STEP BY STEP

The pandemic has forced everyone to rethink their relationship with nature. For ROSECRANS BALDWIN, that meant traversing Los Angeles’ Backbone Trail, right in his own backyard.

- ROSECRANS BALDWIN

LOS ANGELES, FOR ALL the things it’s known for, isn’t usually considered a great city for green spaces. The metropolis is well-loved for its Mediterranean climate, but nature isn’t what most people think of when they picture it—and for good reason. LA is a coastal basin that humans turned into a concrete bowl.

And yet, for all the cars and wildfires, LA is the only major city in the United States bisected by a massive mountain range. It’s also a hot spot of biodiversity. Just a 20-minute drive north of Dodger Stadium is Angeles National Forest (fs.usda.gov/angeles), which has 700,000 acres of woodlands and mountains, some of which top 3,048 metres. In winter, you can even go backcountry skiing.

After my wife and I moved to LA from the East Coast, I noticed how often the city smells of flowers. Each May, jacaranda trees along the streets bloom like purple fireworks. Expanded urbanisation has resulted in Angelenos having coyotes in the street and bears in their swimming pools. According to researchers at UCLA, Los Angeles County is home to more than 4,000 distinct animal and plant species, including dozens of endangered creatures, from condors to desert bighorn sheep.