Located at the base of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States and home to the Lone Pine Film Festival, each October, this small, high desert community has much to offer. The Whitney trail is surprising accessible. It's extremeley well maintained - 10,000 hikers a year have paved a safe and clear trail. There's no need for cables or ropes, anywhere on the hike. It's just really steep and challenging for most hikers. But, oh SO worth it.

Named after a solitary pine tree that once stood at the mouth of Lone Pine Canyon, this small California town's roots stretch back into the Old West -and Hollywood's Wild West, too. Lone Pine's Hollwood connections are still alive and well - mostly because the Lone Pine area remains pristine and unspoiled. Come and visit, and you'll recognize the backdrop to Mel Gibson's "Maverick" and Alec Baldwin's "The Shadow". And thanks to the stunningly successful Lone Pine Film Festival - which has drawn such distinguished guests of honor as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Tim Holt - this town's matinee-Western roots are reason to celebrate, year after year.

Lone Pine is also the town nearest the National Historic Site of Manzanar. During World War II, tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were forcefully deported to various relocation camps throughout the nation. The bleak skeletal remains of Manzanar are a reminder of a shameful chapter in our nation's history.