After a week of relentlessly dire news — rising interest rates, escalating wars in the Middle East, a prediction that AI could kill us all in ten years — this feels like a good time to remember one simple, essential truth: California is drop-dead gorgeous. |
A recent road trip with my wife took us to the Central Coast, where the beaches are still pristine (compared with those in Los Angeles); to Yosemite National Park, where the summer crowds have begun to thin; and to the Eastern Sierra, where the leaves at higher elevations are starting to flash their fall colors. |
The highlight was a hike to a chain of lakes fed by one of the state’s last remaining glaciers. |
Called the Big Pine Lakes and unimaginatively numbered one through seven, they sit beneath the Palisade Glacier. The ancient, heavy ice sheet expands and contracts with the seasons, grinding the granite beneath it into an incredibly fine silt called “glacial flour.” |
That flour flows into the lakes below and turns the water a dazzling turquoise. Second Lake is the most stunning of them all — filling a broad, natural bowl and backed by a towering granite formation called Temple Crag that rises 2,000 feet into a brilliant blue sky and holds some of the most storied rock climbs in the American West. |
Even in early September, after a brutally hot summer, pockets of snow remained in the shadows around its base, at about 10,000 feet. |
It was supposed to be an easy hike |
The hike to get there is tame by Eastern Sierra standards: about 10 miles round trip with 2,500 feet of elevation gain. But that relative accessibility — and the jaw-dropping scenery — makes it an Instagram darling. |
As if to prove the point, my wife and I arrived at the lake to find a very fit, very bronzed, nearly naked couple performing complicated yoga poses in front of an iPhone on a tripod, using the lake as their backdrop. |
A few years ago, I got to Second Lake just as a terrifying thunderstorm was arriving from the west. At that altitude, storms aren’t above you, they surround you. Thunder and lightning go off like artillery shells in every direction and the temperature can drop 30 degrees in seconds. |
Having experienced this before, my hiking buddy and I ran to the treeline and pulled Gore-Tex jackets, pants, hats and gloves from our packs. An influencer who’d been posing in a sports bra and very short shorts sprinted past us in a panic, trailed by some poor guy juggling way too much camera gear and a frantically barking Chihuahua. |
Did we feel prepared and smug? Yes we did. |
If the shoe fits |
Which is why Sunday’s hike was a little out of character for a journalist who’s spent a good chunk of his career dispensing advice on staying safe in the outdoors. |
Raring to go at the trailhead, I shoved my right foot into a hiking boot I’d tossed into the car days earlier only to discover it was not mine. I’d packed my wife’s much smaller boots, not my own. |
I’ve long used the Second Lake hike as a gentle warm-up for more ambitious outings like climbing Mt. Langley or Mt. Whitney, telling skeptical friends it’s so easy you could do it in flip-flops. |
Suddenly, I had to put that boast to the test. |
Long, flat stretches of the trail covered by that glacial flour were no problem. But on the steeper, boulder-strewn sections, I had to place each step as carefully as you would climbing the crag. Any clumsy move could have blown out the little cloth strap between my toes, and I’d have been returning to the trailhead barefoot. |
Which would have been slow, painful and disgusting. |
I say disgusting because the trail is also used by horses and mules that show no respect for the “leave no trace” rules. |
But even tiptoeing through mule poop, I could occasionally look up, soak in the scenery and remember why I’m lucky to live in California. |
Top stories |
 |
Mourners left notes at a memorial for the NBC4 helicopter crew at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) |
NBC4 chopper’s final moments |
- NBC4’s helicopter was one of several news aircraft flying over the scene of a deadly bus crash in Chatsworth before it dropped out of the sky and crashed into shipping containers and vehicles outside a warehouse.
- The Times interviewed several experts who reviewed recordings of the chopper’s final moments and offered insights into the helicopter and its movements that afternoon.
|
Scientists link heavy snow to groundwater in California |
- For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands.
- Using satellite data, they found groundwater levels rise during big snow years, in contrast to most years, when it continues to fall.
|
Is Trump demolishing the Kennedy Center? |
- A cryptic photo of Trump aboard Air Force One reviewing a “Kennedy Center DEMO[LISHED]” printout has intensified alarm after the national arts hub abruptly closed and barricaded itself despite a prior court injunction.
- Trump has tied a $257-million renovation and the venue’s survival to restoring his name on the facade, stoking fears of demolition as preservation groups warn of an “irrevocable loss” of a national landmark.
|
|
|
More news |
|
|
Commentary and opinion |
|
|
|
|
Editor’s pick |
|
Journalists, human rights advocates and dissidents who were persecuted in Nicaragua and sought safety in the U.S. are increasingly being targeted for deportation. |
|
 |
|
More picks |
|
|
Keep up with California |
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Things to do |
 |
(Photo illustration by Diana Ramirez / De Los; photos by Werley Fotografo Studios, J. Scott Applewhite / AP, Marcos Felipe) |
|
|
Today’s recipe |
 |
Molly Baz’s pistachio brown butter & halva chocolate chunk cookies. (Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times) |
The thing that makes these pistachio, brown butter and halva chocolate chunk cookies so special is the way they linger between the sweet and savory. They’re loaded with finely ground pistachios, studded with the Middle Eastern sweetened sesame confection halva and bound together by deeply nutty browned butter. |
Question for you |
What’s your favorite place to see fall colors in California? Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. |
Photo of the day |
 |
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, “the best coaster in Southern California, hands down,” is officially open. (Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times) |
Games |
 |
Here’s today’s mini crossword, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games. |
For the record: Wednesday’s newsletter erroneously said that Times staff writer Daniel Hernandez is launching a food-related podcast next week. It is a newsletter. |
Have a great day, from the Essential California team |
Jack Dolan, investigative reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters |
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com. |
No comments:
Post a Comment