The Lake District and the Peak District have been notoriously known as England’s walking hotspots, but a picturesque destination with rolling hills has emerged as a new favourite
With rolling hills and river valleys, this region is the best destination for a walking holiday (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
England’s best walking destination has been named – and it’s not the Lake District or Peak District.
Every year, thousands of Brits flock to the Lake District for a rambling retreat, thanks to its pristine glacial waters against its dramatic mountain backdrop and rolling valleys. Meanwhile, the Peak District offers scenes of purple heather moorland, rugged rocks, and winding river valleys, making it a haven for hikers.
They are undoubtedly two of the most popular places to venture around during a scenic walking holiday, with ramblers rewarded with spectacular views. However, they’ve now been outshone by a new region – and it has its own renowned walking trail.
The Cotswolds has been named as the ‘best place to go walking in England’, by Responsible Travel, thanks to its scenes of ancient woodlands, tranquil river valleys, rolling hills and honey-coloured cottages. Spanning across 800 square miles, measuring around 90 miles in length and 25 miles in width, there are ample walking trails to explore in England’s largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
In its guide, Responsible Travel said: “It is not surprising that great writers from Shelley to Waugh have been inspired by the Cotswolds. Like their literary worlds, walking here transports you to a serene and soothing place.
“Walk through ancient towns such as Stow-on-the-Wold or Bourton-on-the-Water, where even the names evoke time gone by. Well known for its slow food ethos, you won’t be short of fine inns and food as you wander through village and vale.”
As the Cotswolds span six counties, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and Somerset, there’s a plethora of charming towns and idyllic villages to visit while on one of the many routes and trails. And of course, a bundle of cosy country pubs and beer gardens to stop by for that refreshing restbite.
A major walking route in the region is the Cotswolds Way, which stretches 102 miles from Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire to Bath in Somerset. Following the western edge of the Cotswold Hills, the trail passes by the stunning scenes that make up the renowned region, alongside grand manor homes, historic battle sites, Neolithic burial barrows and honey-hued villages.
One of the most popular villages to stop by in the Cotswolds is Bibury, with its Arlington Row, which has garnered worldwide attention for its picture-postcard setting. The village has also been dubbed the ‘most beautiful village in England’ by artist and writer William Morris, and it attracts thousands of tourists every year.
Another favourite spot is the village of Bourton-on-the-Water, renowned as the ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’, with its crystal-clear meandering river and quaint stone bridges. Castle Combe is another village that feels like a scene from a fairy tale, with preserved medieval cottages frozen in time since 1600, with no TV aerial in sight and wires hidden underground to maintain its beauty.
Top 12 walking destinations in England
Cotswolds
Dorset
Lake District
Peak District
Pilgrims Way
Shakespeares Way
South West Coast Path
Suffolk coast
Sussex & the South Downs
Thames Path
White Cliffs of Dover & Kent coast
Yorkshire
Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
European airlines and airports call for flexibility to suspend digital border system amid severe delays.
Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026
The European Union’s new digital border check system is causing severe disruption to travel, with passengers facing five-hour queues and departure gates closing with planes only half-full, industry representatives have warned.
In an open letter published online on Wednesday, the top representative bodies for Europe’s airports and airlines said that delays caused by the bloc’s recently-implemented Entry/Exit System (EES) had reached a “critical point”.
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“The current implementation of the EES is creating severe operational consequences, disrupting passengers and putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure,” Airports Council International Europe, Airlines for Europe, and the International Air Transport Association said in a joint letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We therefore urge your immediate intervention before the situation deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season.”
With European airports expected to handle 40 million more passengers in July and August than the previous two months, EU leaders “must take stock of the reality of the current situation and of what our air transport system will face over the coming weeks”, the lobby groups said.
“Without additional flexibility, existing challenges will inevitably intensify,” they said.
“As representatives of Europe’s aviation sector, we have a responsibility to warn that this would result in a significant worsening of an already very difficult situation for passengers.”
Warning that the travel disruption was undermining the reputation of the EU and European tourism, the industry groups said it was crucial that the continent continued to be an “efficient, welcoming and competitive” destination.
“Reports already suggest that some international travellers are reconsidering trips to Europe because of the prospect of excessive border delays,” they said.
