looks great, nice pictures. More inspiration noted, the wife wants to explore this area now.
It really is a great place to wander and explore, and fairly easy to get to. If you want to camp, the Alabama Hills is open and it looks like almost anyplace works (except don't drive off of an existing pathway). Check the BLM for details. In fact, one of the hardest things about photographing the landscape up there this time of year is finding a shot that does not include some sort of RV. Lots of big land yachts out there. There are also some established campgrounds along Whitney Portal Road.
We like to stay in Lone Pine, at the Dow Villa Motel. The motel part of the Dow Villa was built in 1957, and has been upgraded to what are very comfortable rooms, but still in the old mid-50's drive-right-up-to-the-room motel style. Very cool. The rooms in the 1923 hotel are smaller, some may not have private baths, and are said to be haunted. Also very cool, and both parts have reasonable prices.
There are several good restaurants within walking distance of the Dow Villa. We like the Chinese food at the Merry Go Round, and Season's is good too (although it's pricing is up there). The Totem was okay too, as well as the Grill (next to Dow Villa). For breakfast, the Alabama Hills Cafe is consistently excellent. Lots of really good food, and a great selection of fresh baked stuff to take with you too.
It's a short drive up Manzanar and Independence, with lots to explore along the way. We drove up Onion Valley Road from Independence. It goes up to a little over 9,000' and ends at a meadow where the horse packers stage for trips over the Kearsarge Pass. Great views from the road on the way. We also wandered along some county and forest service unpaved roads that ran parallel to US 395 going south from Onion Valley Road. For the most part well graded (because they are intended to accommodate horse trailers), the one we were on came to a stream crossing that looked a bit too deep in spots, and there was a backhoe parked on the other side, telling me that they were still working on it. The water was flowing pretty good to, cutting away the bottom from the looks of it. Great scenery up there.
If it's summer time, you can easily do a day trip up to Bristlecone Pines and back. You could even go up to Bristlecone via the paved road and come back down via Silver Canyon Road and end up in Laws, just outside of Bishop. It's also a good staging point for a trip to Cero Gordo or out to the Panamint Valley, including Star Wars Canyon.
