Californias

American history has the receipts. As we approach the 250th anniversary of this nation’s birth, it ought to be common knowledge that putting the National Guard into the center of turmoil is not to be taken at all lightly. Federalizing the California Guard to quell a supposed insurrection on the streets of greater Los Angeles is a bold move of presidential showmanship and look-tough opportunism. It is also risky on many fronts.

We have been here before, and we would be wise to heed history’s caution. In the spring of 1894, a nationwide railroad strike, spreading out from the outskirts of Chicago, paralyzed freight and passenger rail traffic up and down California. Strikers took to the streets, occupied railroad depots, often with their families, waved signs, and erected tents and hastily constructed shanties. In Oakland, strikers who had “killed” a locomotive covered it in black crepe.

Political leaders and railroad officials insisted that the strikers were insurrectionists ripping at the fabric of the republic. But the public did not necessarily see things the same way. Strikers who were hunkered down in Northern California depots took in provisions from farmers loyal to their cause. A U.S. marshal sent to Sacramento to clear them out and get the trains moving was beaten up and insisted later that the local police force was sympathetic to the strikers.

Judging the Sacramento situation as an insurrection, Gov. H.H. Markham of Pasadena called up the National Guard, which mustered first in San Francisco on July 3. Some elderly Civil War veterans volunteered for duty but were politely turned away. Instead, young California guardsmen, each given 20 rounds of ammunition, marched to the Bay amid a jeering crowd, took a ferry to Oakland and tried to get to Sacramento by train.

But all train service had been interrupted by the strike, and skilled rail operators did not want to cross the picket lines. After nine hours, the exhausted guardsmen arrived in Sacramento early on the morning of July 4 — having taken a train through a circuitous route to avoid trouble. They marched to the city armory, then on to the occupied depot, where they were met by Sacramento members of the National Guard who were already deployed. Guardsmen — about 1,000 weekend warriors — stood in the hot sun, rifles at the ready alongside the Gatling gun they brought, facing the railroad strikers camped out in the depot with their wives and children. One Guardsman’s gun went off accidentally, killing a bystander. Officers ordered their men to fix their bayonets and, if ordered to shoot, to “aim to kill.”

One Sacramento unit reported that its men would not fire on their friends and relatives. Other Guardsmen wore their sympathies on their sleeves and lapels: pro-striker buttons. The strikers and their families began to mingle with the phalanx of guardsmen. “Frank, if you kill me you make your sister a widow,” one striker informed her brother-in-law in the Guard. Some guardsmen removed the ammunition from their weapons; others lowered them and just wandered away — toward the lemonade and ice that the protesters themselves provided. The strikers stayed in the depot for weeks. The whole thing was a chaotic farce.

Matters were hardly any less tense in Southern California. People lined the streets of downtown Los Angeles, chanting and cheering for the strikers, many of whom wore American flag lapels. Photographs of goings on in Sacramento and the Bay Area got passed from one Angeleno to another in the crowd. Guardsmen in L.A. expressed the same kind of trepidation about bringing militarized force to bear on the strikers. “If we had to fight Indians or some common enemy,” one guardsman offered in a revelatory admission, “we might have some fun and excitement. But this idea of shooting down American citizens simply because they are on strike for what they consider their rights is a horse of another color. All of the boys are against it from first to last, and many are in sympathy with the strikers.”

In hindsight, the federal and state response to the rail strike of 1894 appears to have lacked some consideration of unintended consequences. Calling in the Guard only created chaos, emboldened the strikers and, for a time at least, sustained much of the public’s support. The federal government, with some seeing 1894 as “the greatest crisis in our history,” allied with the rail corporations in a set of legal maneuverings that led to the deployment of federal troops across the country. As the strike dissipated, each side tried to take the high ground of intention and behavior: The crisis was lawlessness or it was unwarranted government overreach.

Though it is too soon to know how things will play out here in L.A. this time, nothing looks good from the rough scenes in downtown and the adjacent freeway exits and entrances.

Mark Twain said that “history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” Here we have that rhyme written in the latest Los Angeles verse of our tense world. The administration’s move to federalize the Guard in the name of quelling a domestic insurrection has poured more gasoline onto the tinder of our times here in the Southland.

Deverell is a professor of history at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.

Trinity Lake, at its fullest, has 145 miles of shoreline and is 2.5 million acre-feet of water. It is an artificial lake formed by the creation of the Trinity Dam, a massive earth-filled dam, in the 1960s.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

The Trinity Alps is home to several campgrounds, resorts and limitless backcountry camping spots. There are several campgrounds around Trinity Lake, including Hayward Flat, Jackass Springs and Bushytail, which has showers. Rental cabins and resorts (and also a Buddhist retreat center where you can rent various accommodations) are scattered throughout the Trinity Alps for those wanting to sleep in something beyond a nylon-walled tent.

Here are some of the campgrounds that hikers should consider when planning a trip to the Trinities.

Big Flat Campground

Remote and deeper in the Trinities than others on this list, the Big Flat campground in Klamath National Forest has nine first-come, first-served campsites just off the South Fork of the Salmon River. It is farther north than other sites on this list, nearest to the Coffee Creek community where there’s a general store that sells cold beer and sandwiches.

Hikers camping here will have several trails to choose from, including arduous but rewarding treks to Caribou Lakes, the Yellow Rose Mine or Ward Lake. The site sits at about 5,000 feet and is typically closed until later in the summer when snow in the area has melted enough for the campground to be safely accessed. It is best to call or check in person at the ranger station to ensure your vehicle is suitable to make the drive on Coffee Creek Road.

Bridge Camp Campground

Bridge Camp has 10 campsites, each with picnic tables and fire rings.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Bridge Camp is a 10-site first-come, first-served campground situated along the Stuart Fork, a tributary of the Trinity River, in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Situated about 17 miles north of Weaverville, the campground has potable water available from Memorial Day to Oct. 31.

To reach the campground, you’ll drive through the charming Trinity Alps Resort, which rents out rustic red cabins named after California counties, and onto a narrow gravel road. Use extreme caution on this final stretch of your journey as the southern edge of the roadway has a steep drop-off that plunges down to the Stuart Fork.

The campground is an arboreous escape shaded by massive old trees and, under safe conditions, guests can enjoy a cool dip in Stuart Fork’s clear waters.

Backpackers will often stay a night here because it shares its location with the Stuart Fork Trailhead, where they can start a multi-day trip to Emerald and Sapphire Lakes, which are 14 and 15 miles away, respectively. This trip to reach the 21-acre Emerald Lake (at a depth of 68 feet) and 43-acre Sapphire Lake (at 200 feet deep) is one of the most popular among backpackers in the Trinities. The Stuart Fork trail also makes for great day hiking regardless of how far you go.