A police officer scans a passport during a presentation of an automated terminal for registration to the Entry/Exit System (EES) at the Vaclav Havel airport in Prague, Czech Republic, on October 14, 2025 [David W Cerny/Reuters]
Until the stability of the EES is ensured and adequate staffing levels are in place, EU member states should be immediately granted the flexibility to “completely suspend” the new system whenever passenger numbers exceed the “operational capacity” of border facilities, the lobby groups said.
The World Travel and Tourism Council, the world’s largest representative body for tourism-related businesses, said on Wednesday that it endorsed the letter’s calls, warning that the delays could put up to 41 million arrivals and $45.4bn in visitor spending at risk.
“If lengthy delays become accepted practice, travellers will look elsewhere,” WTTC President and CEO Gloria Guevara said in a statement.
“Europe cannot afford to compromise its competitiveness or the experience it offers millions of visitors.”
The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Al Jazeera outside of regular business hours.
The EU began rolling out the EES in October as a replacement for passport stamping.
The system records each traveller’s name, passport information, fingerprints and facial images, and his or her date and place of entry and exit.
The European Commission announced that the ESS was “fully operational” across the Schengen Area in April, but the system has been blamed for lengthy delays since its introduction, including cases of flights leaving before many of their passengers were able to board.
Scorpio Tankers (STNG) down 2.1% in Tuesday’s trading as Bank of America double-downgrades shares to Underperform from Buy with a $78 price target, lowered from $100, saying product tanker rates remain historically strong but are now in a post-peak pullback.
Cara Delevingne has revealed she snorted rhino ketamine at the peak of her drug addictionCredit: BackGridCara admits she was doing ‘big lines’ because she ‘just wanted to disappear’Credit: Getty
Cara told a podcast she regularly took a scary amount of drugs and never came down in her 20s because she was always high.
She explained: “I remember being sold, like, rhino ketamine but it wasn’t really rhino ketamine.
“When I first started doing it, if anyone who takes ketamine or has taken drugs knows, you do a tiny bit of ketamine, and that’s enough.
“But I’d be doing really long, big lines because I just wanted to disappear, not have a bit and feel weird. I wanted to completely lose consciousness, tranquilise myself, I suppose.
“My tolerance was so high with that stuff to the point where I’d go to a party and I’d give some to a 6ft 5in man, and he’d be floored by doing a tiny amount compared to what I was doing, which is scary.”
Class B drug ketamine is a dissociative general anaesthetic and known as a horse tranquilliser.
Rhino ket is the term for a powerful synthetic version or a mix of ketamine and amphetamine.
Cara said she and Amber Heard became romantic after her toxic split from Johnny Depp in 2016Credit: Getty – ContributorSupermodel Cara got sober in 2022Credit: AFP
On The Louis Theroux Podcast, out today, she said of the illegal substances: “They were my best friend, my support. They were the thing that I could control my emotions with, you know? They kept me going.
“For a long period I only did drugs. I didn’t drink at all. I don’t know why. I just didn’t like it. I think in my 20s, I never came down, I was just working and partying, and it was fine.”
Cara said she and Amber, 40, formed a friendship on the film London Fields and became romantic only after Amber’s toxic split from Johnny Depp in 2016.
Cara said: “We were close for a long time, then when they were going through the divorce. Yeah, we were entangled, I suppose. But she was also entangled with others.”
When Louis suggested that could be a reference to her dating Elon Musk, she replied: “There you go.”
Heard and Musk dated on and off from 2016 to 2018.
This photo, taken Monday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in Seoul as South Korean stocks closed above the 9,100-point mark on a semiconductor rally and optimism over a U.S.-Iran deal. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks finished at an all-time high Monday on a continued rally in semiconductor shares amid signs of progress in U.S.-Iran talks to end their monthslong war in the Middle East. The local currency lost against the U.S. dollar.
After opening 1.08 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 62.13 points, or 0.69 percent, to 9,114.55 after rising as high as 9,253.00.
Trade volume was moderate at 377.2 million shares worth 41.4 trillion won (US$26.9 billion) with losers outnumbering winners 739 to 148.
Retail investors and institutions were net buyers, purchasing 2.15 trillion won and 308.4 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors sold a net 2.55 trillion won.
On Sunday, Washington and Tehran wrapped up their first talks and agreed on a road map to reach a final deal within 60 days, according to a statement issued by the mediating countries of Qatar and Pakistan.
The negotiations had been at risk of breakdown as Tehran said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. President Donald Trump had repeated his threats to resume attacks on Iran.
