Canyoneering

I only recently discovered this hidden country-in-the-city hiking spot, set below Mulholland Drive, west of Coldwater Canyon, and just minutes from Beverly Hills or Studio City. Although less well known than nearby Runyon or Fryman canyons, it may look familiar on your first visit: Bits of TV shows, such as Bonanza," and movies, such as "It Happened One Night," were shot here. 1.Park off Franklin Canyon Drive , near the Sooky Goldman Nature Center , named after a local nature lover who helped save the area from development.

We are hiking in the footsteps of Hollywood legends. Clark Gable was here, taking orders from Frank Capra for "It Happened One Night." Jodie Foster too, jogging around a Virginia lake at the start of "Silence of the Lambs." The infantrymen of TV's "Combat" battled across Europe, using as their base a dirt parking lot framed by enough nonnative trees to make Franklin Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains seem anywhere but here.

Rebecca Thomson Brown died the second time she plunged from the Fremont Canyon Bridge. But friends say it was the first time 19 years ago that really killed her. The second time, just last month, merely sealed her fate. It was the night of Sept. 24, 1973, when Rebecca and her 11-year-old sister Amy were abducted by a pair of wild-eyed hoodlums who surreptitiously slashed a tire on the girls' car at a Casper convenience store and then feigned an offer to take them home.

Jamie Durie has become an HGTV star as host of "The Outdoor Room," racing against the clock to turn dreary backyards into dreamy retreats in just 48 hours. So it should be no surprise that when the Australian designer moved to Los Angeles, he set out to make over his own backyard, creating not just one new outdoor room but six — seven if you count the redesigned pool — all in merely three weeks. "Jamie used his own yard as a big experiment for all of his crazy ideas, but it was 20 times bigger and more complicated than any other garden we've done for the show," said Beth Edelstein, the series' sassy horticulturist.

JOSHUA TREE - Along the saw-toothed ridge of Rattlesnake Canyon, crude graffiti invades the crevices that offered shade to nomadic Indians trekking across the Mojave hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. "Skunk," "oatmeal cookie" and "punx" are scribbled in black spray paint on giant, earth-crushing boulders where ancient petroglyphs may have been etched by the Serrano and Chemehuevi. The damage goes far beyond a few lovey-dovey teenagers carving their initials into picnic tables.

This is a short, steep hike that begins on a trail amid the mansions of La Cañada-Flintridge, with massive mountain and city views - a real workout with a real payoff. Drive into the area by taking the 2 or the 210 Freeway, exiting Verdugo or Foothill Boulevard, then take Chevy Chase Drive to Hampstead Road. Park on Hampstead Road, off Chevy Chase Drive. Follow the signs to the trailhead. Take the dirt path marked as Owl Trail. Note the warning: "Check your saddle. " There are some steep, unsteady sections ahead.

Tucked away up Rustic Canyon is a sordid bit of local history. Surrounded by the rugged mountainsides and overgrown by brush, the burned-out and crumbling buildings are what remains of the Murphy Ranch, where during the late 1930s a small group hoping to establish a Nazi utopia built an elaborate infrastructure that included a 395,000-gallon concrete water tank, a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel tank, and their own power station.