Out & About
“The first thing I learned was that the man who has water on the mountain is king,” says hiking enthusiast Dana Law. “Water is absolutely the most important thing you’ll have in Southern California, because …
The boulder-frosted summit of Woodson Mountain (aka Mount Woodson) has many routes of approach, though none this particular winter/spring season is as interesting as the west-side approach from Lake Poway. The October 2007 Witch Creek …
During off hours while working as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange before the outbreak of the Great War, the young André Kertész took photographs and began to nurse ambitions about making it his …
The grassy hillsides of Chino Hills State Park, which covers 13,000 acres in eastern Orange County and western Riverside and San Bernardino counties, are turning green these days in response to winter rains. Winter also …
“How do you establish camps, find water, and fight long-distance when it’s 110 degrees? If you’re not acclimatized, you’re fighting your environment and not your enemy,” says Fred Jee, supervising ranger for the Anza-Borrego Desert …
“The North County Times has a unique policy of printing virtually any letter they get, as long as it is 200 words or less and has no profanity or slander,” says Dick Eiden. “After a …
Remotely situated at San Diego County’s far east side and surrounded by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Agua Caliente Regional Park draws winter visitors to its comfortable warm and hot bathing pools and its homey campground. …
A Mexican woman in traditional Indian garb, loose long hair swaying, strides past stone outcroppings toward the Sonora Desert, like a pilgrim or wanderer, except that she’s carrying what was called in 1979, when the …
“Colony collapse disorder is an immune system disorder. The bees’ immune system is compromised, which might be due to the stress [commercial beekeepers] are putting on the bees,” says beekeeper Diane Busch. “It’s big business. …
Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park is the wordy title of a strip of public land squeezed between Tarzana, at the south edge of the San Fernando Valley, and “dirt Mulholland,” the unpaved section of the …
In the 1950s and 1960s, several Bay Area painters — David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and others — were working to revivify traditional figurative painting while juggling formal issues raised by Abstract Expressionism about …
The triple set of waterfalls dubbed the “Three Sisters” is an amazing San Diego County feature not many have seen. In full flood, these cascades put on a show reminiscent of Yosemite’s show stoppers — …
A great blue heron ambles on stilt-legs across the reed-fringed shallows, stabbing occasionally at subsurface morsels of food. A willowy egret glides in for a perfect landing, scattering concentric ripples across the surface of the …
Serene Oakoasis Open Space Preserve covers 397 acres of oak woodland, boulder-studded hillsides, and young chaparral vegetation recovering from the 2003 Cedar Fire. Try visiting during winter, when the air is clean and fresh, or …
Boulder-hop for miles to reach one of the tallest waterfalls in Southern California. The hike up Hot Spring Canyon is arguably the most beautiful canyon trek in the Santa Ana Mountains, and supremely arduous to …
Oak leaves fluttering in the sunlight, pine needles soughing in the breeze, gray squirrels scurrying, and pungent-sweet fragrances in the air. These dependable pre-Cedar-fire experiences are now a work-in-progress. The rate and extent of postfire …