I've been going to the Alabama Hills for something like forty years and have shot everything from the unique rock formations to album covers and cool *** portraits there. I'm going to be a contrarian here. I think both the article, as it is, and the imagery shown are pretty mediocre. There might be a single compelling image that I see - one that I might like to look at again, but a lot of ordinary and a lot of ordinary with really substandard post production, witness a black and white of one of the arches where there's a giant halo above part of the arch and not from some sort of natural lighting effect but from crappy masking or too too much highlight/shadow and the same image has a big damned glob of something on the sensor that the photographer neglected to delete. Don't really know who this is, but whoever it is, I'm sure you can do better.
I was there in August when it was over a hundred degrees in Lone Pine. I've been visiting and revisiting Gene Autry Rock, which I used to have marked on a GPS but now I just go to. It does take low range 4WD to get there and the very next addition to the Taco is going to be a front cam so no one has to get out to see where to do when all you can see is sky over your hood. For anyone who doesn't know Gene Autry Rock, it's the one that looks like a giant cock against the backdrop of the Sierra crest. Pretty awesome and even more awesome that it offend the ultra religious. I'm guessing this qualifies as medium format as it's shot as a shift-stitch on a 50mp 5DS with a Canon 24 t/s-e II. Technically it should be possible to do it in two but you need about 2-3 millimeters in the center to close the gap so I just do center, right and left, while, of course sliding the L-Plate in the clamp to offset the lens movement.
Alabama Hills is a great place to get acquainted with low range on your 4WD and explore at 2-3 mph, but do have a spare tire, jack and tools if you puncture or get stuck. Even better is you have limited slip or a locking differential as it's easy to get in a situation with standard diffs where you can't go anywhere. Stay away from the Grill in LP which is simply not very good and way overpriced. Don't bother with the local rudeness at their one and only coffee shop where you have to put up with lousy service AND Fox News, but do have a Pizza Factory pizza, which are excellent.