Jerry Schad - Top Trails: Los Angeles: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

T he Los Angeles region is geographically schizophrenic. The teeming world down in the Basin looks inward toward itself. The world just outside, in the hills and mountains, rises above the noise and the haze, and embraces the earth and the sky. In this outside world you will find deep-cut canyons and craggy peaks hewn in sandstone and volcanic rock (Santa Monica Mountains); bold promontories and canyon walls fashioned from shattered granitic and metamorphic rock (San Gabriel Mountains); and waterfalls, dancing streams, wooded recesses and hidden glens in places often unbelievably close to the city.

Geography

Although this book focuses primarily on the L.A-bordering Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountain ranges, selective trips are included elsewhere in the region. This books geographic range goes as far west as eastern Ventura County and as far east as San Gorgonio Mountain and San Jacinto Peak, which are the loftiest peaks in Southern California. Coverage from north to south stretches from the Santa Clarita Valley to beyond Orange County.

Administratively, nearly all recreational areas in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and San Jacinto Mountains are part of either the Angeles National Forest or the San Bernardino National Forest. The Santa Monica Mountains lie in an administrative hodgepodge of county, state, and federal lands known collectively as the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Orange Countys public spaces are managed primarily by its county-parks system and (higher in the Santa Ana Mountains) by the Cleveland National Forest.

Flora

With a topographical relief of over 10,000 feet, its not surprising that parts of the Los Angeles region could experience sub-zero winter temperatures at high elevations, and 100F-plus temperatures in the low interior valleys. The regions varied climate, topography, and geology have, in turn, resulted in a remarkable diversity of native flora. Since many animals prefer specific habitats, the fauna of the L.A. region is also quite diverse.

Lets first take a brief, descriptive tour of the three most common plant communities, or assemblages you will likely encounter on your backcountry explorations:

The sage-scrub (or coastal sage-scrub) community lies mostly below 2000 feet elevation, on the south-facing slopes of the coastal mountains, and to some extent the San Gabriel Mountains. The dominant plants are small shrubs, typically California sagebrush, black sage, white sage, and California buckwheat. Two larger shrubs often present are laurel sumac and lemonade berry, which, like poison oak, are members of the sumac family. In some areas along the coast, prickly-pear cactus thrives within this community. Much of this sage-scrub vegetation is summer-deciduousdormant and dead-looking during the warmer part of the year, lush green and aromatic during the cooler, wetter four to six months of the year. Wildflowers growing amid the sage scrub are particularly striking in March and April.

The chaparral community is commonly found between 1000 and 5000 feet elevation just about anywhere theres a slope that hasnt burned recently. Were it not for roads, firebreaks, and other interruptions, the chaparral would run in wide unbroken swaths along the flanks of most Southern California mountains. The chaparral plants are tough and intricately branched, evergreen shrubs with deep root systems that help the plants survive during the long, hot summers. Dominant chaparral plants include chamise, scrub oak, manzanita, toyon, mountain mahogany, yucca, and various forms of ceanothus (wild lilac). Chaparral is sometimes referred to as elfin foresta good description of a mature stand. Without benefit of a trail, travel through mature chaparral, which is often 15 feet high and incredibly dense all the way up from the ground, is almost impossible.