Roam-O-Rama
Stelzer County Park features 314 acres' worth of trails, campsites, picnic tables, and a small "Nature Studies Interpretive Center" set alongside Wildcat Canyon Road northeast of Lakeside. The park's core area was designed to accommodate …
Up the coast, past Malibu and into Ventura County, Point Mugu State Park sprawls across more than 15,000 acres of ocean-facing hills, valleys, and canyons -- all of it emerald-green in the wake of the …
The remote and rugged upper reach of Anza-Borrego's most famous "palm canyon," Borrego Palm Canyon, has suddenly become much easier to explore. Last summer's mammoth Pines Fire, which originated near Julian, swept many miles north …
Tucked into the steep, north-facing slopes of the Santa Susana Mountains, just north of the San Fernando Valley, are comely Rice Canyon and East Canyon. The area containing both canyons is visible from nearby Interstate …
Tucked into the fresh-scented folds of a high-desert canyon north of Interstate 8, Pepperwood Spring begins as a network of tiny rivulets issuing from damp pockets of sand. The rivulets conjoin, gather force, and divide …
Monrovia Canyon Park rests serenely in a sheltered corner of the San Gabriel Mountains, just upslope from the stately foothill community of Monrovia. Nearly three years ago in this column (April 6, 2000), I wrote …
Lake Hodges has become the most popular destination for recreation within the 55-mile-long San Dieguito River Park, now taking form along the San Dieguito River watershed from the coast at Del Mar to the Volcan …
Pressed hard and fast against the densely populated Los Angeles County community of San Pedro, the rocky ribbon of coastline between White Point and Cabrillo Beach looks out over a 20-mile watery gap separating Santa …
Throughout the Anza-Borrego Desert, the expandable tissues of native barrel, beavertail, cholla, fishhook, and hedgehog cacti may soon become as bloated as they ever get. Flush with supplies of water they can hoard for months …
The hike to the highest point on the west end of Santa Catalina Island -- 1804-foot Silver Peak --introduces you to its wild windward side. Spectacular views are the norm most of the way. Assuming …
Rising like a rumpled pillow from the eastern extremity of Otay Mesa, Otay Mountain offers unparalleled, integrated views of the bifurcated San Diego-Tijuana metropolis, the Coronado Islands, Point Loma, and San Diego Bay. Seen on …
Perched above the San Fernando Valley on one of the more prominent bumps of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Cold War-era Nike missile site at San Vicente Mountain has become a destination for hikers, mountain …
Eleven miles of hiking trail lace through the 1700-acre Hellhole Canyon Open-Space Preserve, east of Valley Center. The San Diego County parks department acquired this former parcel of surplus public-domain land, one of several such …
Long ago, extensive saltwater and freshwater marshes lined Orange County's coast between Seal Beach and Newport Beach. The sandy beaches along that coast remain, but most of the wetlands succumbed to the 20th-century tide of …
Road-biking doesn't get any better than on San Diego County's remote mountain and desert rural highways -- especially those beyond Palomar and Julian, where traffic thins considerably and the roads themselves are often accompanied by …
Caspers Wilderness Park is the crown jewel of Orange County's regional park system. It is the county's largest park (7600 acres), the least altered by human activities, and the most remote from population centers. "Remote" …