“Negotiations went smoothly in general despite some aggressive messages, which were considered short-lived noises,” said Kang Jin-hyeok, an analyst from Shinhan Securities.
Semiconductor shares ended in positive territory.
Chip giant SK hynix jumped 5.61 percent to 2.92 million won, surpassing Samsung Electronics in terms of market capitalization for the first time.
SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, surged 10.67 percent to 1.97 million won, and Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip manufacturing equipment provider, increased 2.2 percent to 301,500 won.
Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace advanced 0.27 percent to 1.13 million won, and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) climbed 1.43 percent to 148,600 won.
However, Samsung Electronics dropped 0.14 percent to 353,500 won, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electronic components manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Electronics, lost 1.85 percent to 2.23 million won.
Top carmaker Hyundai Motor decreased 5.22 percent to 581,000 won, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution dipped 4.7 percent to 385,500 won.
Samsung Life Insurance slid 9.36 percent to 450,500 won, and pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics retreated 5.75 percent to 1.3 million won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,537 won against the U.S. dollar, down 10 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 2.6 basis points to 3.810 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 3.9 basis points to 4.044 percent.
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Employees celebrate after the closing bell in a trading room of Woori Bank in Seoul on Thursday, as the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index surpassed a historic landmark of 9,000 points. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul stocks surged by more than 2 percent past another historic landmark, surpassing the 9,000-point level for the first time in history, as investors bet on chipmakers in the face of a hawkish stance by the Federal Reserve and Iran uncertainty.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 199.6 points, or 2.25 percent, to 9,063.84, after rising as high as 9,106.07.
The KOSPI continued its winning streak for the sixth consecutive session on the back of optimism over artificial intelligence (AI) and related sectors.
Trade volume was heavy at 505.9 million shares worth 49.9 trillion won (US$32.7 billion). Foreigners were net buyers, snatching up 1.3 trillion won, while retail and institutional investors net sold a combined 1.2 trillion won.
Losers outnumbered gainers 109 to 788.
The index bucked overnight losses on Wall Street caused by Fed policymakers’ remarks that a rate hike would be inevitable to tame inflation.
The continued rally was led by the country’s two major chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, said analyst Kim Seok-hwan from Mirae Asset Securities.
“Investors are anticipating that semiconductor companies could gain better bargaining power due to a sustained supply bottleneck,” the analyst said.
A risk appetite was also revived on anticipation the U.S.-Iran war is nearing its end. The United States has said Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route, and revealed a signed memorandum of understanding on ending the war.
The rate freeze from the Fed, the fourth consecutive on-hold decision, appeared to have a limited impact on investor sentiment.
Market top cap Samsung Electronics rose 4.62 percent to 362,500 won, while its rival SK hynix jumped 6.51 percent to 2,685,000 won.
Non-semiconductor sectors lost ground.
Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace fell 2.86 percent to 1,189,000 won, ship builder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries retreated 3.25 percent to 684,000 won, and major financial firm KB Financial inched down 0.55 percent to 163,100 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,527.1 won against the U.S. dollar, down 13.7 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 4 basis points to 3.75 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 5.2 basis points to 3.949 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
I wanted to know more the moment I read “Sister Elsie Peak” on an old map.
I discovered the name while researching trails around Mt. Lukens, the highest peak in Los Angeles proper. Looking at the peak’s location on a historical map of L.A. County’s mountains, I noticed that it was previously named for a woman I’d never heard of.
Few of Southern California’s mountain peaks are named after women, so Sister Elsie Peak stuck with me. Who was she? And why was her mountain renamed to instead honor local leader Theodore Lukens?
In this edition of The Wild, our weekly outdoors newsletter, I will take you with me on my arduous journey to find the origins of the first known name for Mt. Lukens. Over the past week, I enlisted help from multiple librarians, map experts and one gracious historian (who you’ll meet later). We all scoured newspaper archives and history books, catching the fever of curiosity that seems to consume anyone who tries to find out who Sister Elsie was.
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What we collectively found was this: Sister Elsie was most likely not a real person, and her legend was most widely shared in the early 20th century by a local landowner who was known to embellish, including claiming that Josephine Peak near Mt. Lukens was named after his daughter. (It wasn’t.)
