Sure, people love Southern California’s palm trees, abundant sunshine, and perfect waves. But plenty of locals and visitors feel as much passion for the rare and magnificent marine mammals that swim near Catalina and the other Channel Islands.
Lorenzo Fernandez has been a truck driver at the Port of Oakland, California, for just two years, but he already has a chronic cough and an unrelenting sore throat.
Louisa Willcox wistfully recalls the day she and three friends were hiking in Wyoming, not far from Yellowstone, when they stumbled upon a giant whitebark pine.