Casey Schreiner

Back in 2013 they redesigned their North Lawn entrance to include a stunning garden of California native plants as well as highlighting the city’s unique urban-wilderness interface experience in a new Nature Lab exhibit. You’ll learn about the differences between native and exotic species (and how not every exotic species is an invasive one), how you can find nature literally in your backyard (or on your city block), and how snapping a photo of something you see might end up netting you a co-author credit on an academic research paper. The book closes out with a series of 25 different “Field Trips” throughout several different watershed boundaries in the L. A. area, a very fun concept I haven’t seen in any other natural history book. Whether you’re new to nature or an experienced hiker, just visiting or a lifelong Angeleno, I can almost guarantee you’ll learn something new and fascinating about the world around you after thumbing through Wild LA – and you’ll never look at the city the same way again.

And unfortunately, while you’re hearing about the beautiful native wildflower displays and fields of stunning color, you’re probably also hearing about some of the negative side effects of these superbloom crowds: trampled plants, picked flowers, hillsides destroyed by user-created ‘trails.’ If an influencer with a high number of followers post a photo of themselves rolling around in a beautiful orange carpet of California poppies and destroying or picking them (illegal on all public lands in California as well as on state and county rights of way according to California Penal Code Section 384a), there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to inspire some copycat behavior in their feeds. Other than things like graffiti and flagrant vandalism or rule violations, it can be tough to tell via a photograph if someone’s going off-trail or picking flowers or if it’s just a skillful use of angles and perhaps flowers grown in their own yards — not to mention that different states and different types of parks may have different laws surrounding these sorts of actions. Ideally, you’re sharing this philosophy in the text of your post, too You can also use #nowildflowerswereharmed when a certain angle might make it look like you did / are doing one of those things — which can serve as a nice way to help teach some of your followers ways to get incredible photos without having to destroy the very things you’re there to photograph.

This year, if the prospect of dealing with crowds of photographers and tourists and social media types turns you off, or if trails that seem more like theme parks than wilderness areas aren’t appealing to you, I have a radical suggestion: enjoy whatever blooms you see, instead. People can get a massive case of #FOMO when they feel like they can’t get those never-ending, exotic, flower field photos for themselves and can completely miss out on things that are hiding in plain sight right along their usual neighborhood trails. One of the things desert hikers tell you they love most about the desert (even when it’s not covered in flowers) is that the landscape only reveals its true wonders to those who slow down to notice them. If you want to learn more about what’s growing and blooming around you, even if it’s not part of a superbloom, our page on Wildflower Resources has lots of places where you can learn about these amazing plants, get in touch with folks who can help you become an expert, and even places where you can learn how to grow some native plants of your own.

Cascade Falls is a family-friendly waterfall hike in a tiny Mill Valley park that is an easy 0.3 miles round-trip. There is room for just a few cars in the Cascade Park parking lot, so an alternative is to park at Old Mill Park, and walk up Cascade Drive, a neighborly road with folks out strolling. To see another waterfall nearby, cross Cascade Drive from the Cascade Park parking lot and pick up an unsigned dirt path heading southeast along Old Mill Creek. Yep, this Cascade Falls is a 1.5-mile round-trip hike in gorgeous bay laurel and madrone-studded Cascade Canyon Open Space Preserve.