There appears to be no record anywhere — in newspapers, in history books, in Catholic Church records — as to the existence of a Sister Elsie or, as you’ll learn more about below, an alleged orphanage, ranch or school that she ran in the Tujunga area for Indigenous children or the broader Indigenous community.
In that same vein, I want to call something out before we begin: Stories about the relationships between colonizers and Indigenous peoples often get romanticized (see: Thanksgiving), with storytellers and early historians intentionally leaving out any details of forced assimilation or the American genocide. I cannot report anything concrete about how Sister Elsie actually treated Indigenous people in large part because I don’t believe she was real.
The sunset as viewed from a trail near Mt. Lukens in the San Gabriel Mountains.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
OK, I’ve held you in suspense long enough. Let’s jump into everything under the actual sun that I could find about Sister Elsie Peak.
To begin my reporting, I contacted Times editorial library director Cary Schneider, who is always eager to help me with prospective stories (i.e. highly specific internet rabbit holes I’ve fallen down).
Cary found what might be the earliest mention in a local newspaper: A story in the Monrovia Daily News on April 23, 1910, in which a writer mentions a new trail leading to Sister Elsie Peak, but tragically gives no details of its namesake.
Next, we jump 20 years into the future when The Times and the Pasadena Star-News covered the dedication of Sister Elsie’s Well in Tujunga. Both publications described the well in their stories on April 28, 1930, as named after “the Catholic nun” who ran a school for Indigenous children “in the days of the Spanish missions.” The Times called her a “pioneer nun and teacher.”
Multiple radio towers and other infrastructure sit at the top of Mt. Lukens, as seen on a 2022 hike there.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
The dedication occurred on the land of Philip Begue, a crucial character to understand in the Sister Elsie legend, as he’s believed to have either spread or made up the story, according to a local historian. Begue’s family bought land around Tujunga and La Crescenta in 1882, and later, Begue was an early pioneer and one of the first forest rangers in what would later become Angeles National Forest.
Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s, Begue seemed set on sharing the story of Sister Elsie. In 1934, he told the Pasadena Star-News that the sister “ministered to the sick and needy” Indigenous people.
A Times story on Sept. 29, 1935, announced a barbecue fundraiser for a local Catholic institution at the “old Basque rancho” owned by Begue. “The ranch on Honolulu avenue was famous in early days when Los Angeles was a pueblo and Sister Elsie had a children’s home where the ranch now stands.” The Begue family planned to cook “hundreds of pounds of meat for the affair.”
Times columnist Harry Carr offered in his column, the Lancer, a completely different take. Carr wrote on April 3, 1935, that Sister Elsie Peak was named “for a nun who lost her life trying to walk from San Fernando to San Gabriel.” No, he doesn’t provide a source for where he learned that information. Trust me: I too shook my fist at the sky.
The last rays of sun blanket across Mt. Lukens, as seen from Dunsmore Canyon in Deukmejian Wilderness Park near Glendale.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
I would be remiss to mention that the oldest reference to a “Sister Elsie” in The Times’ archives appears to be an 1889 story about — buckle up — a psychic medium in Azusa. For a brief and beautiful moment, Cary and I hoped Sister Elsie Peak would turn out to be named after Elsie Wheeler, a spiritualist medium whose own story relates to an astrological tool. Alas, the peak was named before she was born (which doesn’t work unless she was a really good psychic). That said, a peak named after a mythical nun and a clairvoyant feels arguably appropriate for the highest point in L.A.
Cary also discovered one of my favorite facts about the Sister Elsie legend — that it was turned into a play titled “Sister Elsie in Tujunga.” It was written by Frances Muir Pomeroy, superintendent of summer school at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. It was said to be about “the experiences of Sister Elsie when she conducted an orphanage here many years ago,” according to a 1938 Times story.
There are other references to Sister Elsie in The Times’ archives over the next several decades, but nothing that gives concrete evidence that she actually existed.
Cary advised me to contact the Los Angeles Public Library. Librarian Kelly C. Wallace, who specializes in California history, quickly got back to me.
Knowing that Cary had already scoured The Times’ archives, Wallace sifted through the agency’s Los Angeles Area Historical Newspapers database, which contains the Los Angeles Daily Star (1870-1879), the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (1896-1936) and the Los Angeles Star (1851-1871), along with community newspapers such as the Eagle Rock Sentinel and the Highland Park Herald. She found little there.
The trail through Stone Canyon to reach Mt. Lukens.
