Like a child waking up on summer vacation, I scrambled out of my bed and over to the window, pulling back the thick curtains separating me from the outside world. The sky was blue, there were no clouds, and the sun radiated warmly across the California desert sky. This was the day I had waited many months for.

Ridgecrest, California. 8:00 AM Sat. Oct. 14, 2000.
We assembled in the Quality Inn parking lot and proceeded up China Lake Blvd. to the local Denny’s to fuel up for the morning’s activities in Trona Pinnacles. Waiting for us inside the restaurant sat Mike McCormick. Mike made the two-hour drive from his home early Saturday morning, and he was soon to amaze us with his knowledge of Trona Pinnacles. We filed in and sat down at one of the two large tables that Mike had commandeered.

Seated with us in the restaurant was Matt Tuter, a four-year veteran of this annual event. Matt claims this is his new holiday. Next to him sat Rob Klindt, another four-year veteran. Rob has been a launch party organizer since the first annual event in 1997. Next to Rob sat Jef Furtado, who flew in from Texas for his inaugural celebration. Jef told me earlier that when he found out about this year’s launch party, he was compelled to come on the basis of its Zen value.

In accordance with the Denny’s menu, everyone ordered a breakfast-menu item that ended with the word “Slam,” and we poured down liberal amounts of steaming hot coffee as we made our acquaintances and started talking.

Conspicuous in her absence from breakfast was Effra, who had already made the difficult decision to stay back in her room to grade English school papers. Her busy work schedule precluded her from visiting Trona Pinnacles and Red Rock Canyon until the following morning.

Jef passed out packages of informational material he had collected for our trip, consisting of Trona Pinnacles descriptions, a map, off-road instructions, and a special bonus:  custom Chariot signs labeled Chariot1, Chariot2, Chariot3, etc. to be affixed to our off-road vehicles.  The handouts were quite helpful; I also used them while preparing this article.  We all put the Chariot signs to good use on our vehicles.

We were soon to meet up with Mona and Fred Wynne, two Ridgecrest residents who had already been a great source of help while the plans were put in place for the Launch Party.

After loading up on eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, orange juice, and buckets of hot coffee, our intrepid group of attendees made its way to the parking lot, where Mike amazed us by bringing forth a collection of CB radios for us to communicate with. Rob had already brought a CB radio of his own. Between the morning coffee and all the coaxial cable, everyone was pretty wired as we drove east on Highway 178 to our first stop, Trona Pinnacles. The highway was smooth and traffic was light. The sun beamed down through the cloudless sky, warming the morning soil that we were about to set foot on. Priplanus awaited us.

Arriving at Trona Pinnacles
Site 1

You can kiss the pavement goodbye when you reach the turn-off to the Pinnacles, approximately 15 miles east of Ridgecrest. My first revelation came quickly: Trona Pinnacles is a clearly defined geological area, approximately one mile wide and three miles across. This unique landscape is made up of more than 500 calcium carbonate pinnacles rising from the bed of the Searles Dry Lake basin.  The Pinnacles are as high as 140 feet, and were formed underwater 10,000 to 100,000 years ago when Searles lake was part of a link of Pleistocene lakes stretching from Mono Lake to Death Valley.  The Trona Pinnacles stud the north Mohave desert with their jagged peaks and rocks leaning at crazy, unstable angles.

In 1968. four years after the first Lost in Space exterior scenes were filmed, the Trona Pinnacles were designated a National Natural Landmark by the Department of the Interior.  The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and has become a popular filming location for movies and commercials.  Miraculously, what sets Trona Pinnacles apart from many other sites like this is its lack of graffiti.

Trona Pinnacles is located eight miles south of the highway, and the gravel road connecting the two ranks as one of the worst washboard roads I’ve ever driven. It’s nature’s cure for irregularity, and nature’s cause for a quick headache if driven too quickly.