As a bonus, Trinity Alps Resort, only two miles from the campground, has a general store that’s open to the public and features an ice cream counter and a restaurant, Bear’s Breath Bar & Grill, that advertises a “world famous” spaghetti buffet — just in case you forget your can opener and need an easy spot for dinner.

Mary Smith Campground

Mary Smith, a 17-site campground on Lewiston Lake shoreline, treats guests with one thing none of the other sites on this list provide: glamping. Six of its campsites, each available to reserve through recreation.gov, offer yurts including queen beds with linens, down comforters and pillows, along with two nightstands and an oversized rug. Outside the yurts, guests will find armchairs, a coffee table, fire pit and picnic table. Not a bad place to rest after hiking and swimming all day!

The campground, shaded by large pine and other trees, has flush and vault toilets and drinking water. Guests can marvel at great views of the lakes and wildflowers that blanket the area through the summer. It’s a great spot to camp for anyone wanting to kayak or canoe, as the lake has a 10-mph speed limit for watercraft.

Ripstein Campground

The Ripstein campground has 10 sites for tent camping near the popular Canyon Creek trailhead.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Ripstein is a 10-site first-come, first-served campground in Shasta-Trinity National Forest that’s shaded by tall trees with a natural soundscape of nearby Canyon Creek. It has multiple roomy campsites, including a few next to the river that deliver pristine views and privacy.

The popular Canyon Creek Trailhead is just under a mile away, and a popular swim area is close too. Nearby parking areas can fill up on weekends so it’s best to arrive early to the trailhead or walk from your campground. Backpackers use this campground as a quick stopover before heading out.

Although Ripstein doesn’t have potable water or flush toilets, it boasts a landscape so vibrant and green, it feels like walking into a fairy tale. For those campers willing to rough it a bit, it’s an A-plus choice.

This week, we are jumping into the fire with Kelly Ramsey. Her new book, “Wildfire Days: A Woman, A Hotshot Crew, and The Burning American West,” chronicles her time fighting some of the state’s most dangerous conflagrations alongside an all-male crew of Hotshots. The elite wildland firefighters are tasked with applying their tactical knowledge to tamp down the biggest fires in the state. We also look at recent releases reviewed by Times critics. And a local bookseller tells us what our next great read should be.

In 2017, Ramsey found herself in a holding pattern. Living in Austin, with an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh under her belt, she didn’t know what or where she wanted to be. So she took a nanny job. “I was spending all my time outdoors with these kids,” she told me. “I thought, is there a job that would allow me to be outside all the time?”

Ramsey landed a volunteer summer gig working on a fire trail crew in Happy Camp, Northern California, on the Klamath River. While Ramsey was learning the delicate art of building firebreaks, a large fire broke out just outside the town. “My introduction to California that summer was filled with smoke,” says the author. “This is when I got the bug, when I started to become interested in fighting fires.”

Ramsey became a qualified firefighter in 2019, joining an entirely male crew of fellow Hotshots. Ramsey’s book “Wildfire Days” is the story of that fraught and exciting time. We talked to Ramsey about the “bro culture” of fire crews, the adrenaline surge of danger and the economic hardships endured by these frontline heroes.

Below, read our interview with Ramsey, who you can see at Vroman’s on June 23. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

✍️ Author Chat

Ramsey details how she became a qualified firefighter in 2019, when she joined an entirely male wildland fire crew, in her new book.

(Lindsey Shea; Scribner)

What was it like when you confronted a big fire for the first time?

It was the Bush fire in Arizona. I was so incredulous, just marveling at what was happening. “Look at that smoke,” and “that helicopter is making a water drop.” It was kind of a rookie move, because all the other crew members had seen it thousands of times. To see a helicopter up close making a drop, it looks like this gorgeous waterfall. I had to get acclimated to the epic nature of fires. And that wasn’t even a big fire, really.

In the book, you talk about entering into a pretty macho culture. How difficult was it for you to gain acceptance into this cloistered male world of the fire crew?

It was definitely shocking at first, to be in an entirely male space. The Forest Service had some sexual harassment scandals in 2017, so everyone was on their best behavior at first. It took me some time before I was accepted into the group. I had to perform over-the-top, irrefutably great, just to prove to them that I was OK. It’s an unfair standard, but that’s the way it was. I wanted to shift the way they saw women, or have better conversations about gender and fire.

You write about the pride and stoicism of the fire crew members, the ethos of actions rather than words. No one brags or whines, you just get on with it. Why?

When my editor was going through the book, he insisted that I mention the 75 pounds of gear I was always carrying on my back, and I resisted, because you don’t complain about that kind of thing when you’re out there. But I realized that readers would want to know these details, so I put them in. I was inclined to leave them out.

You also write about the difficulties of re-entering civilian life.

I don’t know of any firefighters who don’t struggle with the idea of living a normal, quiet life. It’s just a massive letdown after the adrenaline rush of the fire season.

What was shocking to me reading “Wildfire Days” is that fire crews are essentially paid minimum wage to work one of the most dangerous jobs in the state.

It was $16.33 an hour when I was in the crew. And most firefighters that I worked with didn’t have other jobs. They would take unemployment until the next fire season rolled around. You would just scrape by. During the first month of the season, everyone would be flat broke, eating cans of tuna. The joke is that you get paid in sunsets. But we all love being out there. The camaraderie is so intense and so beautiful.

📰 The Week(s) in Books

In this vintage photo, a man walks in front of the Italian Hall, constructed in 1908; all the structures on the block behind him have been demolished. A new book looks at Los Angeles in this time period.

(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)

Hamilton Cain reviews National Book Award winner Susan Choi’s new novel, “Flashlight,” a mystery wrapped inside a fraught family drama. “With Franzen-esque fastidiousness,” Cain writes, “Choi unpacks each character’s backstory, exposing vanities and delusions in a cool, caustic voice, a 21st century Emile Zola.”

Jessica Ferri chats with Melissa Febos about her new memoir, “The Dry Season,” about the year she went celibate and discovered herself anew. Febos wonders aloud why more women aren’t more upfront with their partners about opting out of sex: “This radical honesty not only benefits you but it also benefits your partner. To me, that’s love: enthusiastic consent.”

Carole V. Bell reviews Maria Reva’s “startling metafictional” novel, “Endling,” calling it “a forceful mashup of storytelling modes that call attention to its interplay of reality and fiction — a Ukrainian tragicomedy of errors colliding with social commentary about the Russian invasion.”

Nick Owchar interviews Nathan Marsak about the reissue (from local publisher Angel City Press) of “Los Angeles Before The Freeways: Images of an Era, 1850-1950,” a book of vintage photos snapped by Swedish émigré Arnold Hylen and curated by Marsak. Owchar calls the book “an engrossing collection of black-and-white images of a city in which old adobe structures sit between Italianate office buildings or peek out from behind old signs, elegant homes teeter on the edge of steep hillsides, and routes long used by locals would soon be demolished to make room for freeways.”