(Mary Forgione / Los Angeles Times)
This is especially puzzling if Sister Elsie did exist because, before the advent of television, newspapers reported seemingly everything that we now post on social media — detailed trip reports, the attendees of parties, birth announcements, and even basic road repairs.
Wallace did discover a few interesting tidbits in books, but curiously nothing before 1930.
The earliest reference that Wallace found was in the 1938 book “History of La Crescenta-La Canada Valleys” by Grace J. Oberbeck. She spoke to Begue, who spun quite the yarn:
“On El Rancho de las Hermanas, the ranch of the sisters, a group of nuns who had an orphanage not far distant, kept a herd of cows which was looked after by” local Indigenous people “who supplied milk to the school whenever needed. Sister Elsie was the much loved nun in charge of” the Indigenous dairy workers, “and her name was given to the well. Almost directly north from here towers a high peak of the Sierra Madre range and this bears the name of Sister Elsie Peak.”
Legendary outdoors writer and historian John W. Robinson, Wallace found, told the Sister Elsie story in his 1977 book “The San Gabriels,” but followed it up with a correction in his 1983 tome, “The San Gabriels II”: “The derivation of Mt. Lukens’ original name, Sister Elsie Peak, is clouded in uncertainty. Exhaustive research into Catholic Church records fails to find any evidence of a nun named Sister Elsie nor an orphanage named El Rancho de Dos Hermanas.”
You’re telling me, John!
Wallace also found an entirely different story about Sister Elsie on page 47 of “The San Fernando Valley” by Jackson Mayers, published in 1976.
“Sister Elsie, a Sister of Charity, came to Tujunga from Los Angeles between 1850 and 1875 to work with” Indigenous people “at a school and orphanage. Near Haines Canyon was Sister Elsie’s well; Sister Elsie’s Peak was named, it is said, because when troubled she would gain strength by raising her eyes to that eminence, one whose top she was to be buried. Others held that two nuns on their way from Mission San Fernando to Mission San Gabriel lost their way in Tujunga and died atop the peak.”
There is tragically no footnote on the page, so I have no idea who Mayers’ source was.
I hoped that finding out when Sister Elsie Peak was named would help, but that also proved to be a dead end.
Local historian Mike Lawler, former president of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, told Realtor Sharon Hales in a 2016 interview that cartographer George M. Wheeler and his team named the mountaintop Sister Elsie Peak during their survey of California in the late 1800s.
“We don’t know why he named it Sister Elsie Peak,” Lawler said. “The reasons why he named everything are lost to history. They were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.”
This led me to contact the staff at the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University Library, as its collections are vast, and I hoped maybe they’d somehow find half a charred page of notes with Sister Elsie’s biography scrawled in quill pen.
Instead, Kristina Larsen, the center’s associate curator, came up short, finding only that a misspelling, “Sister Else Pk” was on the 1881 land classification map from Wheeler.
Evan Thornberry, the center’s head and curator, unearthed “Vignettes of California Catholicism,” a 1988 book by Monsignor Francis J. Weber, longtime archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the San Fernando Mission.
Weber conducted an exhaustive search for the existence of Sister Elsie and found no proof of any existence of Sister Elsie or a Catholic orphanage in the Tujunga area at the time.
Weber offered my favorite suggestion for why no one can find any hint of Sister Elsie’s existence: “Maybe the good Sister was kidnapped by Martians!”
If so, I hope someone there takes better care to protect knowledge regarding the names of that planet’s mountains.
You’d think I’d give up here, right?
Instead, I contacted historian Kristine Gunnell, who wrote “Daughters of Charity: Women, Religious Mission and Hospital Care in Los Angeles, 1856-1927” (Vincentian Studies Institute).
I hoped Gunnell would have an answer, as Sister Elsie was said to be in the Sisters of Charity, an American version of the Daughters of Charity, a group that was founded in France in the 1600s with an aim of serving low-income and sick people.
The Daughters group eventually inspired American Catholic women to serve in a similar way, first forming the Sisters of Charity until the groups essentially merged. In the 1850s, as more people moved to the American West, a bishop in the L.A. area requested that Daughters of Charity come to L.A., Gunnell said.
But, there’s no Sister Elsie referenced in Gunnell’s book.
Gunnell said after hearing from me, she contacted a history professor from DePaul University who is compiling a database about all the Daughters of Charity who served in California. He found no one referred to as “Sister Elsie” between 1850 and 1900.
