Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trona Pinnacles - 12.23.12

Passed this place, without making the side trip, at least a hundred times...

This time, the place was the objective on two wheels..








Definitely going back...

The whole album: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Trona-Pinnacles-Motorcycle/27230225_jxpwTL#!i=2287717243&k=s3HPr27

Cool pix Richard. You ever spend time amongst the tufa at Mono Lake?

-cat

Thanks.
I've wandered around the west side of Mono Lake on a few occasions.

Whew! I thought for a moment these were new Mars Rover photos!

The ground definitely has that look...
and it looks like there may be an alien on the ridge in the second photo...

I've been to this place many times. It's just as fascinating each time I visit.

There have been countless movies, TV series and commercials filmed there.

Back in Feb. '01 I was fortunate enough to visit when a set to Planet of the Apes was being built. The set builders had just finished building the crashed Space Station Oberon. There was a casting call for extras in early 2001 in either the Ridgecrest Daily Independent or the Inyo Register. Lots of background extras were needed for the final battle scene in the movie.

The next time you visit, when you're up on the ridge (you're standing on a ancient beach) over looking the Pinnacles look west across the RR tracks and you can see horizontal banding from the ancient shoreline of the lake. It's best to see them in the late afternoon when the shadows enhanced their appearance.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

I would always stop out at the pinnacles after my yearly trip to Trona on the second weekend of October for the crystal collecting Gem-o-rama http://www.squidoo.com/Gem-O-Rama (they open up the mine in trona to collect hanksite, halite and other crystals).