Roam-O-Rama
The James Dilley Greenbelt Preserve, a unit within Orange County's Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, dates back to a landmark purchase by the city of Laguna Beach in 1978. Environmentalist James Dilley helped champion the concept …
Once rich in rural landscapes, the area between Fallbrook and Bonsall has experienced a lot of suburban growth -- everything from full-blown subdivisions to large-acreage lots with mini-mansions placed on them. Fallbrook remains the "avocado …
As travelers make their way up from Los Angeles into the San Gabriel Mountains via Angeles Crest Highway, Charlton Flat is the first place they encounter true coniferous forest -- stately pines, firs, and cedars …
Pyles Peak is a prominent bump in the series of mountaintops stretching between Cowles Mountain in the south and Fortuna Mountain in the north. Collectively, these high points constitute the spine and centerpiece of the …
Tall, aromatic pines and firs and thin air (elevation averages 7500 feet) lend a High-Sierra feel to the north slope of Blue Ridge, which lies on a high divide of the San Gabriel Mountains near …
Middle Peak's north slopes used to feature the "big trees" of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park -- centuries-old sugar pines over 100 feet tall and plenty of black oaks, white firs, Jeffrey pines, and incense cedars. …
Tucked amid a lovely grove of pines on the remote north ridge of the San Gabriel Mountains you can find tiny Messenger Flats Campground, an Angeles National Forest facility available on a first-come, first-served basis. …
Carlsbad's Rancho Carrillo community trail circles what used to be the heart of the 2538-acre Rancho de los Quiotes (Ranch of the Spanish Daggers). Stage and screen actor Leo Carrillo founded the ranch in 1937 …
The hiking/biking/jogging trail following a branch of Shepherd Canyon in Tierrasanta, dating from the 1980s, is an example of one of San Diego County's first "community" or "neighborhood" trails designed to serve the recreational needs …
Barely a mile's walk from the little community of Mount Baldy (at the base of 10,000-foot-high Old Baldy, or Mount San Antonio), you can be sitting on a rock, communing with nature, feet dangling in …
As San Diego County's newest (2006) open-space park, the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve is already establishing a reputation as one of the county's finest parcels of unburned montane landscape. Actually, the Cedar Fire in …
The San Gabriel Wilderness harbors deer, bighorn sheep, black bears, and mountain lions -- facts that hint at the quality of the wilderness experience you can get there. Only one trail stabs deeply into the …
This past rainy season delivered only a small share of moisture to grassy East Mesa in the Cuyamaca Mountains. So don't wait long if you want to enjoy spring-green rather than summer-yellow meadow vistas. Outlined …
So far and yet so close. Only minutes away from the hectic San Diego traffic, rolling meadows lie open to the sky, and boulder-studded hills form a backdrop akin to the interior of some sleepy …
The Chiquito Trail, a multiuse (hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding) route down from Blue Jay Campground to Ortega Highway in the Santa Ana Mountains, is best explored (if hiking) in the one-way, downhill direction. Mountain …
The nearly flat ramble along Daley Ranch's Jack Creek Meadow is best in the springtime -- and also comfortably suitable during the summer, provided you travel in the cooler early morning or late afternoon. If …