Crowley Lake is widely known for its trout fishing and has yielded more than 40 tons of fish in the first week of fishing season. It was named for Father Crowley, a beloved Catholic priest who traveled this area extensively. The White Mountain Range to the east is the home of the bristlecone pines, the world's oldest living thing. The banded light and dark colored formations of the Sierra Nevada were once sediment deposited by an ancient sea and are approximately 450 million years old. This basin is a caldera, created by the collapse of a large volcano over 500,000 years ago. The collapse was preceded by violent and tremendous explosions known as nuees ardentes, which caused the catastrophic ejection of approximately 35 cubic miles of super-heated material over an area of 450 square miles. This resulted in the extensive tableland seen to the east and south known as the Bishop Tuff.