And sad news for book lovers everywhere, as groundbreaking gay author Edmund White died this week at 85.

📖 Bookstore Faves

Diesel, A Bookstore manager Kelsey Bomba tells us what’s flying off the shelves at the Westside bookseller.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

This week, we paid a visit to the Westside’s great indie bookstore Diesel, which has been a locus for the community in the wake of January’s Palisades fire. The store’s manager, Kelsey Bomba, tells us what’s flying off the store’s shelves.

What books are popular right now:

Right now, Ocean Vuong’s “The Emperor of Gladness” is selling a ton, as [well as] Miranda July’s “All Fours” and Barry Diller’s memoir, “Who Knew.”

What future releases are you excited about:

Because I loved V.E. Schwab’s “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” I’m excited to read her new book, “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.” “The Great Mann,” by Kyra Davis Lurie — we are doing an event with her on June 11.

What are the hardy perennials, the books that you sell almost all the time:

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and the Elena Ferrante books, especially “My Brilliant Friend.”

Diesel, A Bookstore is located at 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica CA 90402.

As we drove north along Highway 395 — passing the salty remains of Owens Lake, the Museum of Western Film History, the geothermal plant outside Mammoth Lakes that supplies 24/7 clean energy to San Bernardino County — I felt certain we’d found the northernmost reaches of Southern California.

It was Memorial Day weekend, and my wife and I were headed to a U.S. Forest Service campground in the White Mountains, 225 miles as the crow flies from downtown L.A.’s Union Station. If you drew a line on a map due west from our campsite, you’d cut through the Sierra Nevada and eventually hit San José.

But to my mind, we were still in Southern California.

For one thing, Southern California Edison supplied electricity here. For another, Los Angeles had sucked this place dry.

In the early 1900s, agents secretly working for the city posed as farmers and ranchers, buying up land and water rights in the Owens Valley. Then Los Angeles built an aqueduct, diverting water from the Owens River to feed the city’s growth. Owens Lake largely dried up. The city later extended the aqueduct north to Mono Lake.

As a lifelong Angeleno, I felt compelled to see some of the results for myself.

I had spent time in the Owens Valley, but never the Mono Basin. So we took a dirt road branching off the gorgeous June Lake Loop to stand atop an earthen dam built by L.A. in the 1930s. It impounds Rush Creek, the largest tributary bringing Sierra snowmelt to Mono Lake. As I looked out at Grant Lake Reservoir — beautiful in its own way, if totally unnatural — I realized I had been drinking this water my whole life.

Grant Lake Reservoir stores water for the city of Los Angeles. I took this photo standing atop the earthen dam.

(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)

My feelings were similarly muddled when we arrived at Mono Lake.

On the one hand, this was one of the coolest and weirdest places I’d ever seen. As we padded along a boardwalk toward the sandy southern shore, I was blown by the gleaming blue water, the snow-capped Sierra peaks and the tufa — my gosh, the tufa. Bizarre-looking rock towers made of calcium carbonate, like something from a dream.

At the same time, much of the boardwalk ideally would have been underwater.

Under a 1994 ruling by state officials, L.A. is supposed to try to limit its withdrawals from Mono Lake’s tributaries, with a goal of restoring the lake to an elevation of 6,392 feet — healthier for the millions of migratory and nesting birds that depend on it for sustenance, and better for keeping down dust that degrades local air quality.

Three decades later, the lake has never gotten close to its target level. L.A. continues to withdraw too much water, and the Mono Basin continues to suffer. Mayor Karen Bass said last year that the city would take less, but officials ultimately reneged, citing a dry winter.

As we walked past a sign on the way to the southern shore marking 6,392 feet, I felt a little pang of guilt.

Tufa formations line the sandy southern shore of Mono Lake.

(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)

Responsibility is a funny thing. When we got back from our camping trip, I read about a woman suing oil and gas companies over the tragic death of her mom, who died of overheating at age 65 during a historic heat wave that roasted the Pacific Northwest in 2021. The first-of-its-kind lawsuit claims wrongful death, alleging — accurately — that the companies spent years working to hide the climate crisis from the public.

I’m neither a psychic nor a psychologist. But I’m guessing, based on more than a decade reporting on energy and climate change, that executives at the fossil fuel companies in question — including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and Shell — aren’t suddenly feeling guilty for their role in boiling the planet.

Same goes for the Trump administration — impossible to guilt. The World Meteorological Organization reported last week that Earth is highly likely to keep shattering temperature records in the next few years, driving deadlier heat waves, more destructive fires and fiercer droughts. That hasn’t stopped President Trump and congressional Republicans from pressing forward with a budget bill that would obliterate support for renewable energy.

So why was I, a climate journalist, feeling guilty over something I really had nothing to do with? Was it silly for me to bother taking responsibility when the people wrecking the planet were never going to do the same?

I think the answers have something to do with the importance of honesty.

Sunset from the White Mountains.

(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)

As we sat at our campsite by a roaring fire — stoked by my wife, who’s way better than me with open flames — I cracked open a book of speeches by President Theodore Roosevelt, delivered in 1903 on his first trip to California. He was on my mind because he’d originally established Inyo National Forest, where our spectacular campground was, to protect the lands and watershed where Los Angeles would build its Owens Valley aqueduct.

“You can pardon most anything in a man who will tell the truth,” Roosevelt said. “If anyone lies, if he has the habit of untruthfulness, you cannot deal with him, because there is nothing to depend on.”

“The businessman or politician who does not tell the truth cheats; and for the cheat we should have no use in any walk of life,” he said.

Naturally, I thought of Trump, whose political success is built on outrageous lies, from climate and election denial to insisting that Haitian immigrants eat their neighbors’ cats. I also recalled a recent order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum discouraging “negative” depictions of U.S. history on signs at national parks and other public lands — a directive with the Orwellian title, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

Did that mean educational materials at Manzanar National Historic Site — which sits just off Highway 395 and is managed by the National Park Service — would soon be revamped, to avoid explaining how the U.S. government cruelly and needlessly imprisoned more than 10,000 Japanese Americans there during World War II?

If a similar order were issued covering the Forest Service, which is overseen by a different federal agency, would the Mono Lake visitor center take down its thoughtful signs explaining the history of the Los Angeles water grab? Would the Forest Service alter a sign at the nearby Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest detailing the possible impacts of global warming, considering that the U.S. is the largest historical emitter of heat-trapping pollution?

Trees at Schulman Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.