Waiting for us on the washboard road sat Mona and Fred Wynne, in their off-road vehicle. Both are Lost in Space fans. Mona is also a Marta Kristen fan, and Fred is a classic Lost in Space purist, with a strong love for the early first season episodes. Fred is also a virtual cornucopia of weather, geography, air force, and historical information for the area.

The pitted road proceeds due south from Highway 178. With each mile, the Pinnacles become larger and the rock features more detailed. As the peaks came into focus, so did my realization that the Jupiter 2 had indeed been a traveler to this area, filmed coming in high from the southwest, and proceeding increasingly lower in a northeasterly direction until its collision course introduced the space family Robinson to their new home, Priplanus.

Five off-road vehicles pulled to a dusty stop at the Trona Pinnacles welcome sign and guest book. Our investigation of Trona Pinnacles was about to begin.

While signing in, I flipped back a page in the guest book, and noted that Jef Furtado had already signed-in and scouted the area on the prior day. Jef had the good fortune to arrive in the area at noon on Friday, and he had put his time to good use.

The normally frugal Irwin Allen spared no expense obtaining the location film sequences of this area. Moving the cast, photographic gear, Chariot (via flat-bed truck), and Jet Pack to this area must have certainly been a major effort. 

Considering the fact that this was all done in 1964 (and done well!), it’s comforting to know that this substantial budget was allocated for the Lost in Space project.  It's also very fortunate that this area has since been declared an endangered area.  As a result, it  appears as pristine as the day when Lost in Space filming first took place.

Exploring Trona Pinnacles
The area between Site 1 and Site 2

The California desert can be an unforgiving environment, even in mid-October. The air was dry, the breeze only teased, and the sun shone down, cheery and bold, oblivious to whether or not its effects were inside the range of human comfort. The temperature hovered around 80° F., pleasant and warm. Were it the middle of July, these temperatures would be well above 100° F. Trona Pinnacles is a close relative of Death Valley, separated at birth by less than 60 miles.

After signing in, our first stop was at a cave in the side of the rocks, almost directly above the guest book. The cave itself is manmade and too small to be confused with the cave that Don and John are filmed in when the Cyclops tries to skewer them with a tree stalk.  It was fun to imagine that the mouth of the cave may have been the spot where Cyclops footage for No Place to Hide and There were Giants in the Earth was filmed, but it clearly wasn't done at this location.

We walked down the rocks and paused to inspect the view.  Lost in Space footage had obviously captured the essence of the area; it has an other-worldly appearance to it that sticks with you.

We got back into our vehicles, and then we proceeded southwest along the perimeter of the pinnacles. As we rounded the corner that took us east along the backside of this geological curiosity, I realized that this area looked very familiar to me, like I’d actually visited this place before. I had, but only by proxy, watching early Lost in Space episodes on television. Nonetheless, I could picture a helicopter skirting the tops of the pinnacles, creating the footage for the classic Gemini 12/Jupiter 2 crash sequence on Priplanus. 

Based on unconfirmed information that we've received, the actual Jupiter 2 crash scene was filmed in Hagen Canyon (located at Red Rock Canyon), where the original 4-foot Jupiter 2 was "flown" via wires across the canyon's background.

Trona Pinnacles
Topographic Map
& Site Legend

Click on the map to see the full-size version, which is magnified and cropped to show the Trona Pinnacles only.  This map also displays:

• Site Numbers referred to in this feature

• Driving Directions

Exploring Trona Pinnacles – The Jet Pack Pinnacle
Site 2

We continued on our easterly route, then the road headed northeast, and we followed it for another ¼ mile. Mike pulled his Jeep off the right side of the road and we followed, unaware that we were about to make one of our biggest discoveries.

Mike produced an image of John Robinson’s stunt-double flying the jet pack around a forty-foot tall rectangular stone (see second image, left side, below.)  Facing due north, he held the image up against the surrounding landscape, and we all realized that we’d found the location where this jet pack scene was filmed.  Moving slightly forward/backward and left/right, Mike was able to pinpoint the exact position where the film camera had been located.  All the details fit perfectly.  This was definitely it, our first clearly identifiable landmark where the original footage was shot in 1964, 36 years ago.

