ALABAMA HILLS, at the base of the highest peak in the Lower 48, is one of the most popular boondocking spots along the Eastern Sierras. A lot of cowboy movies were filmed there. Nearby Lone Pine is a restocking point along the Pacific Crest Trail and a base camp for those summiting Mt. Whitney. Climbers scramble among the rock piles. And nomads make it home during the spring and fall. I’ve stayed there at least a half-dozen times. I love the place.
But like all popular natural spaces, its popularity leads to overuse and abuse. So the Bureau of Land Management has begun making what they call “exciting” changes. This is from their press release:
THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT RELEASES ALABAMA HILLS MANAGEMENT PLAN
BISHOP, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office today announced the release of a comprehensive management plan for public lands in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine in Inyo County. The plan is designed to provide diverse, high-quality recreational opportunities while minimizing user conflicts, addressing human health and safety concerns, reducing recreational impacts, and enhancing other resources, values, and uses.
“The Alabama Hills management plan is the culmination of over 12 months of focused work by dedicated BLM Bishop Field Office resource management professionals, built on wide-ranging and passionate public participation that included highly engaged local stakeholders from the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group, Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Inyo County and the Lone Pine community,” said Bishop Field Manager Steve Nelson. “The level of public interest and engagement in this planning effort speaks to the importance of this unique and special place. We look forward to implementing the plan with continued consultation, coordination and engagement with our partners, local communities and stakeholders.”
For us boondocks, the biggest change is that all the area west of Movie Road is now day use only. That eliminates at least half of the camping area. At the time of the press release, some spots on the east side of the road are designated with markers. There are (were?) unmarked spots remaining, leaving campers to use the same criteria—and good judgement—for choosing spots as camping elsewhere on public land. But the plan is to designate all those spots, too. The BLM has not said how many spots there will be.
Additional changes in the next year will be further delineation of areas where camping is permitted. Eventually, camping will be limited to sites identified with a campsite marker in the areas shown on this map.
Stay limits have been reduced:
Maximum of 7 days in a 28 day period, and not to exceed 14 days in a calendar year. Please note: Dispersed camping is limited to 14 days per year within the Bishop Field Office boundaries.
A permitting system is in the works:
Soon a permit will be required to dispersed camp in the Alabama Hills. The permit will be free and will be an acknowledgement that you understand the rules and guidance for dispersed camping. The permit will be found online or at the information kiosks. The permit will not be a reservation of a site.
It’s sad these restrictions have become necessary. But that’s the way life goes. The bad actions of a few lead to restrictions for all. Let none of us be the cause of more public lands being put off limits.
For more details regarding Alabama Hills, visit the BLM website.
Great shot of Whitney and the Needles. Brings back great memories. See that long patch of snow to the right of the big peak in the lowest picture shown? That’s the John Muir “Mountaineer’s Route.” Took me two days hiking to get up to the base of that shoot where it begins from a lake hidden up there. We did it free solo including the last part where a stack of rocks 200ft high next to a blue ice fall at the top of the saddle goes strait up, class 5.1. What a third day. Slept over night in the old stone observatory on top. It pays to have adventures while you are young enough to have them. It’s too bad that restrictions are now made on the Alabama Hills.
Absolutely gorgeous photos! I’m quite saddened to hear of this news, for all those responsible beings who have cared for & enjoyed these places for so long. Yet as you say, popularity unfortunately leads to overuse & abuse. Living in Canada, I so appreciate your sharing of these beautiful, open spaces through your photographs & writings. I look forward to reading more of your interesting & informative articles.
Sorry about being a compulsive editor but I suspect you mean to say “eliminating” rather than “illuminating”. Excellent article otherwise.
who cares he communicated and that is all that matters.
I care.
I care, too. Words matter.
Perfesserioneral Edtior (you that read right) here.
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I have concerns about:
* “…the area west of Movie Road is now day use only. That illuminates at least half of the camping area…”
I’d like to blame the spell checker, but… doh!
Okay, I fixed it.
“The bad actions of a few lead to restrictions for all.”
And so it goes. Please folks – practice leave no trace principles, pack out your waste & garbage, mind your campfires, and follow the appropriate agency’s rules when boondocking. None of that is an unreasonable burden on anyone.
Sad it was loved to death. My favorite place in the world in Central Idaho met that same fate. I was a FS camphost there back in 2005 and dispersed camping was everywhere. Nobody paid much attention. My most important camp job was making sure the free campers didnt sneak in to use the dumpsters.
Last summer every legal camping site is posted with just a 7 day limit. Many of the nicest spots are posted no camping. The paid campground went from 6 bucks a night to 18.
Great article. Shame everybody’s more worried about your spelling.
Not just spelling… a wrong word can change the entire meaning or understanding of what someone is trying to communicate. Contracts have been voided and wars have been fought over misunderstandings because of one wrong word. Yes, this case was minor, but it still made it confusing to the reader.
I have a question about Bob Wells. Is this part his comments and adventures, or Al’s. I read that someone would be his writer, but not that someone is now using cheaprvliving. for themselves. Can you explain please? I thought our relationship was with Bob.
Toni, Bob hired me as the editor and primary content provider for Cheap RV Living. Some of the posts will be from Bob, some from guest writers, some from me. The author of each article is noted at the top of the post.
The site used to be all-Bob, all-the-time, but the site dwindled and became stagnant as his attention and energies shifted to videos, HOWA and other projects. He wanted to revive the site because it’s an important source of information. Bob believes the information is more important than any relationship to him.
Bob also supports the idea of bringing more voices, more experiences, more viewpoints to the site, especially those who can speak about things with which he has no experience. That way the site becomes even more useful.
Good idea. I would read his stuff everytime is was put out and then he changed to another formula or something and I kinda stopped reading the info. Now that it is in this form and sent to me by email I’ll be reading more
Thank you Al, you are doing a fabulous job and keeping it interesting and educational
People are delusional and ignorant if they think any of these “changes” have anything to do with “The bad actions of a few lead to restrictions for all.”
This is agenda 2030 in action under the guise of sustainability and “protection.” If you don’t know what that is, you better wake up because remaining ignorant to it and ignoring it will just allow more of it to happen. THis has been rolling out for year slowly and encroaching more and more by design.
To top it off, they blame citizens for it. As the saying goes – the snakes are in the hen house already.
I believe people do trash and ruin camps and disrespect. And now that so many people are on federal lands all the time I am concerned that a lot more restrictions will happen and ruin the lifestyle. I do agree that unwanted by nomads changes are coming and have obviously already started.
I agree. Freedoms are taken away every day. This is just another example of that.
While there are “nasty” people out there who could care less about the land, there is a larger “agenda” afoot!
Totally agree !!
? Exactly.
This is a shame. My favorite sections are now off-limits to camping. I enjoyed meandering along the many west side roads, looking for the “perfect” site, getting lost within the road maze, finding my way again.
I suppose we can still meander on the west side, just not camp there.
That is an awful lot of no camping land. The stakeholders were all local. Do the stakeholders use all of
that land? If land use is an issue; why not rotate the areas for nomad use. BLM land belongs to all the people in the USA, not just to the locals.
Just came from there, had to watch where I stepped, ass wipe everywhere I hiked.
I feel it’s very important that we take it upon ourselves to clean up trash as we come across it and haul out the trash if we can. The less BLM/ government find sitting around on public lands the better chance we have of keeping those public lands free to use