A 1931 news story references that Sister Elsie treated Indigenous children diagnosed with typhoid fever.
Tujunga “was only a day’s wagon ride from Los Angeles, and if these Tongva were Catholic or had Catholic connections, the sisters may have considered their request,” Gunnell wrote to me. “I was hoping that I’d be able to find a record of the typhoid outbreak in Tujunga in the 1860s or 1870s and cross reference it with the Daughters’ records. It’s a good story, and the sisters likely would’ve reported it if it’s true. However, I can’t isolate a specific outbreak.”
Later, Gunnell and I hopped on a Zoom call to commiserate.
With all of our research before us, we reached the same conclusion: A Catholic sister could have feasibly traveled to Tujunga at the request of a bishop to help Indigenous people, but currently there is no record of a woman known as Sister Elsie who did so. There’s no record of much of anything told in the Sister Elsie story. It seems, instead, to have been an urban legend of its time.
At least for now.
Hikers in Elysian Park.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
3 things to do
1. Reach for the rainbow in L.A. One Down Dog, an L.A. yoga and fitness studio, will host a Pride hike from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday in Elysian Park. Guests will hike a loop trail through the park. For more details, register at eventbrite.com.
2. Marvel at mollusks in Malibu The Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation will host a tidepooling event from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 19 near the Wishtoyo Chumash Village (33904 Pacific Coast Highway) in Malibu. Guests will learn about Wishtoyo Village, which is typically not open to the public. All experience levels welcome. Learn more at the foundation’s Instagram page.
3. Learn along the L.A. River in Downey The California Native Plant Society and Friends of the L.A. River will host a guided bike ride along the L.A. River. Naturalist Cris Sarabia will teach participants about local ecology during the ride. Binoculars will be provided. Guests should bring safety gear and water. Learn more at the group’s Instagram page. Register at folar.org.
The must-read
Burn damage to the Torrey pine grove at Santa Rosa Island.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The length of time that it will take for Santa Rosa Island to recover after a blaze scorched about one-third of the island remains unclear, Times staff writer Grace Toohey wrote after a recent visit to the island. The fire, which grew to 18,379 acres, is now fully contained. Firefighters faced vicious winds and, at times, 30-foot flames. “They held the line, and we have them to thank for saving housing, saving the island, saving the history of the Santa Rosa Island,” said Ethan McKinley, superintendent of Channel Islands National Park. The island has long been a respite for hikers and backpackers, including Times staff writer Lila Seidman, who shared her experiences on the island and her grief that came in the wake of the blaze. “Now fear clouds the memories: Does the rugged, magical place of my mind’s eye still exist?” Seidman wrote.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
I have a flurry of good California animal news to share. First, three mule deer were the first animals to walk over California’s first wildlife crossing over State Route 97 in Siskiyou County. Second, scientists have feared that the population of endangered steelhead trout in the Santa Monica Mountains were killed in massive debris flows after the Palisades fire. However, researchers recently spotted the fish — and their babies — in Topanga Creek. And finally, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shared earlier this week that five orphaned black bear cubs that were rehabilitated and released into northern California in November successfully hibernated through the winter and returned to the landscape this spring healthy and active, according to recent data reviewed by the agency’s scientists.
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
It seems odd that the biggest news of the week was the fact that tickets for a movie went on sale, but apparently Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “The Odyssey” is no typical movie. Having already made tickets available for some shows a full year in advance, Universal put more of them on sale for the July 17 opening weekend of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s ancient epic. There were reports of long online wait times, crashing ticketing systems and the kind of problems more often associated with pop stars than movie nerds.
“The Odyssey” will be playing in a variety of formats, with the Imax 70mm screenings among the most coveted. More venues than usual have also been announced as playing the film in 70mm, including the Village Theatre in Westwood. (A handy visual guide to the different fomats is on the film’s website.) While there is a hint of the ridiculous to some of this mania — popcorn buckets in the shape of Imax cameras and movie tickets going on the resale market for hundreds of dollars — there is no denying how exciting it is to see this kind of anticipation building around any movie.
Back to a ’90s phenomenon
Ewen Bremner, left, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle in the movie “Trainspotting.”