(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)

Only time will tell. But Teddy Roosevelt was right. So long as Trump and his allies keep lying — pretending that oil and gas aren’t cooking the planet, that we don’t need sound science, that Americans have only ever done good — they’ll feel no guilt, no responsibility. Because they’ll have nothing to take responsibility for.

Accepting the facts means owning up to the hard ones.

It’s not just politicians who have trouble. Highway 395’s Museum of Western Film History is mostly hagiography, a collection of props and artifacts that fails to unpack the settler colonialism behind the western films it glorifies.

But I did learn that the original “Star Wars” was one of many films to shoot footage in the Owens Valley. And the “Star Wars” universe, as it happens, is all about fighting an empire that seeks to control people’s homelands and histories — a message central to Season 2 of “Andor,” now streaming on Disney+.

“I believe we are in crisis,” says Galactic Senator Mon Mothma, a leader of the brewing Rebellion. “The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil.”

Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) makes a pivotal Imperial Senate speech in “Andor,” Season 2, Episode 9.

(Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Here’s the truth: There’s not enough water in Mono or Owens lake. It’s hotter than it used to be. The sky is dark with wildfire smoke more often. The Sierra Nevada peaks frequently aren’t as snowy.

Again, the senator: “When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.”

In America, monsters are screaming. Find harbor in honesty, and perhaps the mountains.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our “Boiling Point” podcast here.

For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @sammyroth.bsky.social on Bluesky.

To look inside Julie Celestial’s kindergarten classroom in Long Beach is to peer into the future of reading in California.

During a recent lesson, 25 kindergartners gazed at the whiteboard, trying to sound out the word “bee.” They’re learning the long “e” sound, blending words such as “Pete” and “cheek” — words that they’ll soon be able to read in this lesson’s accompanying book.

Celestial was teaching something new for Long Beach Unified: phonics.

“It’s pretty cool to watch,” she said. “I’m really anticipating that there’s going to be a lot less reluctant readers and struggling readers now that the district has made this shift.”

Engage with our community-funded journalism as we delve into child care, transitional kindergarten, health and other issues affecting children from birth through age 5.

These phonics-based lessons are on the fast track to become law in California under a sweeping bill moving through the Legislature that will mandate how schools teach reading, a rare action in a state that generally emphasizes local school district control over dictating instruction.

Julie Celestial teaches her kindergarten class a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

The bill is the capstone to decades of debate and controversy in California on how best to teach reading amid stubbornly low test scores. Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged his support, setting aside $200 million to fund teacher training on the new approach in the May revise of his 2025-26 budget proposal.

“It’s a big deal for kids, and it’s a big step forward — a very big one,” said Marshall Tuck, chief executive of EdVoice, an education advocacy nonprofit that has championed the change.

California has long struggled with reading scores below the national average. In 2024, only 29% of California’s fourth-graders scored “proficient” or better in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

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Literacy instruction has been controversial in California for decades, but state legislators may have finally decided on a compromise.

The proposed law, which would take effect in phases beginning in 2026, would require districts to adopt instructional materials based on the “science of reading,” a systemic approach to literacy instruction supported by decades of research about the way young children learn to read, from about transitional kindergarten through third grade.

The science of reading consists of five pillars: phonemic awareness (the sounds that letters make), phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

“It’s finite. There’s only 26 letters and 44 sounds,” said Leslie Zoroya, who leads an initiative at the Los Angeles County Office of Education that helps districts transition to a science-of-reading approach. “Phonics isn’t forever.”

After a failed effort last year, the bill gained the support this year of the influential California teachers unions and at least one advocacy group for English-language learners. In a compromise, school districts would have more flexibility to select which instructional materials are best for their students and the option to decline teacher training paid for by the state.

Kindergarten student Annika Esser works on a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

For decades, most school districts in California have been devoted to a different approach called “whole language” or “balanced literacy,” built on the belief that children naturally learn to read without being taught how to sound out words. Teachers focus on surrounding children with books intended to foster a love of reading and encourage them to look for clues that help them guess unknown words — such as predicting the next word based on the context of the story, or looking at the pictures — rather than sounding them out.

“The majority of students require a more intentional, explicit and systematic approach,” Zoroya said. “Thousands of kids across California in 10th grade are struggling in content-area classes because they missed phonics.”

Kindergarten student Tyler Madrid raises his hand to answer a question during a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

An extended reading war in California

California embraced the whole language approach to literacy, which took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, said Susan Neuman, a New York University professor who served as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education under former President George W. Bush. The state became a national leader in what was considered a progressive and holistic approach to teaching literacy, with a focus on discovering the joy of reading, rather than learning specific skills, she said.

Bush then incorporated a phonics-heavy approach in an initiative that was part of his 2002 launch of No Child Left Behind, which increased the federal role in holding schools accountable for academic progress and required standardized testing. States, including California, received grants to teach a science-of-reading approach in high-poverty schools.

But many teachers in the state disliked the more regimented approach, and when the funding ended, districts largely transitioned back to the whole language approach. In the years since, science of reading continues to draw opposition from teachers unions and advocates for dual-language learners.

Many California teachers are passionate about the methods they already use and have chafed at a state-mandated approach to literacy education. Some don’t like what they describe as “drill and kill” phonics lessons that teach letter sounds and decoding.

Advocates for multiple-language learners, meanwhile, vociferously opposed adopting the most structured approach, worried that children who were still learning to speak English would not receive adequate support in language development and comprehension.

A 2022 study of 300 school districts in California found that less than 2% of districts were using curricula viewed as following the science of reading.

But the research has become clear: Looking at the pictures or context of a story to guess a word — as is encouraged in whole language or balanced literacy instruction, leads to struggles with reading. Children best learn to read by starting with foundational skills such as sounding out and decoding words.

“Anything that takes your eyes off the text when a kid is trying to figure out a word activates the wrong side of the brain,” Zoroya said.

Los Angeles County renews focus on phonics

In the last few years, several larger districts in California have started to embrace more structured phonics learning, including Los Angeles Unified, Long Beach Unified and Oakland Unified.

Recently, these districts have started to see improvement in their reading test scores.

Julie Celestial teaches her kindergarten class a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

At Long Beach Unified, for example, the district’s in-house assessment shows significant gains among kindergarten students. In 2023-24, 78% of them met reading standards, up 13 percentage points from the previous school year. Proficiency rates across first and second grade were above 70%, and transitional kindergarten was at 48%. The district’s goal is to hit 85% proficiency across grades by the end of each school year.

In 2019, LAUSD introduced a pilot science-of-reading based curriculum, and adopted it across all schools for the 2023-24 academic year. After the first year, LAUSD reading scores improved in every grade level and across every demographic, chief academic officer Frances Baez said.

From the 2022-23 to the 2023-24 school years, LAUSD’s English Language Arts scores improved by 1.9 percentage points — five times more than the state as a whole, which improved by 0.3, she said.

