Out & About
North of Warner Springs, a several-miles-long segment of the 2650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) traverses Cleveland National Forest land that may one day be designated the “Caliente Wilderness Area.” Certainly the area is remote enough …
Silent, except for the gentle gurgle of water over stone, upper Hot Spring Canyon is an easy-to-reach hideaway in the Santa Ana Mountains, not very far from a pair of Cleveland National Forest campgrounds. Those …
Tower Bar’s namesake tower in City Heights is visible from blocks away, jutting skyward between Vietnamese Laundromats and Ethiopian restaurants like a cartoon monument to a forgotten Aztec deity. The place is almost at maximum …
So we’ve heard about some famous worldly Carnavals, and we all know Mardi Gras in New Orleans. But how about Uruguay’s festivities? Would you guess that they showcase the longest Carnaval in the world? While …
Big Spring, tucked in a tributary of Tubb Canyon on the west side of Borrego Valley, is one of the more reliable water producers in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. As such, it’s an important …
Bar Pink is located in the heart of North Park at 30th and University, elbow to elbow with trendy boutiques and eateries and one block west of the Ray Street art studio-galleries. Opened in 2007 …
In the late 1640s and 1650s, the Netherlands’ prosperous Golden Age dimmed. Hundreds of businesses failed, and a major recession enfeebled the entire society. Even Rembrandt, renowned and rich, hit a wall, partly of his …
Verdant East Canyon tucks into steep, north-facing slopes just below the crest of the Santa Susana Mountains. The canyon receives an average of about 20 inches of rainfall annually — just enough, in an environment …
It is difficult to relate the absolute hysteria of Carnaval in Barranquilla. Most nations couldn't handle an equal event without soon collapsing into a frenzied state of all-out warfare. But Barranquilla does it, and does …
I had two days off, three friends, and the urge to find a Carnaval celebration close by. I could have looked in my city of San Diego, but Mexico continually draws me in. Enter Ensenada. …
"In Memory of Col. F. C. Marshall and 1st Lt. C. L. Webber who fell at this spot Dec. 7, 1922.” Without this inscription, the presence of an old 12-cylinder engine permanently mounted in stone …
O’Melveny Park spreads over 672 acres, second on the list of largest parks within the City of Los Angeles, right after the much-more-spacious Griffith Park. Noted for its picture-perfect picnic grounds with white fences and …
There’s a reason why so many poets and authors have called Laguna Beach home for some part of their lives (hint: not because of the great bar scene). It’s undoubtedly charming. Artists in the early …
Stark and barren, yet glorious in their nakedness, Anza-Borrego’s skeletal mountain ranges conceal more than they reveal to casual passersby. If you want to know them better, you must leave the security of the automotive …
A few years ago, when the Museum of Contemporary Art downtown converted the Santa Fe Depot’s old baggage-claim area, it did what museums all over the country have been doing in recent years, from remote, …
The name “Sycamore Canyon” in California geography plays a rather redundant role. How many canyons have specimens of native sycamore, and how many of those were named (either in English or in Spanish) after that …