(Liam Longman / Sony Pictures Classics)
When it first came out in 1996, “Trainspotting” was an instant cultural phenomenon, capturing the vibes of the “Cool Britannia” moment with its sparkling soundtrack, inventive, high-energy style and cast that included up-and-coming talents such as Ewan McGregor and Kelly Macdonald. It was only the second feature directed by Danny Boyle, who would go on to be an Oscar winner, mount an Olympics opening ceremony and remain a reliably exciting filmmaker all the way to his recent “28 Years Later.”
“Trainspotting” is now back in theaters in a 4K restoration for its 30th anniversary, having lost none of its brash vigor. In his original review, Kenneth Turan said of the film, “Exuberant and pitiless, profane yet eloquent, flush with the ability to create laughter out of unspeakable situations, ‘Trainspotting’ is a drop-dead look at a dead-end lifestyle that has all the strength of its considerable contradictions.”
Appearing like magic
Kathy Najimy, left, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1993 comedy “Hocus Pocus.”
(Disney)
Directed by Kenny Ortega, “Hocus Pocus” is one of those movies that has seen its fanbase grow steadily over the years — it is now much more beloved than it ever was on initial release. (It even inspired a 2022 sequel.) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi play the Sanderson sisters, 17th century witches who find themselves inadvertently brought to modern day by a group of teenagers messing around with casting spells.
The film will play Saturday at the Gardena Cinema, featuring a live commentary from cast members Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Larry Bagby, Tobias Jelinek and Vinessa Shaw followed by a Q&A. This is a rare appearance by Katz in particular, who has retired from acting. Fans of the movie should make the effort to attend.
The Gardena, the last family-owned single-screen theater in Los Angeles, suffered a blow last weekend when a burst pipe flooded the venue. Though they are operational, a campaign has been started to help them recoup repair costs.
Examining the life of the mind
John Turturro in the 1991 movie “Barton Fink.”
(20th Century Fox)
Ranking the films of Joel and Ethan Coen has become a cottage industry of its own. Personally, I go back-and-forth on where to place 1991’s “Barton Fink,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as prizes for director and actor. The movie is by turns funny, disturbing and inscrutable (all good things), with John Turturro in the title role as an intellectual New York playwright who goes to Hollywood to write screenplays — and slowly goes insane.
The movie will play Friday in 35mm at Vidiots with an introduction from Noah Segan, who directed Turturro in one of the breakout titles from this year’s Sundance, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Hopefully, this will turn into a year in which Turturro gets some long-deserved accolades.
Christmas in June
Elliott Gould on the set of 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”
(Anwar Hussein / Getty Images)
There is something particularly charged about watching a Christmas movie at other times of year — an odd sense of dislocation and maybe even something a little naughty, a circuit-scrambling frisson. So it is particularly notable that as part of their salute to the independent studio Carolco Pictures (behind such films as “Basic Instinct,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Reservoir Dogs”), the Vista will be showing 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”
Just the kind of tight and gripping thriller that people pine for all year round, “The Silent Partner” has a screenplay by Curtis Hanson, who would go on to make “L.A. Confidential.” Elliott Gould plays a Toronto bank teller who tries to rip off the thief (Christopher Plummer) who robs his branch wearing a Santa costume as a disguise. Soon they are both scheming against each other.
In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas called it “tense and ingenious.” In a reconsideration of the film some months later, Charles Champlin called it “a stylish crime-suspense story, a cat-and-mouse game between Christopher Plummer as a clever, sadistic bank robber and Elliott Gould as a bored bank teller who sees a way out of his boredom and into riches.”
So much beauty
Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard in the 1978 movie “Days of Heaven.”
(Criterion Collection)
Terrence Malick’s 1978 “Days of Heaven” is still strikingly singular: a love story told with a stirring visual style. The film’s beauty — aside from its impossibly good-looking lead actors, Richard Gere and Brooke Adams — in part comes from gifted Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros, who made his American debut after a career in Europe that saw him working with filmmakers such as Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut. Almendros would win an Academy Award for the film.
The New Beverly will show “Days of Heaven” in 35mm Tuesday through Thursday as a double bill with Truffaut’s 1970 “The Wild Child,” shot by Almendros in black-and-white. Writing about “Days” in 1978, The Times’ Charles Champlin called it “an extraordinary and original visual experience and a movie which is thrilling in its uncompromised purity.”
Perverse fun
Ha Jung-woo, left, and Kim Min-hee in the 2016 movie “The Handmaiden.”
