Catalina Island

California state is home to the rocky coastal island of Catalina, stretching out 22 miles long and 8 miles across, located south-southwest of Los Angeles, California within the Gulf of Santa Catalina. Mt. Orizaba is the island’s highest point, reaching 2,097 feet high, and is included in the Channel Islands of California’s archipelago. Over the years, Catalina went from belonging to the Europeans and being transferred to Mexico before officially becoming part of the United States. It has a shifty past of being used for smuggling, otter hunting, and gold digging before becoming the booming tourist destination that it is today. Catalina Island is rich with quartz—so much so that many of the beaches along the seaward side have sands that shimmer in a silver-grey color. The island itself is made up of two distinct rock units: Catalina Schist and Miocene volcanic. Initially, these distinct formations occurred along the ocean floor and emerged via tectonic activity, which in turn means that the island’s land-mass of Santa Catalina was never actually connected to the mainland of California.