With canyons and ravines numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands, the one-thousand-square-mile Anza-Borrego Desert State Park offers a lifetime of scenic exploration. Even the smaller canyons of the park offer a variety of …

For at least three decades, the Coal Canyon diamond interchange on the Riverside Freeway through Santa Ana Canyon was a virtual joke, featuring ramps to and from nowhere. "Nowhere" might have been replaced by subdivisions …

Strolling through the aptly named Valley of the Moon, you might think that a square-mile patch of Joshua Tree National Park has been magically transported there -- minus, of course, the famous Joshua trees. Ponderous …

The rural landscape spreading north and east of the tiny, border-hugging town of Campo is caught in a time warp. Not much new has appeared hereabouts in the past half-century. Narrow two-lane ribbons of blacktop …

The Spanish colonists who christened Arroyo Seco ("dry creek") evidently noted only its lower end -- a sweltering, boulder-strewn wash emptying into the Los Angeles River. It's hard to believe this same watercourse, draining the …

In the aftermath of this season's repeated downpours, San Diego County's "big falls" have been showing their stuff. Big, in this neck of the woods, means a hundred feet or so. Of four such falls …

The "Seven Pools hike" into the upper reaches of Harding Canyon will simply amaze you -- assuming you go before summer's heat and drought dries up the canyon's lively, crystalline, spring-fed stream. It's almost unbelievable …

Four square miles of marshes, tidal creeks, and sage-and chaparral-covered hillsides in and around the Tijuana River Estuary enjoy federal protection under the tongue-twisting title "Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve." The area includes Border …

Granite Mountain massively swells along the western edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert, its flattish summit presiding over hundreds of square miles of brown desert to the east and the timber-dotted Laguna and Cuyamaca Mountains toward …

On October 27, 1993, the floor of lower Eaton Canyon (along with 118 homes in surrounding neighborhoods) was reduced to white ash and black cinders by the fast-moving Altadena Fire. By the following spring, which …

Explore San Dieguito River Park's South San Pasqual trail system for close-up looks at native greenery and long views to the ocean.

Residents of the upscale Porter Ranch district of Los Angeles enjoy open spaces and neighborhood trails overlooking the vast San Fernando Valley. These are publicly accessible trails, so you don't have to be a resident …

For now and for the next several years, the normally slow and painstaking trek ambitious hikers make into the middle and upper reaches of Borrego Palm Canyon will be considerably easier. Much of the impeding …

Winding its way lazily upward onto a ridge of the San Gabriel Mountains, San Olene Fire Road leads to a spectacular viewpoint overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and much of the Los Angeles Basin. The …

Ever wish to learn land navigation by map and compass or GPS? Or discover the fine points of selecting and packing gear for a backpacking expedition? Or learn how to prepare for and experience a …

The Disneyesque guided hiking tour of lower Tahquitz Canyon, right on the edge of Palm Springs, is a far cry from the scene here in the 1970s and '80s, when scores -- sometimes hundreds -- …

Crouching in the rain shadow of the slightly higher Cuyamaca range, the Laguna Mountains still manage to collect a respectable share of precipitation. Some 30 inches of rain (and melted snow) might arrive here over …

Rising starkly behind the San Fernando and Crescenta valley communities of Sylmar, San Fernando, Sunland, and Tujunga, the western ridges of the San Gabriel Mountains have a lean and hungry look. Yet there is a …

Here's how you can experience some of San Diego's finest views of bay and city, get away from crowds, and enjoy a little exercise at the same time. Give yourself an hour or a bit …

Ladder Canyon is the informal name given to a slotlike ravine incised into the sedimentary strata of the Mecca Hills near Indio. Several wooden or aluminum ladders have been placed at strategic spots within the …

The 11-mile-long Jasper Trail-Grapevine Canyon route takes hikers and all sorts of wheeled travelers -- on mountain bikes and motorcycles, or in off-road-capable vehicles -- down a series of inclines from Anza-Borrego's cooler western margins …

Forged by local uplift of the seafloor roughly two million years ago, today's Palos Verdes peninsula lay surrounded by the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Later, the alluvium that covers today's Los Angeles …

Some of the most geologically instructive vistas in San Diego County can be seen by walking the narrow strip of sand and/or cobbles below the Leucadia (northern Encinitas) sea bluffs. If you want to avoid …

Happy Camp Canyon, near Simi Valley and Moorpark, nuzzles in a crease between two long, rounded, oak-studded ridges -- part of the many caterpillar-like, parallel segments making up Ventura County's share of the east-west-trending Transverse …

Lunar eclipses, often overlooked in favor of the more spectacular solar eclipses, deserve more respect than they get. Unlike the rare total solar type of eclipse, which is visible only along a narrow track sweeping …

Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights (eastern Los Angeles County) features a green-grass strip extending nearly a mile into the Puente Hills and lots of steep, brushy hillsides affording some great panoramas of the San …

The shape of Banner Canyon is due to ruptures along the Elsinore Fault. This splinter fault of the San Andreas is the most extensive fault system in San Diego County and is believed capable of a major earthquake.

"Think globally, act locally." The Friends of Ruffin Canyon group in Serra Mesa have taken this slogan to heart by launching a prototypical effort to preserve one of San Diego's several dozen undeveloped urban canyons. …

Weir Canyon Regional Park forms a belt of open space along the south edge of Anaheim -- not the familiar Disneyland/convention center/stadium part of that city, but the Anaheim Hills section, where new and newer …

As day breaks on many a September or an October morning, cone-shaped Mount Helix floats like a desert island above the cool, sopping-wet marine layer. While walking up along the mountainside on mornings like these, …

The San Jacinto Mountains, like many other mountain ranges in far Southern California and Baja California, are characterized by gradually sloping west slopes, and more steeply plunging east faces. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway lets …

Climb Black Mountain in Rancho Peñasquitos for an inclusive view of San Diego's ancient marine terraces.

As I rambled down the Morgan Trail one crisp early-autumn morning before dawn, the crackling of oak leaves underfoot played counterpoint to the drone of a hundred crickets singing in unison. Dozens of cold blue …

Lake Murray's paved (closed to cars) perimeter path is near East County's most pleasant and most popular place to gulp some fresh air on a summer morning or late afternoon. Unfortunately, the recreation path ends …

The nearly completed Backbone Trail rambles some 55 miles along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, from Pacific Palisades to Point Mugu State Park. Most sections of this trail traverse dry highland terrain, but …

Startling changes seem to be occurring at an ever-increasing pace in downtown San Diego -- or "Centre City" as it is sometimes known. Back in 1972, when I first arrived, I'd bicycle over from San …

No Southern California hiker's repertoire of experiences is complete without at least one ascent of Mount San Antonio, or "Old Baldy." At 10,064 feet, Baldy's summit looms large over the eastern Los Angeles Basin, the …

Just beyond the placid north shore of North County's Batiquitos Lagoon, white flecks of shell glint in the sunlight where the land begins to rise. Prior to around two centuries ago, and back as far …

Tahquitz Peak celebrates a legendary demon who, in the oral tradition of the Cahuilla Indians, used to dine on maidens and create crackling bolts of lightning over the San Jacinto Mountains. At an elevation of …

What better way is there to pique a child's interest in nature than to introduce him or her to a shallow, lazily flowing river full of tadpoles and frogs? At Indian Flats Campground, you can …

Some three decades in the making, the bicycle route encircling the south end of San Diego Bay is nearing completion. The past decade has seen the construction of new bicycle paths along the bay shore …

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 …