Roam-O-Rama
Malibu Creek State Park, a jewel if not the jewel of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, lies along Malibu Creek, a lively watercourse that completely bisects the coastal Santa Monica Mountains. The park …
Summer days and early evenings are perfectly suited for what could be the finest short walk along San Diego County's 60-mile-long Pacific Ocean coastline. Many but not all San Diegans and tourists are familiar with …
Carbon Canyon Regional Park, one of the many smaller units of Orange County�s far-flung regional park system, has enough room for one significant hiking trail. An unlikely grove of coast redwood trees, nursed from seedlings …
Wright's Field, just south of Alpine's commercial district, is a refreshing bit of open space plunked down amid East County's growing rural and suburban development. Alpine's homegrown Back Country Land Trust has managed to purchase …
In the high country of the San Gabriel Mountains, a lightly timbered promontory rises to a peak elevation of 7283 feet. Some call it "Buckhorn Peak," a name given to the mountain summit by a …
The Climber's Loop and Kumeyaay Lake trails in Mission Trails Regional Park are a pleasant diversion on a spring or summer's eve.
L.A.'s quintessential urban trail -- the trail to Mount Hollywood -- takes you to the point of highest elevation in Griffith Park, the sprawling patch of open space on the easternmost end of the Hollywood …
Sycuan Peak, midway between the inland communities of Alpine and Jamul, rises 2801 feet above sea level and overlooks miles of thinly populated valleys and hills. As part of a countywide effort to preserve native …
From the shore of the Pacific Ocean, just west of Santa Monica, the fluted slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains rise like rumpled bedsheets after a night of tossing and turning. From a vantage point …
For a taste of some fast-disappearing rural serenity in inland North County, try the following looping bicycle route through hills and valleys straddling the San Diego-Riverside County line. You'll gain and lose about 1300 feet …
The day begins bright and clear. The springtime sun vaults into the sky over drifts of freshly fallen snow on San Bernardino Mountain's sunny south side and begins to melt them. Gravity pulls the tiny …
The 1194-foot mountain dubbed "Kwaay Paay" in Mission Trails Regional Park managed to escape the flames that swept through nearly half of the park's area in October 2003. The welcome if spotty precipitation we've received …
Deep Creek Hot Springs in the San Bernardino National Forest has been a minor magnet for hikers and other nature lovers -- eccentric and otherwise -- for decades. Volunteers have spent years fashioning rock-bound basins …
The old, never-completed California Riding and Hiking Trail, pieced out of dirt roadways and previously existing trails during the post-World War II years, has never quite disappeared from San Diego County. One branch of this …
Wind-rippled grasses, swaying California poppies, statuesque oak trees, trickling streams, and a 39-acre vernal pool -- it's all there on a sunny spring day at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. The 8300-acre reserve lies …
Last October, the rocky, brush-covered slopes of the Crestwood Ecological Reserve, east of El Cajon, were swept by the same flames that devastated the communities of Crest and Harbison Canyon. Now, some five months later, …