The Alabama Hills &/or Mt Whitney are why you visit Lone Pine. Many highway 395 travelers stop here for lunch as they head to Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, or Lake Tahoe. But Lone Pine has a lot to offer, mainly hiking/climbing Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, and the Alabama Hills Movie Road & arches.
The Alabama Hills is renown as a movie filming location particularly for westerns. So much of it’s history is from the heyday of movie and TV westerns. Movies or shows starring Roy Rogers, John Wayne, the Lone Ranger, Gene Autry; movies such as Gunga Din, Star Wars, Tremors, Gladiator, Ironman, Django Unchained were all shot here. It’s close proximity to Los Angeles and unique topography and open rugged spaces. Make it a great spot to make movies or TV shows. There’s even a Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine that’s worth a visit, admission is only a $5 donation.

The landscape of the Alabama Hills reminds me of Joshua Tree National Park. Driving, biking, or hiking Movie Road is the main route through the many unique aggregations of boulders, movie locations, and arches. It’s dry, dusty, and often hot – definitely a Spring or Fall destination even though at an elevation over 4000ft.
You can spend a few to several days hiking to all the arches and movie locations. All the arch and movie location trails are short, level, easy hikes. Some movie sets have plaques describing the film or show shot on the location. The hike to one of the best arches, Mobius Arch, is short, easy with very few people in October. I got up before sunrise to take photos of Mobius Arch at sunrise and I was by myself. The sunrise hitting the Eastern Sierras and Mt Whitney makes for a wonderful background.

We visited the Alabama Hills over a few days, hiking to the different arches and movie locations. We paced ourselves, only doing a few hikes each day. You can see most of the arches in one day but we were in no rush. Our RV park was only a few miles from the Movie Road and Mt Whitney Portal. So our only long drive was to Bishop & the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.

Various Alltrails Trail Maps of Movie Road Loop & the Arches

We drove to the trailheads since it was pretty hot mid-day/mid-afternoon. Having maps of the arches or movie set locations is a good idea since many sites are not clearly marked. If you are driving the Movie Road, they are pretty hard to miss since they have parking areas. But having a map will help you figure out which stop you are at & there are many.