All "Dog Friendly" Stories in Southern CA

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  Light at the End of the Road

  Looking for the light at the end of the road? How about a light station?! Dramatically perched at the tip of a headland and surrounded by 30 acres of open space, Point Cabrillo Lig

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  Picnic at Pumpkin Rock

  “‘This is Halloween, this is Halloween,’ pumpkins scream in the dead of night,” intones a chorus of disembodied voices in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, whose protago

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  Face It: You're Lost!

  You smell the kettle corn, you hear the farm animals, you feel the Halloween spirit … but let’s face it: You’re lost! Actually, you’re in Temecula’s Big Horse Corn Maze and Harvest

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  The Undead Ghost Town

  Every Halloween, the worlds of the living and the dead blur together. In the “living ghost town” of Randsburg, that condition is permanent. This strange gold-rush town near the El

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  Behold the Superslabs

  Bored with the scenery between LA and Vegas along I-15? You must have missed Mormon Rocks. Wedged smack on the San Andreas Fault in Cajon Pass, these massive, tilted slabs of sands

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  Psychedelic Lava

  You’d be hard-pressed to find a volcanic landscape in California as memorable and psychedelic as Fossil Falls. This chasm of water-sculpted lava rock in the Coso Mountain Range nor

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  Planet of the Pinnacles

  The Trona Pinnacles have costarred as backdrop in sci-fi epics like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but seeing these tufa towers in person is far more jaw-d

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  San Pedro Outside the Box

  How much does San Pedro appreciate art? Well, in this historic waterfront community, even the utility boxes are works of public art! Discover 10 of these decorated traffic signal power prisms (by 10 different local artists) on a 5.5-mile walk that also includes maritime history and culture.

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  Thailand? Armenia? Yes!

  Talk about a melting pot! Try this delicious medley composed of Thai Town, Little Armenia, and Barnsdall Art Park—all three and more on a tasty 2.75-mile East Hollywood walking loop.

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  Where the Murals Are

  Is the Arts District the best spot to see art in LA? Duh! We’re talking the brand-new Institute of Contemporary Art, edgy murals, murals in progress, and surprises around every cor

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  If Jack Sparrow Had a Lagoon

  Nothing goes together better than bird-watching and buried treasure, right? Never connected the two? Consider 610-acre Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad—perhaps the most bird-friendly

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  Whole Lotta Ballona!

  It’s a thrill to see a pterodactyl patrolling a prehistoric pond, even if you know it’s really “just” a great blue heron stalking the Ballona Freshwater Marsh. Less camouflaged are

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  Cabin on the Coast

  So you’d like to camp on the wild Mendocino coast … except for—you know—that whole pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground thing? A-OK! Actually, it’s KOA! Yes, Manchester Beach

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  Swim Hole, Say No More!

  People flock to Kirkwood’s Silver Lake, a quiet beauty set against the backdrop of the Sierras. But few know about the easy 2-mile out-and-back (round-trip) hike that follows one o

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  Tall Drink of Waterfall

  Tucked between Echo Summit and Lover’s Leap on US 50 there's an impressive display of water barreling down a mountain. Hello, Horsetail Falls! The commanding 800-foot-tall waterfal

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  Meet Margaret!

  You have an adventurous side and enjoy lakeside solitude, but you don’t want to be too far from your comfort zone. Time to meet Margaret! Tucked just north of Kirkwood and just off

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  Emerald in the Woods

  Green Valley Lake, nestled at 7,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains right between Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead, has all the watery charm of those popular bodies of water, just on a smaller scale, and decidedly without crowds—or motorized boats. It's also got camping, including first-come, first-served options.

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  Clearly Castaic

  Dip out of the heat and into the water at Castaic Lake, aquatic heart of the Santa Clarita Valley. It’s hard to beat it for a cool day trip or a getaway weekend campout—a reservoir

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  Ojai’s Wet Side

  Just a few miles west of the serene, artsy community of Ojai is the very different world of Lake Casitas—fabled among bass fishers, and delightful for anyone who enjoys playing on

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  Malibu Creek State Park

  Yes, Angelenos, you can escape city lights and view the Perseid meteor shower at Malibu Creek State Park Campground—so close to the big city, but it feels like it’s a galaxy away.

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