California State Parks and Save the Redwoods League work tirelessly to reopen popular trail
On June 21, 2008 a lightning strike ignited the Basin Complex Fire, a wildfire that swept through 162,818 acres near Big Sur, forcing evacuations, and burning most of the Ventana Wilderness area. The fire destroyed much of the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park located the western slope of the Santa Lucia Mountains, and severely damaged the Pfeiffer Falls Trail, an easy 1.5 mile out-and-back trail with views of redwoods and Pfeiffer Falls.
After a 13 year renovation the trail is open again, thanks to the California State Parks and the Save the Redwoods League.
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A stubborn storm parked over Death Valley on November 15, 2025, and the desert didn’t know what hit it: Furnace Creek recorded 0.6 inches of rain — a number that’s more than a quarter of the park’s usual annual total. In terrain that sheds water off bedrock and washes it down into narrow canyons, that half-inch-plus didn’t soak in; it ran hard and fast, turning arroyo channels into destructive flows of mud, rock, and debris that have chewed up road shoulders and left pavement buried or gone.
The Johnson Valley community has been holding its breath these past months as the U.S. Marine Corps’ Special Use Airspace proposal, R2509, moves through the public process. After an intense wave of local comments and outreach, momentum slowed during the government shutdown — but the Marines have since released public fact sheets about the proposal. That put new material in front of the public, and it’s precisely the sort of moment when clear information matters most.
The Inyo National Forest has announced the release of the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Coyote Flat Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Recreation Enhancement Project.
2020 was a difficult year for travelers, wanderers, adventurers, and explorers here in California. I did get out – sometimes with groups, sometimes furtively by myself – and was rewarded with solitude, silence, and freedom within the great cathedrals of nature that California offers from the deserts to the beaches, to the mountains and deep forests.