We had a great time earlier this month at the Lone Pine Film Festival, which is still going strong in its 32nd year. Not only is Lone Pine one of the best film festivals in the U.S., I believe it also stands alone in that it's more focused on actual filming locations — and a lot of them — than any other festival in the world.
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The centerpiece of the festival — and of movie history in the Lone Pine area — is the Alabama Hills, a unique geological formation that first caught the attention of Hollywood more than a century ago.
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"Alabama Hills" is the name given to a sprawling rocky area west of the town of Lone Pine in California's Owens Valley, where hundreds of movies and TV shows have been filmed over the past 100-plus years.
The area has nothing to do with the state of Alabama, but the name is a Civil War reference. The Alabama Hills are named after the CSS Alabama, which was sunk by the Union ship Kearsarge in 1864.
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California's Alabama Hills are known for their unusual rock formations, spread out across mile after mile of dramatic landscape. This area has stood in for the American West of the frontier days in countless Western movies, and remains an active filming location today.
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The Alabama Hills are bordered on the west by the Eastern Sierra, including Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney, which lend additional scenic splendor to the location.
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Almost everyone mixes up Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney at first — I know I did. Even though Mount Whitney is the tallest peak in the Lower 48 States, the proximity of Lone Pine Peak makes it appear higher.
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The Alabama Hills aren't the only thing that sets the Lone Pine Film Festival apart from run-of-the-mill movie festivals. A key to the annual event's enduring popularity is that Lone Pine is a gathering of not just movie fans, but movie location fans — including some who really know their stuff when it comes to Lone Pine.
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A case in point is master Lone Pine rock finder Don Kelsen, who has been involved with the movie festival — and with uncovering historic Alabama Hills filming locations — for something like three decades.
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I've reported before on Kelsen's spectacular movie location finds — you can click here to see some of his stunning Alabama Hills "then and now" shots.
High-profile Lone Pine movies such as "Gunga Din" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" are well-documented, so on my recent visit I made a point of seeking out locations for productions that don't normally get as much attention.
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One thing I've been seeing a lot of lately is car commercials shot in the Alabama Hills. Ads for Jeep, Acura, Chevy trucks and other makes have been capturing breathtaking Lone Pine scenery in recent years.
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I took this photo approximating the location of the Jeep commercial from my campsite in the Alabama Hills on Sunday morning, Oct. 9.
Click on the video above to watch the Jeep spot
Here's the 30-second Jeep commercial that features the beautiful Alabama Hills shot, which appears at 0:19 in the ad. Click on the image above, then click on YouTube in the bottom right corner for the best look at the video.
Other parts of the Jeep commercial are shot at Rabbit Dry Lake in Southern California's Mojave Desert. We explored this location back in 2019, in a post you can see by clicking here.
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Unique movie tours of the Alabama Hills, such as the Del Gaudio brothers' "Tall T" tour, have long been among the biggest attractions at the Lone Pine Film Festival.
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These fascinating tours give the general public a chance to experience the excitement of seeing stunning filming locations up close, and to benefit from the knowledge and legwork of veteran Lone Pine explorers.
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When you spend time in the Alabama Hills with location hunters like the Del Gaudios, you're bound to learn a thing or two — but more important, you're likely to get caught up in their passion for movie locations.
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The Del Gaudio brothers, who travel from the East Coast each year to conduct tours, flip burgers and whatever else the festival needs, have perfected a tandem approach to revealing the finer points of the Alabama Hills.
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A movie like "The Tall T," filmed almost entirely in the Alabama Hills, offers countless shots that can be matched up against the current landscape — and it's a landscape that remains largely unchanged since the peak filming years.
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Visitors participating in the movie tours receive photo brochures containing screen shots from the movie so they can see exactly where everything was filmed and line up their own matching photos.
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A scene early in "The Tall T" finds Randolph Scott on the Anchor Ranch, a cluster of old buildings in downtown Lone Pine that was historically used for filming.
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To my surprise, much of the old ranch remains intact today — if "intact" is the right word. The old stable isn't in the best shape these days, but it's still recognizable as the same building seen behind Randolph Scott in the movie.
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One of my favorite locations I visited during this year's festival was from another Jeep commercial. When I showed this shot to Don Kelsen, he knew right away where it was.
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Here's a matching shot I took at the Jeep location — probably my best match from the latest Lone Pine expedition.
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Another highlight for me from this year's festival has a connection to the Iverson Movie Ranch. I spent a long time searching for the location of this photo after someone suggested years ago that it was taken on the Iverson Ranch. It turns out it wasn't shot there after all.
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Thanks to Greg Parker — another extremely accomplished Lone Pine rock hunter and tour guide — the elusive rock was found earlier this year in the Alabama Hills. I took part in an expedition to the site on Oct. 9.
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A second promo still from the same photo session also turned up some time ago, with Chief Thundercloud standing on top of the rock and Lynne Roberts, the serial's leading lady, on the right.
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The serial "The Lone Ranger" was filmed both on the Iverson Movie Ranch and in the Lone Pine area, among other locations. But the promo stills with the distinctive rock were definitely taken in the Alabama Hills.
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A number of veteran Lone Pine researchers, including the Del Gaudio brothers, took part in the pilgrimage to the rock, with Don Kelsen leading the expedition.
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After wondering for years where this rock might be, I have to admit it was pretty exciting to finally see it in person.
If you missed this year's Lone Pine Film Festival, you might want to start making your plans early for next year. The motels in town fill up fast, but there's also camping available in the historic Alabama Hills.
Meanwhile, Lone Pine's Museum of Western Film History is open year-round, and is a must-see. You can pick up a brochure there for $2 that'll show you the way to many of the most important filming locations.
Two places to keep up on what's going on with the Lone Pine Film Festival, and to start making plans for next year's event, are the Lone Pine Film Festival website and the festival's Facebook page.
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If you do plan to go to Lone Pine 2023 — and for that matter, if you're headed to just about any historic filming locations in the SoCal area — shoot me an email ahead of time and maybe we can arrange to meet up.
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As for me, I'll be going back for sure — and sooner than later. Seems I left my heart-shaped rock arch in the Alabama Hills.
