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Alabama Hills
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Alabama Hills
The Alabama Hills are a range of hills and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California.
Though geographically separate from the Sierra Nevada, they are part of the same geological formation.
Beginning on May 24, 1969, the Alabama Hills were managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. In March 2019, the U.S. Congress redesignated the area as the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area.
The Alabama Hills serve as a gateway to Mount Whitney and the Eastern Sierra Nevada. While dispersed camping is very popular with backpackers, car campers, and RV users, the region's fragile ecosystem and increasing numbers of visitors prompted the Bureau of Land Management to discourage the practice, appealing that camping in campgrounds helps maintain the area's great scenery and recreational opportunities.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lands in the area are open for day use only.
Two main types of rock are exposed at the Alabama Hills, an orange, drab weathered metamorphosed volcanic rock that is 150–200 million years old, and an 85-million-year-old biotite monzogranite which weathers to large roundish boulders, many of which stand on end due to spheroidal weathering acting on many nearly vertical joints in the rock.
The rounded contours of the Alabama Hills contrast with the sharp ridges of the Sierra Nevada to the west. Though this might suggest that they formed from a different rock, the Sierra Nevada peaks that loom above the hills are also formed from monzogranite. The difference in shape and color can be accounted for by a difference in weathering.
Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, towers nine thousand feet above this low range, which itself is 1,500 feet (460 meters) above the floor of Owens Valley. Gravity surveys indicate that the Owens Valley is filled with about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of sediment and that the hills are the tip of a very steep escarpment. This feature was created by the same fault system as the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake which, in a single event, caused a vertical displacement of 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 m).
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Alabama Hills
The Alabama Hills are a range of hills and rock formations near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, California.
Though geographically separate from the Sierra Nevada, they are part of the same geological formation.
Beginning on May 24, 1969, the Alabama Hills were managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. In March 2019, the U.S. Congress redesignated the area as the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area.
The Alabama Hills serve as a gateway to Mount Whitney and the Eastern Sierra Nevada. While dispersed camping is very popular with backpackers, car campers, and RV users, the region's fragile ecosystem and increasing numbers of visitors prompted the Bureau of Land Management to discourage the practice, appealing that camping in campgrounds helps maintain the area's great scenery and recreational opportunities.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lands in the area are open for day use only.
Two main types of rock are exposed at the Alabama Hills, an orange, drab weathered metamorphosed volcanic rock that is 150–200 million years old, and an 85-million-year-old biotite monzogranite which weathers to large roundish boulders, many of which stand on end due to spheroidal weathering acting on many nearly vertical joints in the rock.
The rounded contours of the Alabama Hills contrast with the sharp ridges of the Sierra Nevada to the west. Though this might suggest that they formed from a different rock, the Sierra Nevada peaks that loom above the hills are also formed from monzogranite. The difference in shape and color can be accounted for by a difference in weathering.
Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, towers nine thousand feet above this low range, which itself is 1,500 feet (460 meters) above the floor of Owens Valley. Gravity surveys indicate that the Owens Valley is filled with about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of sediment and that the hills are the tip of a very steep escarpment. This feature was created by the same fault system as the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake which, in a single event, caused a vertical displacement of 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 m).
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