Southern California

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SoCal Five-Gear Weekend Excursions

Escaping the crowds and congested highways of coastal southern California, road warriors take to the hills. SoCal boasts some of the most beautiful scenic highways in the country, some right outside the largest metro areas. ...

S.D. to S.F. – by Bike

A not-so-relaxing honeymoon

Held every October, the Million Dollar Challenge is a fundraising bike ride for challenged athletes in which participants cycle down the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. The reverse route, however, can be ...

At the World’s End: Ghost Mountain, Anza-Borrego

The majestic Anza-Borrego Desert never ceases to surprise me. It is an alien environment of ghostly, pale rocks and unforgiving heat. Ocotillo plants sprout like underwater coral from the barren sands that hide translucent scorpions ...

Close Encounters in CA's High Desert

Experience far-out energy healing at the Integratron.

I may have had some lunatic notions in my day, but I can assure you that none of them have been implanted or otherwise suggested by extraterrestrials. Not a one. George Van Tassel, however, can’t ...

San Juan Capistrano: A SoCal Treasure

Just 61 miles north of San Diego up the 5 Freeway, San Juan Capistrano is one of the truly historic sites of Southern California. The town is probably best known for the swallows that return ...

Joshua Tree: More than Just Camping

There isn’t anything spectacular about the town visually. Like many desert towns, the buildings along the main drag are old, unkempt and often vacant. There are few sidewalks, and no trees or landscaping that would ...

California's Active Volcanoes

A tour from the Mojave to Mono Lake

There are more than 550 active volcanoes in the world, five of which are in California. It's to be expected from a state sitting on the eastern edge of the Ring of Fire. Between Barstow ...

Fear and Loathing in L.A.: The Death Museums

Los Angeles is a city of divides: poverty and decadence, history and trend, life and death. And the city of angels has its share of death, as evident by two Hollywood attractions, the Museum of ...

Catalina's Lonely Peaks

One of seven islands in the Channel Island archipelago, Catalina lies 22 miles due west off Los Angeles. It doesn’t surprise me that the Victorian botanist-poet Blanche Trask took up residence there; it hadn’t been ...

Slab City, CA

Trying to change the negative reputation that the Slabs had acquired over the years as a melting pot for drug addicts, hippies and psych ward releases, Builder Bill created the Range, just southeast of the ...

On Idyllwild Time

For us San Diegans heading north, it’s those rolling, stress-releasing mountains inland of Temecula that we cruise through on the way to Palm Springs. But instead of darting right on Highway 74, hang a left. ...

At the World’s End: Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea

Three hours from San Diego, east of the Anza-Borrego desert, lies the Salton Sea. When stopped by border patrol on our first drive out to the sea, the officer seemed surprised by our destination. “You ...

LAX Planespotting

Southern California airplane buffs and planespotters flock to Imperial Hill in El Segundo – a picturesque spot overlooking Los Angeles Int'l Airport. This windy overlook at the corner of E. Imperial Ave. and Sheldon St. ...

La Jolla Sea Caves

Weathered from a 75-million-year-old sandstone cliff in La Jolla are seven sister caves. Like many other seaside caverns, these, too, have been used by pirates. Only the cargo they smuggled was human. California’s eight-year-gold rush ...

Last Stop: Pioneertown, CA

I am in love with the deserts of Southern California. There is no greater joy than leaving the ’burbs on a sunny Saturday, stocked up with water and sunscreen, and driving off into the beyond. ...