view when you enter--the guard posts are original.  There used to be an apple orchard here (manzanar is apple in Spanish).  Many locals opposed the building of this camp and did not participant but other needed the money and helped build the hundreds of barracks and buildings needed here for 10,000 Japanese Americans brought from the west coast of calif to live here under fence and armed guards.

The auditorium that houses the museum was built for the camp and there were dances held--the community tried to make their living quarters they best they could.

 
The barracks were all moved away after the war but they built a couple to see as part of the site now.

The volunteers at the site are Japanese American and the lady inside the museum was one of the most informative volunteers ever.  We bought a book written by a former resident and it is meant for kids and about how baseball made them feel normal and Paul bought a teacher's kit with dvd, maps, books and more.

 (click any photo to enlarge and be able to read)


The guide told us about a self tour to drive and when we did this we found the baseball fields--turns out they had a dozen teams and some women's leagues too.

The "prisoners" had their own churches and temples and descendants visit every year.  There are hundreds of paper cranes in the photo below that people brought here during recent visits.

Another volunteer gave us tips about things to see as we continued north on 395 and gave us a tip to get gas at the next town which will have no taxes for us due to it being a Native American owned gas station.