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The Avalon Theater in The Catalina Casino was the first movie theater specifically designed for a sound system. It has been been perfectly preserved, including the 4-manual, 16 rank theater pipe organ built by the Page Pipe Organ Company of Lima, Ohio. A virtual tour of the complete Casino building will follow soon.

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Long Valley, east of Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierras, is an active volcanic area with many great wilderness hot springs. Crowley, or Wild Willy’s Hot Spring is one of the best. According to my Audubon “Field Guide to North American Weather”, these wispy clouds are called “orographic lenticularis”.

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West of Lone Pine, along Whitney Portal Road are the Alabama Hills, a large field of weathered boulders and outcroppings. The hills appear in over 150 feature films and many tv series, such as Star Trek. Recent movies that include scenes in the Alabama Hills are Gladiator and Ironman. This is an interesting place to explore on foot, wandering through the intimate spaces formed by these rocks, with sudden glimpses of the sharp snow capped peaks of the Sierras nearby.

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Red Rock Canyon State Park is a place most people drive by on their way to some other destination further up Hwy 14 and Hwy 395. But it is well worth a stop-over and offers some spectacular vistas within short hiking distance from the highway. Go here for the complete Eastern Sierras Gallery.