After bidding our Nevada family farewell, we headed south on Scenic Route 395, also known as ‘El Camino Sierra”, snaking down along the East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, through Nevada into California. This is Mammoth Mountain - elevation 11,030 feet.
It is a beautiful drive on a road, originally
built in 1920, built under California’s first highway construction
bond. 
The road crests several summits in the 8000 foot range, and we did get a great view of what we think is Mt. Whitney - elevation 14,494.
The road was incorporated into the
US Highway system in the 1930’s. There are many places to stop and stretch one's legs.
There
are more than a dozen small towns along the way, each with their own
personality. We could spend more time on
this path.
We stop for an afternoon at the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area. There is a visitor center, and a walking trail through the ‘tufa’ formations.
The lake harbors a thriving sensitive ecosystem of plants and animals, some found nowhere else in the world.
The Native Americans
who lived in the basin collected the abundant alkali fly pupae and used them as
a main source of food. Walking along the
water line, there are boggy patches with TONS of flies.Mono Lake is one of the oldest lakes in North America, at about 760,000 years old. There is no outlet to the lake. Water flows in from snowpack melt and mineral streams.
Natural evaporation concentrates the minerals resulting in water with twice the salinity of the ocean. No fish can live in the water due to the extreme alkalinity, but it is one of the most productive lakes in the world in that it supports trillions of brine shrimp, alkali flies and migratory birds.
The tufa,
strange spires and knobs, are formed when fresh water springs containing
calcium bubble up through the carbonate rich lake waters. The combination of these waters form calcium
carbonate, a whiteish limestone deposit.
Unpredictable
winds make boating hazardous.
Braving the
Los Angeles freeway system, we make our way ALL the way over to Long
Beach. Traffic flowed, there were a few
snags, and it took about two hours to cross from one end of the city to the
other. We are already glad we don’t live
here and we haven’t gotten out of the rig yet!
We have a site
in an ‘urban’ campground, which turned out wonderfully. It was clean, full facilitied, with a
swimming pool and hot tub.
We hopped on
our bikes to explore Long Beach. It’s a
great waterfront area, with well established bike paths, marinas, shops, and
long expanses of sand. We rode for miles
and miles, stumbled onto the filming of the TV show NCIS LA, featuring LL
Cool.
We took and afternoon harbor cruise ride around Long Beach harbor,
spotting seals on buoys,
We took and afternoon harbor cruise ride around Long Beach harbor,
spotting seals on buoys,
...and the Queen Mary ... flagship of the Cunard line from 1936 to 1946, retired to port in Long Beach, now serving as a full service hotel. ... and industrial cranes unloading a cargo ship. Long Beach and LA Ports combined are the busiest in the country, and one of the busiest in the world with over 1 BILLION dollars worth of cargo flowing through every DAY.
The sunset
reflected beautifully on a nearby office building. It may be urban, but it was pretty.
Bright and
early the next morning, we battened down the hatches on the RV, leaving Stinky
behind, and hopped on the ferry for a two night stay on Catalina Island. Tom’s cousin, Paul had recommended that we
try to get out there if we could make time.
It turned out that there were pretty good mid week ferry/hotel
packages.
On the ferry
ride over, we saw a couple very large pods of dolphins that swam right alongside our boat.
We were very
excited coming into the ferry dock. The
island immediately reminded us of a small European village built into steep
seaside hills, rising quickly to an elevation of 2100 feet. 
The red roof tiles and the glazed decorative tiles were manufactured on the island in a plant established by Wrigley. The products were made using local clays and mineral pigments.
The water is clear and clean.
We took the
town bus up the Wrigley Memorial and the cactus garden. The 130 foot tall memorial to Wrigley was completed in 1934, nearly all from local on-island materials.
The cactus garden has the mature and unusual plantings.
Prior to
modern times, archiological evidence shows human inhabitation nearly 10,000
years ago. The first European set foot
on the island in `1542. By the 1830’s,
the entire native population had moved to the mainland. By the end of the 1800’s, the island was
almost entirely uninhabited. William
Wrigley purchased the island in 1919 for
about three million dollars. Starting in
1921, the island was used as the spring training grounds for the Chicago Cubs
(Wrigley owned the team). During WWII
the island was closed to tourists and established as a military training ground.