Click on any image to see the full-size version

Exploring Trona Pinnacles – The Chariot's Path
Site 3

The Chariot is seen traveling at this particular site during two Lost in Space episodes; the pilot No Place to Hide and the fourth episode There were Giants in the Earth.  There's also a scene where the Jet Pack flies in this site.

Below on your left are two images that feature the Chariot traveling along a flat surface with a large, V-notched rock behind it, and a smaller pinnacle just to its left.  Below on your right is an image of this same area (the image is approximately one year old).  In spite of these combined visual aids, it was still very challenging for us to find the correct location.

Our quest to find this location was based entirely on scouting out every v-notched rock that we could find.  Although we discovered many of these, we kept returning to a location where the rocks looked similar, but not identical.  The most bewildering aspect of our discovery was the incredible difference in the shape of the v-notch at the peak of the tallest rock.  All of our pictures on hand showed a crisp, well-defined "V" shape, while the rock we were at looked rounded out, more like a "U" shape.  We confirmed that this was the right location after we had returned from the Trona Pinnacles and were able to compare our newly developed photos against the images we already had.  Yes, this is indeed a match.

When you've finished comparing the images below, read the text that follows for a possible explanation of why it was so difficult for us to find this location . . .

Click on any image to see the full-size version

Some of the pinnacles are composed of sandy, loose rock that doesn't stand up well to violent weather.  As a result, some of the landscape is subject to erosion over time.  Fred Wynne is extremely fortunate to work atop a mountain that looks down upon the Trona Pinnacles, and he offered the following information about an incredible 1999 storm that hit the area:

"The storm took place in the Spring of 1999, around April or May. It was very localized and I was able to watch it build up and charge across Searles Lake then slam into the Pinnacles area. The storm path was NNW to SSE. It consisted of 75 mph winds, with 100+ mph gusts, and approximately six inches of rainfall. All this in about a 60 minute time period. The rain lasted for about forty minutes while the wind-storm portion continued for about three hours. This was reported by ground crews in the area. 

I did some additional research and found out that between the time of the location shots and the 1999 storm, there had been four other storms in the area, of a similar nature."

We're pleased to show you that we have at least one photograph to prove that we found the correct location; the image with the Jeep Cherokee and Mercury Mountaineer in the foreground.  Sadly, this is the only photo of this area that turned out.  Although I took pictures of the rock from an angle that more closely resembled the Lost in Space scene, these were at the start of a new roll of film, and they did not turn out.

Exploring Trona Pinnacles – The far Pinnacles
Site 4

If you make the effort to visit Trona Pinnacles, be sure to visit the far Pinnacles located at Site 4.  We didn't try to find any matching locations here, but we're not ruling out the possibility that some of the Lost in Space exterior scenes were shot here.  Regardless, it's interesting to explore this area.  The landscape reminds me as something that may have inspired the set designs for The Anti-Matter Man or The Time Merchant episodes.  The pinnacles are sparser and stubbier, and depending on which way you're facing, the flat desert background extends to taller, jagged mountain peaks at the edge of the horizon.  The location would be perfect for exterior scenes, should Lost in Space return to the big or small screen.

Exploring Trona Pinnacles – A retrospective

Since returning from the Launch Party trip, I have spent considerable time reviewing the Promised Planet’s library of black and white video captures from the pilot episode and Episode 4 There were Giants in the Earth. There are many more scenes depicted in these episodes than we documented during our trip.  I am confident that the great majority of them can be mapped to either Trona Pinnacles or Red Rock Canyon. In other words, the exploration is not complete. The Pinnacles and Red Rock Canyon wait to be discovered, photographed and documented. As carefully as we reviewed the information we had on hand, there are still many uncharted areas begging to be explored in subsequent expeditions. Will you be the next explorer?

In all, we made three separate trips to the Trona Pinnacles: Saturday morning, the early dark hours of Sunday morning, and on Sunday morning after sunrise.  We'll be back with more information and pictures...

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