‘Science of Reading’ makes waves in Lancaster

Teresa Cole, a kindergarten instructor in the Lancaster School District, has been teaching for 25 years. So when Lancaster asked her to try out a new way of teaching her students to read three years ago, she wasn’t thrilled.

“I was hesitant and apprehensive to try it,” she said, but decided to throw herself into a new method that promised results.

Artwork and literacy lessons hang from the ceiling inside Julie Celestial’s kindergarten class at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

Teaching kindergarten is a challenge, she said, because children come in at vastly different stages. Many are just learning to hold a pencil; others can already read. She was seeing many children under “balanced literacy” lessons slip through the cracks — especially those with limited vocabularies. When she asked them to read words they didn’t know, “it almost felt like they were guessing.”

But as she began to teach a phonics lesson each morning and have them read decodable books — which have children practice the new sound they’ve learned — she noticed that her students were putting together the information much faster and starting to sound out words. “The results were immediate,” she said. “We were blown away.”

She was so impressed with the new curriculum that she started training other teachers in the district to use it as well.

Looking back at her old method of teaching reading, “I feel bad. I feel like maybe I wasn’t the best teacher back then,” Cole said. Part of the change, she said, was learning about the science behind how children learn to read. “I would never say to guess [a word] anymore,” she said.

This kind of buy-in and enthusiasm from teachers has been key to making the new curriculum work, said Krista Thomsen, Lancaster’s director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Department. In schools where the teachers are implementing the program well, scores have started to rise. “But it’s a steep learning curve,” she said, especially for teachers who have long taught a balanced literacy approach.

“We are stumbling through this process trying to get it right and making sure that every one of our kids has equitable access to learning how to read,”Thomsen said. “But we have every faith and every intention, and the plan is in place to get it where it should be going.”

A compromise may bring more phonics to the classroom

Kindergarten student Lauren Van De Kreeke answers a question from teacher Julie Celestial as they work on a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach.

A bill introduced by Assemblymember Blanca E. Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) last year requiring a science-of-reading approach in California public schools did not even get a first hearing. This year, Rubio introduced another version — Assembly Bill 1121 — that would have required teachers to be trained in a science-of-reading approach.

Opponents included the California Teachers Assn. and English-language learner advocates, who said in a joint letter that the bill would put a “disproportionate emphasis on phonics,” and would not focus on the skills needed by students learning English as a second language.

The groups also voiced concern that the bill would cut teachers out of the curriculum-selection process and that mandated training “undermines educators’ professional expertise and autonomy to respond to the specific learning needs of their students.”

Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, said the group opposed both bills because they were too narrow in their focus on skills such as phonics. “They’re essential. But English learners need more, right?” she said. “They don’t understand the language that they’re learning to read.”

Rubio said she was shocked by the pushback. “I was thinking it was a no-brainer. It’s about kids. This is evidence-based.” Rubio, a longtime teacher, was born in Mexico, and was herself an English-language learner in California public schools.

In 2024, just 19% of Latino students and 7% of Black students scored at or above “proficient” on the fourth-grade NAEP reading test.

But with the support of Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), the groups reached a compromise that not all teachers would be required to participate in the teacher training.

Hernandez said she was pleased that the compromise included more of an emphasis on oral language development and comprehension, which is vital for multi-language learners to succeed.

AB1454 requires the State Board of Education to come up with a new list of recommended materials that all follow science of reading principles. If a district chooses materials not on the list, they have to vouch that it also complies. The state will provide funds for professional development, though districts can choose whether to accept it.

This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.

Reporting from Sacramento — Less than four years after declaring California’s budget balanced for the foreseeable future, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday said the state is projected to run a $1.6-billion deficit by next summer — a noticeable shift in the state’s fiscal stability that could worsen under federal spending cuts championed by President-elect Donald Trump.

“The trajectory of revenue growth is declining,” Brown said in unveiling his $179.5-billion plan for the fiscal year that begins in July.

The governor’s sober assessment comes on the heels of several months of lagging tax revenue collections, a change in the state’s fortunes that could stifle his fellow Democrats’ call for additional spending and give fuel to Republican demands for additional cuts.

Brown’s budget advisors lowered the official tax revenue forecast, in part, because of slower than expected growth in wages. They also reduced expectations for sales and corporate taxes because of broader national trends.

Brown proposed to address the deficit primarily by slowing the growth in spending on public schools by $1.7 billion, a change that brings funding down to the minimum required by formulas enshrined in California’s Constitution. The governor also proposed scrapping $1.5 billion worth of spending ideas left over from last year’s budget negotiations, including higher subsidies for child-care programs and awarding new college scholarships to California students from middle-class families.

“To manage unreliability requires prudence,” Brown said of his decisions to address the projected budget shortfall.

The governor’s fiscal blueprint is the ceremonial first pitch in Sacramento’s annual budget writing season, and, as such, the details will shift in coming months to address changing fiscal conditions. That could include any effort by the nation’s ruling Republicans to rethink any of the $105 billion in federal funding promises the state expects to receive for a variety of services.

The most consequential of those is the $16.1-billion subsidy for Medi-Cal, the program offering healthcare to the state’s most needy, provided through the Affordable Care Act. Those funds have helped the state add more than 3.8 million people to the Medi-Cal system, a network of providers that reaches one in every three Californians.

Republican leaders in Congress and the president-elect have vowed to repeal the law championed by President Obama, though they have yet to identify when or how that will happen. That uncertainty is why Brown’s new budget plan does not officially lay out a path forward, though the governor made it clear on Tuesday that he thinks GOP leaders should rethink their political promises in regard to Obamacare.

“That’s very bold and, I think, a move that isn’t very consistent with decency,” the governor said Tuesday.

He also offered national leaders some advice as they weigh the merits of various federal subsidies.

“I don’t think this country needs any more divisive kinds of moves that divide the poor and the rich, split the middle class and all those other things that will be the result if the rhetorical thrust, as suggested in the last few weeks, becomes the operational reality in Washington,” Brown said.

Gov. Jerry Brown often gets his way when it comes to tax revenue forecasts, and that’s a big deal »

But the governor offered a dash of his own brand of raw politics Tuesday by asking legislators to approve an extension of California’s system for buying and trading greenhouse gas pollution credits. That cap-and-trade program faces an uncertain future beyond 2020, as business groups have challenged its legality in court.

On Tuesday, Brown proposed that the Legislature officially reauthorize the program — which would require a supermajority vote in both houses — and hinted that he might otherwise block the spending of $2.2 billion in proceeds from the auctions of those credits.

“Given the fact that the federal government is going in the opposite direction,” Brown said of the climate change debate, “I would think that Californians want to strengthen their own commitment.”

Advocates for social services, though, saw the budget plan as lacking any new strength for the state’s most needy.