Prior to
modern times, archiological evidence shows human inhabitation nearly 10,000
years ago. The first European set foot
on the island in `1542. By the 1830’s,
the entire native population had moved to the mainland. By the end of the 1800’s, the island was
almost entirely uninhabited. William
Wrigley purchased the island in 1919 for
about three million dollars. Starting in
1921, the island was used as the spring training grounds for the Chicago Cubs
(Wrigley owned the team). During WWII
the island was closed to tourists and established as a military training ground.
Now, 90% of
the island is owned and managed by the nature conservancy (deeded so by the
Wrigley’s). Our afternoon jeep tour took
us along trails lined with eucalyptus trees planted by William Wrigley's wife, Ada to the Pacific side of the island.
There are buffalo
on the island! In 1924, a Hollywood film
crew brought 14 buffalo to the island for the filming of Zane Grey’s “The
Vanishing American”. By 1969, there were more than 400 on the island. Following a scientific study on the
interactions between the buffalo and the plant communities, the herd was
reduced to 150-200 bison.
The bison are a beloved to the island community, though not native to the island. The story of bison on Catalina is an example of how contemporary conservation management practices consider ecological as well as cultural, social, historic and economic values when making a conservation plan.
Bringing eagles back to Catalina was interesting. During the years when DDT resulted in non-viable eggs (the shells where too thin), an innovative egg exchange program was initiated. The scientists removed the thin-shelled eggs from the nest and replaced them with substitute dummy eggs. The real eggs were taken to an incubation facility for hatching. The newborn chicks were later returned to the nest where the eagles raised then. The program was successful and now there are many breeding pairs of eagles on the island.
There are buffalo
on the island! In 1924, a Hollywood film
crew brought 14 buffalo to the island for the filming of Zane Grey’s “The
Vanishing American”. By 1969, there were more than 400 on the island. Following a scientific study on the
interactions between the buffalo and the plant communities, the herd was
reduced to 150-200 bison. 
The bison are a beloved to the island community, though not native to the island. The story of bison on Catalina is an example of how contemporary conservation management practices consider ecological as well as cultural, social, historic and economic values when making a conservation plan.
Bringing eagles back to Catalina was interesting. During the years when DDT resulted in non-viable eggs (the shells where too thin), an innovative egg exchange program was initiated. The scientists removed the thin-shelled eggs from the nest and replaced them with substitute dummy eggs. The real eggs were taken to an incubation facility for hatching. The newborn chicks were later returned to the nest where the eagles raised then. The program was successful and now there are many breeding pairs of eagles on the island.
We saw many acorn woodpeckers, and this wonderful tree, nearly pecked to death. They peck the tree to insert seeds, stored for the winter.
There are at
least 61 species (and subspecies) ‘endemic’ (they are found nowhere else on
earth) to Catalina Island, including 8 plants, five mammals, three birds, and
45 invertebrates.
The casino is not and never was never a gambling casino. The word casino gets it’s name from the Italian word, meaning ‘gathering place’.
The award winning building was completed in 1929, at a cost of $2 million, with art deco and Mediterranean revival styling throughout. There are 105,000 roof tiles and 2500 tons of steel in the building. The light airy design of the interior was achieved using cantilever designs – there are no visible pillars or posts on either the first floor theater level, or the second floor dance floor level.
Movie tycoons DeMille, Goldwyn and Mayer would come by yacht to preview their newest films. Theater pics:
The award winning building was completed in 1929, at a cost of $2 million, with art deco and Mediterranean revival styling throughout. There are 105,000 roof tiles and 2500 tons of steel in the building. The light airy design of the interior was achieved using cantilever designs – there are no visible pillars or posts on either the first floor theater level, or the second floor dance floor level.
Movie tycoons DeMille, Goldwyn and Mayer would come by yacht to preview their newest films. Theater pics:
The dance floor is 10,000 square
feet and can accommodate 6000 dancers.
The balcony overlooks the harbor below.
The big bands popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s played here. At 140 feet tall, the casino was the tallest building
in Los Angeles when it was built as that was the legal height limit at that
time.
One of several paintings in the outside vestibule of the building:
The walk-about around town gave us a good feel for how charming this island is.
1926 Zane Grey Hotel
Bell Tower - melodic chimes ring every 15 minutes from 8a.m. to 8 p.m.
Beautiful house on hill
We had a good time on the island, there is a lot to see and explore. Returning to the Long Beach Port Authority parking lot, were very happy to see that Stinky fared well camping on his own. He was thrilled to see us come home and enjoyed his supervised outside playtime.
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