From the category archives:

State and Local Parks

Astronomy Night at Charmlee

January 15, 2010

Tonight at 6:30, Charmlee Wilderness Park will host a free stargazing hike (parking is $4). The City of Malibu will provide a telescope, but if you’ve got your own or a set of binoculars, feel free to bring them along to take advantage of some clear winter skies.
If you can’t make it out tonight, [...]

Read the full article →

Hiking Los Liones Trail to Parker Mesa

January 4, 2010

A 7.3 mile hike from the Pacific Palisades to a popular overlook in Topanga State Park. The first part of this hike – the Los Liones Trail – is one of the most lush riparian canyons I’ve seen in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s gently graded, moderately shady, and definitely worth a [...]

Read the full article →

Hike to the Hollywood Sign

November 20, 2009

If you’re one of the few non-natives who actually stick around Los Angeles when Holiday Season hits, and you want to try to work off some of that Thanksgiving turkey, you might want to join up on a ranger-led hike to the Hollywood Sign in Griffith Park.
On the mornings of November 27th and 28th [...]

Read the full article →

Surprise of the Day – NO STATE PARKS CLOSING

September 25, 2009

Wow. I honestly have to say it again. Wow. I’m completely surprised, but today Governor Schwarzenegger announced exactly how many State Parks would be closed – zero.
According to a blog entry on the LA Times site, the State Parks will still have their budgets cut, but instead of closing, most parks will [...]

Read the full article →

Get Ready for a Busy Weekend

September 25, 2009

This Saturday is National Public Lands Day, an annual event dedicated to giving back to our public lands.
Since so many of our public lands seem to be under assault recently – whether it be from fires or shortminded politicians who STILL won’t release a list of parks they want to close – now’s a good [...]

Read the full article →

List of Closed Parks to be “Less Than 100″

September 23, 2009

Even though there is still no list of closed or potentially closed parks, Governor Schwarzenegger is now saying he will close “far fewer than 100,” according to an article in the Mercury News.
A spokesman for the Governor urged cautious optimism, saying “That 100 number isn’t something to hang your hat on” and that they “wanted [...]

Read the full article →

Old Mount Wilson Toll Road to Re-Open

August 17, 2009

In the extra-wet rainy season of 2004-2005, a rockslide heavily damaged sections of the historic dirt road used to haul the Mount Wilson Telescope to the summit. For the past five years, crews have been hard at work stabilizing and reinforcing the route, and it looks like the entire road will be fully re-opened [...]

Read the full article →

More Bad Park News – Only 4.6% of Parks Self-Funding

July 30, 2009

More bad news for the California State Park system today. In an earlier post, I mentioned Parks Director Ruth Coleman’s comment saying that those parks who can sustain their own operations will most likely be safe when the time comes to start locking up entrance gates.
But a story in today’s LA Times [...]

Read the full article →

The Actual Cuts to State Parks – $39 Million

July 29, 2009

The LAist got its hands on some concrete information from California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman on the recent passed budget, and it’s pretty shocking.
According to her, with all of the money-shuffling, fund-raiding, furloughs, and reduced tax revenues in the 09-10 budget, California’s State Parks are actually getting short-changed by about $39 million, which will [...]

Read the full article →

Parks Due to Close, After All

July 28, 2009

With the budget finally released, it looks like our State Park System is, indeed, going to get short-changed.
Governor Schwarzenegger slashed the funds for parks by an additional $6 million, writing (PDF):
In order to create a reasonable reserve, I am making additional reductions so we have resources to address emergencies or additional revenue shortfalls. I know [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries