San Gabriel Mountains

If you want to give zip-lining a try, your Southern California options are plentiful. Most have physical requirements participants must meet, so be sure to call or check the website before you book. Catalina Zip Line Eco Tour: This two-hour aerial tour of Catalina Island is comprised of five zip lines, and guides provide information about local wildlife and history along the way. Tours leave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. From Jan. 1 through May 24 and fromSept.

A Monrovia brush fire that at one point threatened 400 homes is now 85% contained, and all evacuation orders have been lifted, officials said. No structures were damaged, and only one firefighter suffered a minor heat-related injury, said Jennifer McLain, a city spokeswoman. Firefighters and handcrews will continue to work the fire through the evening, she said. Water-dropping helicopters remain on stand-by. "The challenge is working in such steep terrain," she said. The fire started about 11 a.m. Saturday and was sparked by a gardening tool being used for brush clearance at a residence in the foothills, she said.

The idyllic sounds of rustling leaves and cascading snowmelt mixed with Scripture readings Saturday morning during a pre-Easter service held in a shady Angeles National Forest glen overlooking the east fork of the San Gabriel River. About 35 worshipers from throughout Southern California had gathered by the river to break bread, pray and show support for an ongoing campaign to bolster federal protections for the San Gabriel Mountains. The service was organized by San Gabriel Mountains Forever, a coalition of environmental and community groups including the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and Friends of the River.

The brush fire in Monrovia has increased to more than 150 acres, and at least 100 homes have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, officials said. No structures were immediately threatened, said Jennifer McLain, a city spokeswoman. The fire spread from the backyard of a home near Crescent Drive and Madison Avenue, where it was apparently ignited by a spark from a gardening tool about 11 a.m., McLain said. PHOTOS: Fire in Monrovia Crews from Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles, the U.S. Forest Service, Monrovia and several nearby cities are trying to keep the flames from spreading into the San Gabriel Mountains.  Sixty-five fire engines, five water-dropping helicopters and two bulldozers were on the scene and more engines were on the way. Meanwhile, Los Angeles firefighters have contained a 4-acre brush fire that forced the closure of all southbound lanes on the 405 Freeway near Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys on Saturday afternoon.

Political leaders and outdoors enthusiasts expressed dismay Thursday over new details about an Interior Department recommendation for changes in federal management of a popular region of the San Gabriel Mountains. "The proposal raises many questions, and I want answers from the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service as to why this hybrid came about," U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said in an interview. The Interior Department announced Wednesday that it is recommending to Congress that the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service collaborate in the region, which includes a portion of the Angeles National Forest stretching from Sylmar to roughly five miles west of Interstate 15. Under the proposal, the region essentially would remain national forest land managed by the cash-strapped Forest Service.

Angeles National Forest officials have issued an avalanche warning for the San Gabriel Mountains, advising visitors in ski and play areas to use extreme care. In the past few weeks, avalanches have occurred throughout the forest because of unusually heavy snow accumulation and changing weather conditions. The biggest threat of avalanche is in areas of steep slopes with an accumulation of heavy, wet snow.

Organizers of a litter cleanup in San Gabriel Canyon in the Angeles National Forest are looking for volunteers to work Saturday. Registration for the project--sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commission and the Hughes Fullerton Employees Assn. Ecology Club--is scheduled for 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Rincon Fire Station on California 39, about 10 miles north of Azusa.

A U.S. Forest Service intern was shot by an assailant while on patrol in the San Gabriel Mountains, officials said Sunday. Raymon Torres, 22, who teaches fire prevention, heard gunshots coming from a wooded area near a stream by the Mt. Baldy ranger district Saturday afternoon. When he got out of his truck to investigate, he was shot in the right side of his back, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman said. Torres did not see the person who shot him.

A woman was shot in the leg by an arrow while she and a friend were sitting along a creek in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains above San Dimas, authorities said Friday. Two men were seen fleeing in a small red pickup truck immediately after the incident Thursday afternoon near San Dimas Canyon Road near the boundary of Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said.

More than 36 miles of recreational trails and about 27 miles of dirt roads were badly damaged by the October fires in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena and Altadena and are closed to the public. Although some trails may seem passable, U.S. Forest Service officials say that hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians who traverse these trails are putting themselves at risk because of possible landslides on the denuded slopes.

The Monrovia brush fire stands at 170 acres and is only 10% contained, but officials said its growth has slowed thanks to an absence of winds. The fire started about 11 a.m. Saturday morning and has charred brush in steep terrain south of the Arcadia Wilderness Park in northern Monrovia, officials said. No structures are immediately threatened, but about 200 homes have been evacuated, officials said. An overnight shelter has been opened at the local community center at 119 Palm Ave. PHOTOS: Fire in Monrovia City spokeswoman Jennifer McLain said the fire appears to have died down somewhat, and Monrovia Fire Chief Chris Donovan “is very comfortable with the situation.” However crews will be watching for downwinds that can develop in the area at night.

Southern California is expected to experience cool, cloudy conditions and possibly some light rain this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Cloudy conditions Friday morning are expected to linger through the weekend, said weather specialist Curt Kaplan with the agency's office in Oxnard. There's a 20 percent chance of "very heavy drizzle" on Sunday night continuing into Monday morning, Kaplan said. The rains could happen anywhere in the region, he added, but the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains are a likely target.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday recommended designation of the San Gabriel River watershed and most of the San Gabriel Mountains as a national recreation area, making the popular playground eligible for additional law enforcement, interpretive signs, hiking trails, trash collection and other services. Salazar's long-awaited recommendation to Congress seeks to balance a crush of tourists with conservation. The designation would transform the 655,000-acre range, portions of the San Gabriel River and Rio Hondo corridors and Puente-Chino Hills into a unit of the National Park system co-managed by the National Park Service, federal officials said.

Political leaders and outdoors enthusiasts expressed dismay Thursday over new details about an Interior Department recommendation for changes in federal management of a popular region of the San Gabriel Mountains. "The proposal raises many questions, and I want answers from the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service as to why this hybrid came about," U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said in an interview. The Interior Department announced Wednesday that it is recommending to Congress that the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service collaborate in the region, which includes a portion of the Angeles National Forest stretching from Sylmar to roughly five miles west of Interstate 15. Under the proposal, the region essentially would remain national forest land managed by the cash-strapped Forest Service.

It could take a week to wrestle the fire churning through the Angeles National Forest into submission, authorities said Monday as the blaze grew to 3,600 acres and injured four people, including at least two of the 500-plus firefighters who had swarmed into the hills above Azusa. The blaze, which officials dubbed the Williams fire, erupted Sunday afternoon about three miles east of California 39, between Camp Williams Resort and Burro Canyon Shooting Park in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Dion Smith moved to Azusa because he liked the sleepy suburb, nestled at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, with easy access to canyon trails where he would go walking. The small San Gabriel Valley city felt like home — until the night of Dec. 5, 2001. That night, someone hurled a Molotov cocktail through the window of the house where Smith and his family were sleeping. The bottle did not ignite, and Smith, his wife and their 6-year-old daughter were unharmed. But soon after, they decided to leave Azusa for nearby Covina.

A 17-year-old girl described as an inexperienced swimmer became trapped under a rock below Morris Dam and drowned in the San Gabriel River on Friday afternoon, Azusa police said. Identification of the victim was not released pending notification of the girl's relatives. Friends and witnesses tried to free her but were unable to, said Police Sgt. Pat Doyle, adding that she was underwater for 45 minutes.

A conservation group has purchased options to buy 2,700 acres of private land for the Angeles National Forest, but some environmental advocates have attacked the effort, saying the group is helping create a huge trash dump in Elsmere Canyon east of Santa Clarita. Acting for the U.S.

A luxurious fortress of concrete, glass and steel presents an imposing profile near the end of a winding drive high above the Sunset Strip. Designed by Santa Monica architect David Lawrence Gray and completed in 1996, the three-level contemporary home sits along the spine of narrow promontory with unobstructed views that stretch from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Getty Center. Dramatic flourishes abound — nowhere more so than in a jutting backyard that feels as though it is suspended above the city.

Almost two years after the Station fire scorched 161,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service has embarked on a large-scale reforestation project that may re-engineer the region's historical pine and fir woodlands. The project to be unveiled Friday aims to plant 3 million pine and fir trees over 10,000 acres scarred by the fire in an attempt to restore the area and offset greenhouse-gas emissions from a refinery in El Segundo. The campaign is the first major ecological response to a historic arson fire that burned for weeks, claimed the lives of two firefighters and cost more than $95 million to battle, leaving an area roughly the size of Chicago blackened.