Neal Templin, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who grew up in La Jolla, wrote about the wisdom of surfers. Growing up in the 1970s, his surfer classmates were “the golden gods of my teenage years.” Some put down their boards and pursued high-powered careers; others gravitated to work that allowed for maximum time in the water. Now in his 60s, Templin considered the benefits of both paths: “the surfers were right,” he wrote. Barron’s

There is no better taco city in America, many say, than Los Angeles — and it’s only getting better. Over the last decade, audiences have been drawn to more regional styles such as birria, the “it” dish of the moment known for goat meat smothered in chiles, herbs, and spices. On a recent episode of Broken Bread, the chef Roy Choi tried the birria tacos of Compton’s Goat Mafia. He said simply, “Wow.” KCET (begins about 16-minute mark)

L.A. Taco mapped the 69 tacos that define Los Angeles.

The Central Valley’s tule fog is no ordinary fog. Most common between November and March, the block of grayish white is bracketed in place by surrounding mountains. Airlines cancel flights, schools postpone the start of the spring semester, and every so often blinded motorists plow into one another in chain-reaction car crashes. The L.A. Times took readers inside the beautiful and dangerous tule fog in the style of a graphic novel.

The rare beauty of the calla lily has made it an object of artistic and spiritual fascination for centuries. Its name derives from the word for beauty in Ancient Greek, whose speakers believed the flower was created along with the Milky Way from the breast milk of a goddess. Few places showcase calla lilies so impressively as the wild Big Sur coast. Just north of Bixby Bridge, thousands of the white flowers guide a path down a hidden ravine to the Pacific. Calla Lily Valley, as it’s known, is in bloom now. Atlas Obscura | The Outbound

“If you drew a line due east from my front porch, it wouldn’t hit a town for over 400 miles. Bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and deer are regular visitors here, and keep an eye out for rattlesnakes. The wolves are coming back too.”

The celebrated photographer Bruce Haley captured the moody and unforgiving landscape of Modoc County, in California’s northeast corner, for a new book. The Guardian published a selection of 14 images.

You’ve heard of California’s marquee John Muir and Pacific Crest trails. National Geographic is now asking whether a little-known route along the Central Coast could become the next great thru-hike — or a long-distance trail completed in a single go. The Condor Trail winds 400 miles from a lake near Santa Clarita to a terminus just south of Carmel. In 2015, a San Diegan named Brittany Nielsen became the first to walk it, a solo journey with views of towering peaks, dense redwood stands, and at one glorious moment, a single condor flying overhead.

In an analysis of where California home values rose the sharpest during the pandemic, San Bernardino County dominated the rankings. Of the top 10 ZIP codes with the biggest price jumps between January 2020 and January 2022, seven were in the high desert region northeast of Los Angeles. Landers, a tiny community near Joshua Tree National Park, took the top spot, with an 84% jump in home values. A typical residence now goes for about $295,000. S.F. Chronicle | Victorville Daily Press

Landers is home to the fabled Giant Rock, purported to be the largest free-standing boulder in the world. Atlas Obscura