“This is just a very conservative budget that really doesn’t do anything to reduce poverty in the state of California,” said Mike Herald of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, who pointed to a lack of new money for welfare assistance efforts or affordable housing.

The governor’s budget also offers less than expected for backers of Proposition 56, last year’s tobacco tax increase earmarked to boost healthcare funding. While Brown pegs the tax’s infusion of new money at $1.2 billion, it is offset by overall sagging tax revenues, and therefore, unlikely to boost the reimbursement rates sought by doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients.

Democrats, in general, sounded positive notes about the governor’s proposal. One key source of early criticism, though, was his plan to phase out the scholarships offered to middle-class students attending University of California and Cal State campuses. The budget proposes to renew scholarships for 37,000 current recipients but offers no new assistance beyond that.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) said the plan, coupled with proposed tuition increases, would be unfair.

“We must work to keep college affordable for California students,” he said, “and I will not support burdening them with higher fees and greater student debt.”

In all, Brown’s budget continues a long trend toward allowing additional spending while restraining the political desires of Democrats to do more. And while it doesn’t spell out a specific need to respond to changes pushed by Trump and congressional Republicans that are on the horizon, the governor made clear that all budget decisions in Sacramento are in some way subject to the national debate.

“That’s why we’re going to have to hold on to our hat here,” he said. “It’s going to be a rough ride.”

[email protected]

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Melanie Mason contributed to this report.

ALSO:

Even after voters approved more taxes, California’s budget could be lean in 2017

California’s budget will continue to rely on taxes from the rich under Prop. 55

Updates from Sacramento

The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate defied congressional norms and voted Wednesday to revoke California’s progressive vehicle emission standards that would’ve effectively banned the sale of new gasoline-only cars by 2035.

In a 51-44 vote, the Senate overturned a Biden-era waiver that enabled California and a contingent of Democratic-led states to enforce zero-emission requirements for the sale of new passenger vehicles. After several hours of debate and testimony, legislators struck down a landmark regulation that aimed to drastically accelerate electric vehicle sales in California and nearly a dozen other states that chose to follow its lead, substantially reducing air pollution and planet-warming carbon emissions from tailpipes.

The Advanced Clean Cars II rule, enacted in 2022 by the California Air Resources Board and granted a federal waiver by the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency in December 2024, required car manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles to California dealerships over the next decade. Starting next year, the rule would have mandated that 35% of all new vehicles supplied to California dealerships be zero-emission vehicles or plug-in hybrids. By 2035, it would’ve prohibited the sale of new, gas-only cars statewide.

By invalidating the rule, Republican senators stamped out one of California’s most ambitious environmental policies and, more broadly, challenged the state’s authority to enact vehicle standards to combat its notoriously unhealthy air quality. If the measure is signed into law by President Trump and survives impending legal challenges, the vote would serve as a coup de grace to the state’s decades-long efforts to comply with federal smog standards in Southern California and meet California’s own ambitious climate goals.

The zero-emission requirements were expected to eliminate nearly 70,000 tons of smog-forming emissions and 4,500 tons of soot statewide by 2040, preventing more than 1,200 premature deaths and providing $13 billion in public health benefits, according to the California Air Resources Board. It also was expected to prevent the release of 395 million metric tons of carbon emissions — roughly the amount released by 100 coal plants in a year.

Ahead of the vote, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) warned that nullifying this rule and stripping California’s regulatory power would have serious health effects across the state.

“We are sowing poison seeds for the future,” Schiff said. “Seeds that will grow to be more asthma and more sickness and more hospitalization and more death. That is the bleak but blatant reality of what we are debating here today.”

Republicans, however, argued that California’s zero-emission requirements threatened to cripple the American auto industry and significantly limit the options for car buyers. In the coming days, Republicans plan to undo additional California clean-air rules that require the state’s heavy-duty truck fleet to adopt cleaner engines and a growing percentage of zero-emission vehicles.

“Democrats have this delusional dream of eliminating gas-powered vehicles in America,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday from a lectern on the floor of the U.S. Capitol. “They want to force-feed electric vehicles to every man and woman who drives in this country. Well, Republicans are ready to use the Congressional Review Act to end this Democrat electric vehicle fantasy.”

Republicans moved ahead with the vote despite the warnings from the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian that the waivers could not be overturned with the Congressional Review Act — a law that was meant to allow legislators to inspect and potentially block federal rules adopted in the waning days of a previous presidential administration.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, said the vote was a flagrant abuse of the Congressional Review Act. He threatened to block or delay the confirmation process for four Trump nominees to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if Senate Republicans voted to overturn California’s vehicle emission standards.

“It appears that Republicans want to overturn half a century of precedent in order to undermine California’s ability to protect the health of our residents by using the Congressional Review Act to revoke California’s waivers that allow us to set our own vehicle emission standards,” Padilla said. “Republicans seem to be putting the wealth of the big oil industry over the health of our constituents.”

Environmental advocates, many of whom had spent years supporting California’s emissions standards, expressed their disappointment in the vote.

“This is a major blow to the decades-long public health protections delivered under the Clean Air Act,” said Will Barrett, senior director of nationwide clean air advocacy for the American Lung Assn. “It is more important than ever that California and all other states that rely on Clean Air Act waivers continue to cut tailpipe pollution through homegrown, health-protective policies.”

Because of its historically poor air quality, California has been an innovator in clean car policy, enacting the nation’s first tailpipe emissions standards in 1966. California was later granted the special authority to adopt vehicle emission standards that are more strict than the federal government’s under the Clean Air Act. But the state must seek a federal waiver from the U.S. EPA for any specific rule to be enforceable.

In the five decades since then, the state has enacted dozens of rules to reduce air pollution and planet-warming greenhouse gases. Padilla stressed that these rules were largely meant to alleviate lung-aggravating smog, which was a persistent threat where he grew up in Los Angeles.

“On a pretty regular basis, we would be sent home from grade school because of the intensity and dangers of smog that settled over the San Fernando Valley,” Padilla said. “That’s the case for far too many Californians, still to this day. But it’s the reason why, decades ago, Congress recognized both California’s unique air quality challenges and its technical ingenuity, and granted California special authority to do something about it.”

Due to its enormous economy and population, automakers have conformed to California’s rules. In addition, many Democrat-led states have chosen to adhere to California’s auto emissions rules, applying more pressure on car companies first to make cleaner engines and later to manufacture more electric vehicles.

California leads the nation in zero-emission vehicle sales. In 2023 and 2024, about 25% of new cars sold in California were zero-emission or plug-in hybrids, according to the California Energy Commission. This year, the share of zero-emission vehicle sales has slightly slumped, making up only 23% of light-duty vehicle sales.

