Los Angeles & SoCal
Ten million people, and mountain lions in the hills above them — surf at dawn, an 11,000-foot summit by lunch, and a bison herd twenty-two miles out to sea.
No city on Earth keeps this much wild this close. Los Angeles backs directly onto real mountains — the San Gabriels rise nearly two vertical miles off the basin floor, snow-capped over the palm trees every winter — and fronts onto the most storied surf coast in America. The region runs from Ojai's condor country through the largest urban national park in the United States, over the ski towns of Big Bear and the granite of Idyllwild, and twenty-two miles across the channel to Catalina, where bison graze above Mediterranean coves. It is the only place in the world where surfing before work and summiting an 11,000-foot peak after lunch is a reasonable Tuesday — and the locals largely haven't noticed, which means the trails are quieter than they have any right to be.
Southern California's mountains break the rules: the Transverse Ranges run east–west — almost alone on the continent — because the San Andreas bends here and the crust between its strands is being squeezed and rotated like a watermelon seed. The result is some of the youngest, fastest-rising, fastest-eroding rock in North America. The San Gabriels gain the height of the Rockies' front range in a fraction of the distance — Mount Baldy stands 10,064 feet, an honest mountaineering objective an hour from downtown — and the San Bernardinos top out at San Gorgonio's 11,503, the roof of Southern California, where a summer summit still looks down on desert heat two miles below. All of it sits inside one of only five Mediterranean climate zones on Earth, the heart of the California Floristic Province — a global biodiversity hotspot where chaparral, ceanothus, and a thousand endemics run the slopes between the marine layer and the snow. And offshore, across a channel busy with dolphins and gray whales, Catalina floats like a rumor — mountains in the sea, with coves Mediterranean enough to fool anyone.
4 more chapters, plus when to go and the gateway towns — included with the Atlas subscription. Every destination in this region is listed below, free.
See plans →Mount Baldy — officially Mount San Antonio — is the highest peak in Los Angeles County at 10,064 feet and the crown of Southern…
The most rewarding easy summit in urban LA. From the Observatory, a graded fire road ascends a pine ridge to a 360-degree panor…
This isn't really a surf spot in the traditional sense. It's a phenomenon. Swells wrap around the Newport Harbor jetty, collide…
The spiritual center of American surf culture. Duke Kahanamoku visited in the 1920s, helping bring surfing from Hawaii to the m…
The wave that launched California surf culture. In the 1950s, the first longboarders paddled out at Malibu and invented the spo…
The Oxnard coast — Silver Strand and Hollywood Beach, by the Channel Islands Harbor — is the capital of Southern California win…
Davey's Locker at the Balboa Pavilion is Orange County's flagship sportfishing landing, running everything from beginner-friend…
Mt. Baldy is the legendary climb of Los Angeles cycling — a two-part monster that first grinds up Mt. Baldy Road through San An…
Latigo Canyon Road is the quintessential Malibu climb — a mesmerizing ribbon of switchbacks that twists roughly 10 miles and 2,…
Griffith Park is the largest urban wilderness in America and the quintessential Los Angeles trail run — 4,300 acres of chaparra…
Catalina Island — immortalized as '26 miles across the sea' — is Southern California's iconic sailing destination, a mountainou…
Marina del Rey — the largest man-made small-craft harbor in North America (about 4,600 slips) — is the sailing capital of Los A…
Long Beach is one of the great sailing cities in America — the 1984 Olympic sailing venue, and sailing returns to Long Beach fo…
Newport Harbor is one of the largest recreational harbors on the West Coast and the epicenter of Orange County sailing — a huge…
Sylmar calls itself the 'World Capital of Hang Gliding,' and for good reason — the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association has maintain…
Marshall and Crestline are the beating heart of Southern California cross-country paragliding — two launches on the front range…
Skydive Perris, in the inland valley southeast of Los Angeles, is one of the largest and most storied dropzones on the planet —…
Skydive Elsinore, at Skylark Field beside the broad expanse of Lake Elsinore, has long been one of Southern California's leadin…
Temecula Valley is Southern California's ballooning capital — an easy hour from San Diego and about ninety minutes from Los Ang…
Casino Point Dive Park in Avalon is the most famous shore dive in America — the country's first nonprofit underwater park (esta…
Divers Cove below Heisler Park is the crown of Laguna Beach's underwater world — a sandy pocket beach flanked by rocky reefs, s…
Griffith Observatory, perched on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood above Los Angeles, is the most visited public observator…
Deep Creek Hot Springs is the definitive Southern California hot spring — the one that regulars protect with fierce loyalty and…
For most Southern Californians, Big Bear is not just skiing — it's the idea of skiing. The mountain is 2 hours from Los Angeles…
Hermit Falls, in Big Santa Anita Canyon below Chantry Flat above Arcadia, is the classic gentle introduction to Los Angeles can…
The Trans-Catalina Trail is California's most unlikely backpacking trip — a 38.5-mile island thru-hike, 22 miles off the Los An…
San Gorgonio Mountain — 'Old Grayback' — is the highest peak in Southern California at 11,503 feet, and the wilderness that sur…
The oldest and most storied trail in the San Gabriels, climbing from a quiet Sierra Madre street some 5,600 feet to the observa…
A cool, fern-lined canyon of stone-and-timber cabins and stream crossings leads to a graceful 50-foot cascade — one of LA's mos…
One of the highest and most rewarding summits in the San Gabriels, climbing some 40 PCT switchbacks to a 9,399-foot crown ringe…
Solstice is the crowd-pleaser of the Malibu canyons: a gentle, shaded creek walk that ends at a perennial waterfall spilling ov…
The film-industry heart of the range: Crags Road leads past the dramatic Rock Pool gorge — seen in countless movies — and Centu…
The gutsiest way to the Sign: a lung-busting straight-up climb to the solitary Wisdom Tree, then a knife-edge ridge over Cahuen…
Malibu Creek is the marquee inland base camp of the Santa Monica Mountains - oak woodland, the volcanic Rock Pools, Century Lak…
Crystal Cove's Moro Campground is a cut above the region's other coastal camps - sites perched on a bluff with open ocean views…
El Porto is the South Bay's wave machine — a long stretch of beach break just south of LAX, recognizable by the two smokestacks…