Welcome to Lone Pine

Our vacation last week took us up the 395 to Bridgeport in the High Sierras, with stops in Mammoth, Bishop, and Lone Pine on the way home.

We did quite a bit of "movie location hunting" in both Bridgeport and Lone Pine's Alabama Hills, and we also stopped in for an extended visit to the Museum of Lone Pine Film History. As regular readers are doubtless aware, countless films, especially Westerns, have been filmed in Lone Pine.

I'll be sharing photos of the other parts of our trip in the near future, but first, here's a quick look at a fun aspect of Lone Pine: several streets around the movie museum are named for cowboy stars who spent much of their careers working in the Lone Pine area.

That "welcome" sign providing the backdrop to Gene Autry's street sign is at the town's McDonald's.

I was especially happy to find the street sign for one of my very favorite cowboy stars, Tim Holt:

Roy has his own road too...

...and so does Hoppy.

The Dow Villa Motel, located right on the 395, is an historic hotel dating from 1923; many film stars stayed at the Dow while filming in Lone Pine. My husband and I anticipate attending the Lone Pine Film Festival for the very first time this fall and plan to spend at least one night at the Dow.

The Alabama Hills Cafe was a Yelp find where we ate lunch before the last leg of our trip home. It's on Post Street just off Main Street (Highway 395). The vintage-looking sign alone made me want to check it out.

The place doesn't have a lot in the way of looks, including a floor which could kindly be described as having seen better years, but the restaurant was clean, the service was friendly, and the food was excellent. And we loved the huge drinking glasses! We'll be back. I'm looking forward to trying breakfast there next October.

Here's a review of the Alabama Hills Cafe by another blogger, and there are more reviews at Trip Advisor.

Coming soon: Some terrific location finds in Bridgeport and the Alabama Hills, plus our visit to the museum.

Updates: Alabama Hills Movie Locations and Bridgeport, California Movie Locations.