But the Advanced Clean Cars II rule would require a jump in zero-emission sales next year, with at least 35% of vehicles supplied to car dealer lots to be zero-emission or plug-in hybrids.

Mike Stanton, president of the National Automobile Dealers Assn., contended that consumer demand for electric vehicles falls far below California’s requirements, in part, because of unreliable charging infrastructure.

“Banning gas and hybrid cars is a national issue that should be decided by Congress, not an unelected state agency,” Stanton wrote in a letter to senators, referring to the California Air Resources Board.

In February, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin brought the Biden-era waivers to Congress, suggesting that they were federal rules that had not been reviewed. However, none of California’s waivers for the state’s vehicle emission standards had been brought before Congress for review, because they were largely regarded as administrative orders.

The House of Representatives voted this month to advance the resolution to the Senate. Thirty-five Democratic lawmakers, including California Reps. George Whitesides (D-Agua Dulce) and Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), joined with the Republican majority.

In the Senate, the 51-44 vote was split along party lines.

Experts say the Senate vote could have lasting implications for congressional procedures.

To topple California auto emission standards, Senate Republicans controversially invoked the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows an incoming Congress to rescind major federal rules approved near the end of a previous presidential administration. This process notably allows federal legislators to bypass a filibuster and requires only a simple majority to repeal federal rules rather than the typical 60 votes.

However, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said federal waivers for California emission standards were not subject to the Congressional Review Act, because the federal waiver is technically not a rule; it’s an order. The Senate Parliamentarian, a non-partisan advisor to the congressional body, upheld that interpretation, ruling that the Senate couldn’t use the Congressional Review Act to repeal California’s waivers.

The Senate vote proceeded in defiance of the parliamentarian’s ruling, marking a stunning rebuke of congressional norms.

The decision by Republican senators amounted to a “nuclear option” that would set a dangerous precedent, Padilla said.

“The old adage says, ‘What goes around comes around,’” he said. “It won’t be long before Democrats are once again in the driver’s seat, in the majority once again. And when that happens, all bets would be off.”

The trail is short but steep, and it smells of sage. A few hundred feet below, I see moms with strollers on a path beside the San Diego River. Above, I see granite cliffs and hear the hollers of unseen climbers.

“Rope!” says one.

“Hey,” says another. “There’s a ram’s horn down here!”

A climber tosses rope near Kwaay Paay Peak.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

This is the Climbers Loop Trail at Kwaay Paay Peak, one of my new favorite spots in the biggest city park that you’ve never heard of: Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego.

No, this park is not downtown like its more famous sibling, Balboa Park. But Mission Trails, eight miles northeast of downtown and 15 miles from the beach, is the biggest city-owned park in California. Along with the trickling river and a dam that dates to the early Spanish missionary days, the landscape includes 65 miles of trails on more than 8,000 acres of rugged mountains, hills and valleys.

It looks like a healthy slice of Arizona, and it covers more territory than Balboa Park, L.A.’s Griffith Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Irvine’s Great Park combined.

Also, it used to be my backyard. Throughout my teen years, my family lived on a cul-de-sac at the base of Cowles Mountain, the highest summit in the park and the city. The chaparral began 40 feet from my back door.

Almost as often as we loitered at the mall and ogled the guitars at American Dream Music, my friends and I wandered the mountain slopes, wading through the sagebrush and nosing around the granite boulders, sidestepping coyote scat, and generally walking that fine line between high jinks and delinquency.

Officially, the park was younger than we were, having been established in 1974. But it contained such deep and obvious history, even the teenage me could appreciate it.

For millennia before the Spanish showed up and built a dam to serve their first Alta California mission, the Kumeyaay lived in these hills.

The Old Mission Dam dates to the early Spanish missionary days.

During World War I, the Army used the area, known as Camp Elliott, for tank and artillery training. During World War II, the Marines did the same, leaving plenty of ordnance behind — including some that exploded in 1983, killing two boys. (Even now, after various cleanup efforts, signs warn that unexploded shells “might still exist.” If you see something suspicious, report it and don’t touch it.)

Once military officials decided they didn’t need the land, local leaders stepped in and began putting together a park in the 1960s and ‘70s. The city added Cowles Mountain in 1974. The visitor center followed in 1995. The Cedar fire of 2003 burned about 2,800 acres, which have long since regrown.

The park’s visitor center includes educational exhibits and a gift shop.

I had a great time brushing up on that history and wandering Mission Trails for two days this spring — my longest spell in those hills since high school. Overnight I slept in a cabin at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, about two miles east of the park, where several recycled-water lakes are surrounded by well-kept fishing spots, walking paths, playgrounds and a campground.

Also, I have to note that I was in Mission Trails for more than three hours before I saw any graffiti. I’m not sure that’s doable in Griffith Park.

The Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, which includes cabins, is two miles from San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

It’s unlikely many people outside San Diego County know this place exists. But local hikers and birders turn out in force. Climbers like Kwaay Paay Peak (elevation: 1,194 feet) and mountain bikers, equestrians and anglers have their own favorite park territories. You can camp at Santee Lakes or, on weekends, put up a tent in the park’s Kumeyaay Lake campground.

Kumeyaay Lake.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Mission Trails has the highest peak in the city (Cowles Mountain at 1,591 feet). It has the compact Kumeyaay Lake and the larger Murray Reservoir (a.k.a. Lake Murray), which has fishing, kayaking and canoeing about three miles south of the park visitor center.

But many would say the park’s Main Street is Father Junipero Serra Trail, a paved path that runs alongside the San Diego River, mountains rising on either side.

Father Junipero Serra Trail runs alongside a stretch of the San Diego River.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The long, flat Father Junipero Serra Trail is a great, easy hike for beginners.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

“I just started coming in the last few weeks,” hiker Sumeya Sayd, 23, told me one day as she stepped off the Serra Trail. Like me, she had hiked Cowles Mountain as a youth and overlooked the rest of the park.

Now, inspired by a Muslim American Society group chat, Sayd has been hiking the Serra and Climbers Loop trails more often and thinking about the Mission Trails five-peak challenge — five peaks in the park, each over 1,000 feet.

You can walk or pedal on the Serra Trail, which stretches 2.6 miles and connects the park visitor center to the Old Mission Dam. (Ordinarily, there’s a lane open to vehicular traffic, but because of a sewage-line improvement project, cars will be banned until summer of 2028.)

“This is Desert Wishbone-bush,” I overheard Justin Daniel saying one day along the trail. Daniel, who held aloft a purple flower, was leading a group of about 15 people from the California Native Plant Society.

Soon the group moved on to the California Buckwheat and Daniel added that “we have the most native plants in California for one county,” along with “more native bees than you can shake a stick at.”

