Alabama Hills National Scenic Area

Great place for boondocking or cheap camping! First thing, hit the local visitor center for some information and to fill up on fresh water tank. The center is located just south of Lone Pine and provides a lot of info for the area. They have a fresh potable water spigot right out front.

The rangers can give great information on where camping is allowed. There is an organized BLM campground called Tuttle Creek Campground for 5 bucks a night which has a dump station, garbage and a camp host. It’s located outside of the hills area though. There are many dispersed camping spots available for free use off of Movie Road.

The beauty of this extremely remote looking boondocking location is it’s not really remote. It just seems that way because you are hidden between the Sierras and a small set of foothills. So you are completely separated from the busy highway 395 and the town of Lone Pine only a few miles away.

Directions in are easy. When you see the only stop light in town this is the intersection for Whitney Portal Road, turn onto it and head up toward the mountains, after a few miles turn right onto Movie Road. You’ll soon start to see several dry camping spots to choose from and many little roads that lead into the rocks to hidden spots. The main road is fairly wide, flat and hard packed.

There are fantastic views of the mountains including Mount Whitney, tallest peak in the lower 48 states. The contrast of the round, brown boulders of the Alabama Hills and the jagged bluish-gray snowy Sierra Nevada range made for some unique scenes, and an awesome photography background.

Incredible rock formations! There's a great tour you can do of various old western movie set locations via car at http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/pdfs/bishop_pdfs.Par.33502.File.dat/movie_road_tour_brochure.pdf

Amazing scenery! The rock formations were beautiful. We camped here for a day and had an overnight. During the day, we went hiking and played our made up game on who will get to see some formations on the rocks. It was fun and it will really make your imaginative. There were amazing views and make sure to bring your camera. At night, the experience became more fantastic because of the beautiful stars. It was surreal because the stars were so plenty unlike what you see when you're at the city and the stars were bigger too. It is one of my memorable stargazing.

The visitors center website says no RV filling.

Favorite Place to Camp. Not sure what it says 'permanently closed. I just camped here a few weeks ago. Great area to drive around, gorgeous views, fun rock climbing and free dispersed camping.

We traveled here late March. Loved the views of the snow capped mountains, but was hoping for clearer road signs. Couldn’t find movie place and wanted to know which mountain peak was Mt. Whitney. The town was quaint with lots to wander and look at. This place is on the way to Manzanar.