All Stories from Southern CA

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  Ride Open Spaces

  This five-mile fat-tire cruise in the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve is what mountain bikers call a middle-chainring ride—no extremes, nothing technical, but rather

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  Around the World in San Diego

  Ah, what wonders grow when the weather is perpetually delightful! Such is the case in San Diego, where the San Diego Botanic Garden is able to grow a ridiculous 4,000-plus species

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  California in 86 Acres

  Sometimes the biggest secrets are, well, big. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is an 86-acre gem, hidden away in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Claremont. In a way, i

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  Mediterranean Diet

  Niguel Botanical Preserve features a variety of vegetation, both native and from the similar climates of Australia, Chile, South Africa. It's also got a cool little labyrinth.

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  At Play on Rocky Peak

  Big views, big boulders, and a great hike are all good reasons to rock out on the Rocky Peak Trail in Simi Valley. This hike gradually ascends for nearly five miles to (surprise!) a rocky peak whose 2,715-foot summit straddles the border between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

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  Jive on the Hive

  Griffith Park is home to more than one awesome rock venue. Sure, the Greek Theatre stages legendary rock concerts, but Bee Rock provides beautiful wide vistas and some fun rock scr

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  Snaking Your Way Through Joshua Tree

  You don’t have to be a rock climber to enjoy this high-friction frolic in Joshua Tree. All it takes is a sense of adventure—a willingness to plunge into a dramatic canyon that’s de

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  Redwoods Friday

  How’s this for a post-Thanksgiving plan: on Black Friday, you’ll be seeing red … as in magnificent redwoods! Yep, the day after Thanksgiving you can enjoy free day-use admission to

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  Hike-in Hidden Beach

  Blink and you'll miss some hidden beach bliss. Located in the tiny town of Elk on scenic Highway 1, Greenwood State Beach is easy to miss because it's a half-mile walk down to it.

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  Big Horn Full of Gold

  You don’t have to travel to Gold Country to strike gold in California! When it comes to old mines, SoCal has some gems. Big Horn Mine in the San Gabriels is a perfect example. You

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  Stairway to Weirdness

  Here’s one to put in your Stranger Flings file: a hike that’s also a peek into the history of several Angeleno residents and their ties to the Third Reich. This weird chapter linge

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  Shipwrecked in Palos Verdes

  Usually you need serious scuba gear and a lot of courage to get up close and personal with a massive shipwreck. But on the rocky shores of Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes Estates, you c

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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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  Sea-nic Stay & Stroll

  Charmed. That’s about the best word to describe the way you’ll feel when you stay at Mendocino’s Sea Rock Inn. Its location couldn’t be better: just outside the village and overloo

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  Good Times in Anza-Borrego's Badlands

  Anza-Borrego’s badlands look forbidding, but anyone with a sense of adventure can dive in and explore V-shaped canyons, 100-foot-deep slots, and a vast maze of sandstone rock forma

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  Journey into the Chasm of Doom

  When you enter Joshua Tree’s Chasm of Doom, your fate is sealed. Your life becomes an experience of mystery, steep climbs, steeper drops, chimneying, and death-defying squeezes. Wh

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  Chutes and Ladders

  Just when you think you can’t go any farther in Painted Canyon, you remember why this route is called the Ladder Canyon Trail. Whew! There it is: a perfectly placed ladder that get

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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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