Roam-O-Rama
San Dieguito River Park's San Pasqual/Clevenger Canyon trail system takes hikers to heights overlooking inland North County.
Sheltered in a cool, shady canyon a few short minutes from the 'burbs of Altadena and Pasadena, Millard Falls comes alive at about this time of year with runoff from the "front range" of the …
Elephant trees (Bursera microphylla), once considered exceedingly rare in California, have turned out -- after decades of searching and serendipitous discovery -- to be not so rare north of the international border. Still, the scattered …
Orange County's 50,000-acre Irvine Ranch Land Reserve -- essentially a big olive branch extended to the County of Orange by the Irvine Company in exchange for development rights in that county's remaining open spaces -- …
Along the canyon walls of Anza-Borrego's Arroyo Tapiado ("Mudwall Wash"), weathering and erosion acting on friable sedimentary rock have produced a strange kind of topography known by some geologists as pseudokarst. Like karst topography, which …
The rustic East County communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest are separated by only a mile of horizontal distance. Harbison Canyon shelters amid oak woods in a deep-cleft hollow, while Crest, some 700 feet higher …
On many a late fall and winter morning, a damp, opaque layer of air a few hundred feet deep lies over the low-lying Southern California coast. By 9 or 10 in the morning, the sun …
The 1574-acre Mount Gower Open Space Preserve was hard-hit by the Cedar Fire of October 2003. Today, after the extraordinarily wet 2004-05 rainfall year and after a first wave of precipitation in the current rainy …
All along Orange County's north coastal region (Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach), formerly environmentally abused wetlands and floodplains are in the process of being restored to some semblance of an original condition. Talbert Nature …
On a clear late autumn or winter day atop Corte Madera Mountain, you can see forever -- or at least as far as Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands to the west, and the mile-high …
From the top of Mount Lukens, the high point in elevation within the city limit of Los Angeles, you can peer over a vast and spacious urban plain -- coastal haze and smog permitting. During …
Deep in the corrugated folds of Anza-Borrego's Carrizo Badlands, a trio of sinuous dry washes invites your slow and careful exploration -- first by truck or 4-wheel drive, and then by foot. Here, on the …
The Hills for Everyone Trail (actually reserved for hikers only -- no mountain bikes or equestrian allowed), commemorates "Hills for Everyone," a conservation organization that was instrumental in the establishment of the 13,000-acre Chino Hills …
Bright sunshiny mornings and cool air make this autumnal time of year pleasant for a lazy Sunday morning or afternoon of road biking. Forget the coastal bike routes if you've had it with noisy traffic …
The sea cliffs at Dana Point are revered by historians as the site where Spanish vaqueros threw hides over the cliffs and down to waiting ships as described in Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before …
Mine Peak, elevation 1850 feet above sea level, stands atop the west end of the Coyote Mountains in far-southern Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. On a clear fall or winter day atop Mine Peak, the view …