How urban is this urban park? Not very. No museums, no zoos, no restaurants. Still, its busiest trail gets an estimated 780,000 hikers a year. That’s the route to the top of Cowles Mountain from Navajo Road and Golfcrest Drive.

When I lived in the neighborhood, many people still called Cowles Mountain “S Mountain,” because just about every fall from the 1930s into the 1970s, San Diego State freshmen used lye and white paint to make a big S near the top, 400 feet high and visible for miles.

Now the S is long gone, but through the years I’ve seen foot traffic grow. I’ve hiked it solo, with my daughter and with a friend facing a profound loss. Even though the route to the top from the Golfcrest trailhead is just 1.5 miles, every time it’s a bit more challenging than I expect — 950 feet of elevation gain, irregular steps, crumbling rocks. In the old days, I used to get up and down in 90 minutes. Nowadays, my knees complain and the round trip takes two hours.

Fortunately, the view from the top still hits me like a surprise every time: the hills of Mexico to the south, the coastline to the west, the miles of undeveloped slopes and valleys to the north. In a perfect hiker’s world, maybe there would be no line of utility towers slicing through the Fortuna Mountain portion of Mission Trails and no humming radio towers atop Cowles Mountain. But this is a city park after all. In this vast expanse of nature, that’s easy to forget.

Cowles Mountain is the highest peak in the park.

Where to hike

Mission Trails Regional Park has nearly 65 miles of trails. Here are some to try.

• If you’re looking for an easy hike and you’re a newbie, start with the long, flat 2.6-mile Father Junipero Serra Trail. Two other easy routes, well suited to kids, are the Kumeyaay Lake Nature Trail (1 mile around the lake; full of birdsong in the mornings) and the 1.5-mile Visitor Center Loop Trail.
• For a longer, mostly flat hike with ample shade, try the park’s Oak Canyon Trail, where a little seasonal waterfall materializes among the rock formations near the far end of the 3.4-mile out-and-back route. That trail has only 240 feet of elevation gain; park rangers call it a “moderate” challenge.
• It’s 1.5 miles to the top of Cowles Mountain from the trailhead at Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Road. If you start instead at Big Rock Park in Santee, it’s a 2.5-mile climb to the top. Rangers classify both routes as difficult.
• For a stiffer challenge, you can try climbing to the South Fortuna or North Fortuna peaks. (Distances vary, depending on route). Also, there’s the brief, steep Climbers Loop Trail (rated difficult, with 400 feet of altitude gain in a 1-mile round trip).

Down the road, there may be new challenges, because the park is still growing. In the last year, Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation executive director Jennifer Morrissey said, the park has added more than 100 acres through a pair of acquisitions at its northern edges. Eventually the park may also add a safe river-crossing near the visitor center — a possibility rooted in tragedy. In early 2021, 21-year-old trailrunner Max LeNail died in a sudden storm while trying to cross the San Diego River near the visitor center. His family is hoping to build a footbridge in his memory, but for now, the nearest crossing is several miles away.

The Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve includes 10 cabins.

Where to stay

• The Kumeyaay Lake Campground (2 Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego; [619] 668-2748) is part of Mission Trails Regional Park. It includes 46 dry/primitive campsites, open Friday and Saturday nightly only. No RV hookups. Rates begin at $26 nightly.
• Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve (9310 Fanita Parkway, Santee; [619] 596-3141) includes 290 RV spots, about 12 tent-camping sites and 10 cabins. The RV and tent camping spots rent for $62-$111 nightly. Cabins go for $137-$265. There’s plenty of fishing and boating, but no swimming in the recycled water of the lakes. The preserve has a space set aside for a lakefront restaurant with ample deck, but two concessionaires have closed there since 2021 and 2024. Preserve management has said another restaurant will open soon.

The view from atop Cowles Mountain at Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

California invented the motel. More specifically: As automobile ownership skyrocketed in the 1920s and entrepreneurs rushed to open tourist camps and motor courts to house traveling families, a Pasadena architect named Arthur Heineman came up with the word motel — motor plus hotel, right? — and put up a mission-style lodging in San Luis Obispo, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He did this in late 1925.

From these facts, The Times hatched a project to help California travelers plan their next road trip and recognize the motel centennial as an anniversary that resounds throughout pop culture.

After driving 2,500 miles and checking out dozens of places, I’ve come up with 34 lodgings to recommend at various price points. (These days, many prefer to call themselves inns or boutique hotels. Still, if their guest room doors open to the great outdoors and there’s a highway handy, I count them as part of the extended motel family.)

We’re also hoping to help all readers appreciate the up-and-down story of motels — how they soared in the midcentury years, then seeped into pop culture as hotbeds of sex and crime, slumped in the late 20th century and lately have entered a new era.

Today many are going luxurious or doubling down on nostalgia. Some are charging $1,000 a night. Others are sticking to their frugal roots and charging $100 a night. Several have been repurposed by government agencies to house people at risk of homelessness. And some don’t even take overnight guests anymore — they make their way by housing retail and restaurants and supplying all-American scenery for selfies and videos.

Among the overnight destinations we cover in our motel centennial special:

• In Paso Robles, the River Lodge’s MOTEL sign rises high above the 101 like a rocket about to be launched from wine country.
• In Palm Springs, the Trixie Motel has added new oomph to the phrase “over the top.”
• In San Bernardino, the Wigwam Motel and its concrete teepees endure, now owned by a family with roots in India and the Inland Empire.
• In San Francisco’s Castro District, a new generation runs Beck’s Motor Lodge for an audience the founders never imagined.
• In Malibu, the Surfrider staff is standing by to lend you a surfboard or a Mini Cooper to cruise along PCH.

For travelers and admirers of midcentury design, the most welcome news may be that just about every week, another revived California roadside lodging reopens, many of them sporting the bold, space-age shapes and signage that midcentury design geeks know as Googie.

We’re also hoping these stories will help with your next road trip:

Happy traveling.

The week’s biggest stories

Lyle Menendez, right, and brother Erik listen to a charge of murder conspiracy against them with Leslie Abramson, far left, attorney for Erik, Dec. 29, 1992, in Los Angeles.

(Chris Martinez / Associated Press)

Menendez brothers move closer to freedom

• When a Los Angeles County judge resentenced Erik and Lyle on Tuesday, he offered the brothers a path to freedom for the first time since they were given life in prison for killing their parents with shotguns in 1989.
• The brothers may be another step closer to freedom after Gov. Gavin Newsom withdrew his request for clemency investigations into their case, turning a hearing scheduled in June before the parole board into an opportunity for them to be granted early release.

L.A. council backs $30 minimum wage for hotels

Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation

More big stories

This week’s must reads

More must reads

For your weekend

The new “World of Color Happiness!” begins with a charming pre-show featuring the Muppets.

(Sean Teegarden / Disneyland Resort)

Going out

Staying in

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor

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