Image courtesy Hot Creek Aviation.Horizon has officially announced new daily service from LAX to Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) starting Dec. 18, 2008, running through April 12, 2009. The one-hour-and-five-minute flight will depart Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) daily at 2:20 p.m. and arrive at Mammoth at 3:25 p.m. The return flight leaves Mammoth at 4:05 p.m. and arrives at LAX at 5:10 p.m.

FARE RULES: Valid between Los Angeles (LAX) and Mammoth (MMH). For $79 each way fare shown, valid Sun-Wed to Mammoth and Tues-Fri from Mammoth on flights Jan. 4-30, 2009. Fares of $79 and $99 must be purchased 7 days or more before travel. Etc., Etc.

In the meantime, the Mammoth airport has been closed since the end of May (and will remain so through September) in order to undergo a $6 million "runway rehabilitation and terminal remodeling."

The press release.

Alaska/Horizon Airlines MMH page.

Spurious spruce (Business Week)"Go for Verizon Wireless and stay away from T-Mobile," writes Alena Samuels (LAT). "Although your best bet is probably to get a homing pigeon."

The LA Times compares reception in the national parks.

(Dust Storms over Badwater, June 2007. Burke Griggs Photo.)"When you get into Death Valley National Park, which is where I spend a lot of time, Alltel is the only game out there," said Dan Yahro of Bishop, CA, voicing concerns that Verizon's $5.9 billion takeover bid might leave desert dwellers (and travelers) stranded in silence.

Peter Svensson, AP.

(David McNew / Getty Image)"We must recognize the severity of this crisis we face," said governor Schwarzenegger, proclaiming a statewide drought (and blaming court-ordered protections for San Joaquin salmon).

"The snowpack has been disappearing," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow, "and it has not manifest itself as runoff."

The solution? "Upgrade California's water infrastructure," said the governor. "Let's fix all of these things that need to be fixed rather than waiting and waiting and waiting."

Evan Halper, LA Times.

Refrigerator at Barker Ranch, Panamint Range, Death Valley N.P. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool)"There have been no human remains found," said Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze. "We're finishing up this site and that'll be it."

"The story here is not what was found or what was not found but how we looked," said forensic consultant Charles Illsley. "This has been one of the most exhaustive applications for a number of combined technologies."

"I haven't been this frustrated in a very long time," said Arpad Vass, a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Juliana Barbassa for the AP.

Without the title, what's left for Methuselah and Co.? Photo by Burke Griggs

"The new contender for world's oldest 'tree,'" writes William Tweed from Three Rivers, "is a bush that is not as old as bushes here in California."

The full story, Visalia Times-Delta.

Playa, lee side Red Hill cinder cone, Owens Valley

February looked good, with 98% normal snowpack and the reservoirs nearly full. Then came March and April, together the driest since 1921.

"I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I've been doing this 30 years," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

Uh-oh. What are we going to water our lawns with?

From the LA Times.

What’s the process for writing a guidebook? Obviously, it involves a lot of research, but how much of that is done first-hand? In other words, how many of the restaurants have you eaten in, etc? And how much is done through other avenues of research?

The full interview.

Owens Valley and Sierra Nevada Escarpment from the Inyo Range

Based on studies of volcanic glass and ancient variations of rainfall, scientists have found that portions of the Sierra Nevada may have reached their present elevation 8 or 9 million years earlier than the commonly thought 3 or 4 million years before the present.

"For the first time, we were able to document that we can track the rain shadow on both sides of the mountain range over very long time scales," said Andreas Mulch, professor of tectonics and climate at the University of Hannover in Germany.

The Stanford Report.

Line Street. Bishop, CA. BURKE GRIGGS PHOTO.

In a poll of members of the Outdoor Writers Association of California last week, Bishop was named "No. 1 place to live for outdoor recreation" in California. "The variety and quality of nearby hiking, horseback trips, fishing, wildlife watching, backpacking and natural beauty," writes Tom Stienstra of the SF Chronicle, "rivals the best anywhere."

"Mammoth," he explains, "is like gazing off into the solar system; there seems to be no end to the stars."