(TIFF)
Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook was just president of the Cannes jury and has become a much-beloved figure on the international circuit for his wicked sense of humor and sharp sense of style. Nowhere is that on better display than his 2016 film “The Handmaiden,” which is somehow at once a period drama, a con-man thriller and an erotic lesbian romance. Vidiots will be showing the movie Sunday.
As Justin Chang wrote when the film was released, “Without sacrificing his taste for psychosexual perversity or his flair for violent grace notes, Park has given us a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller whose pleasures are rooted not in visceral shock but in narrative surprise, and which wisely opts to seduce rather than pulverize its audience.”
In an interview at the time, Park said the film’s unpredictability was part of the project’s appeal. “That’s the exact kind of fun to be had with this film and the reason why I chose to make this film. Everything becomes a game of perception. Rather than to say it’s a difficult thing to navigate, it is fun to deal with. Not only for me as a filmmaker but for the audience to see that and engage in that game.”
New this week
Amy Nicholson reviews the latest attempt to make a movie out of a popular Mattel toy with the lightly-tongue-in-cheek “Masters of the Universe.”
Amy also reviewed the revival of the satirical “Scary Movie” franchise, with original stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning to make fun of such recent hits as “Sinners,” “Weapons” and “The Substance.”
The documentary “Time and Water” looks at climate change through the life and work of Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason as directed by Sara Dosa, who had a hit with her last film “Fire of Love.” Robert Abele reviews.
One last thing…
This week, our colleagues at De Los launched a podcast hosted by Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito. The interview-style video podcast will feature conversations with the people shaping Latino culture in the United States.
The first episode features singer and actor Leslie Grace, who talks about her experiences working on the film “In the Heights” as well as being the star of the canceled “Batgirl.”
The children were asleep in the little tent behind us, wrapped in two sleeping bags, each with an extra helping of wool blankets. Earlier, all I could see were their little faces half-lit by torchlight as I read them a book about rivers to the sound of rain on canvas. They fell asleep as fast and thick as the fog pooling in the valley below.
My partner and I sat outside, huddled together under a waterproof coat, cheek to cheek, perched on our daughters’ foam swim vests because the ground was saturated. We were laughing. As parents, absurdity and beauty make for familiar bedfellows.
Just a few days earlier, it had seemed impossible we would go anywhere;every affordable campsite, yurt and cottage was booked up for the Easter holidays. Then I remembered how last year, tagging along with the Right to Roamcrew, I ended up sleeping on the floor of the Beeches, a former Quaker residential community house in the village of Bamford, on the edge of Derbyshire’s upper Derwent valley. Its new stewards had amazing plans – a space for community health, social justice and ecological regeneration, all in collaboration with local people and grassroots groups.
I pinged them an email – “Can we stay on your land for one night?” – and, feeling inspired, contacted a few other initiatives, too.
We were in luck. Our hosts, Vanessa and Max, welcomed us into the Beeches, which was just as beautiful as I remembered. At the end of a wildflower path, past allotments and woodland, are two outbuildings: sheds on the outside, cosy cabins on the inside. “A family of deer lives here,” Vanessa said to my daughters, five and three, holding one hand each.
By the firepit, we unloaded still-hot pizzas, still-cold beers and marshmallows for roasting. As the dark set in, the children set the ends of sticks on fire, drawing shapes in the air.
In our cabin, candles, fairy lights and a wood-burning stove cast flickering shadows. The sofa beds were pushed together to make one giant bed. As I told the kids a story beneath the covers, I felt I was in a story myself.
By morning, we were a tangle of limbs. Light filtered through egg-patterned curtains. A train rumbled past and the sound summoned adventure. I opened the doors to birdsong while my partner prepared instant coffee and porridge. “I wish today would never end, Mama,” said my eldest.
Coco Lane Neal’s daughters at Bamford Mill. Photograph: Coco Lone Neal
We ate lunch at the nearby Anglers Rest, Bamford’s community-owned pub, with a cafe and post office in the same building. I dropped my sacred local texts, Wild Swimming Walks Peak District and The Upper Derwent: 10,000 Years in a Peak District Valley by Bill Bevan, on to the table. There was so much to explore – reservoir, ruin, gritstone edge – but the sun was calling.
The River Derwent was just down the road, its banks dotted with bluebells, cow parsley, clover and stitchwort. A mandarin duck watched from a patch of brambles as we quickly changed into our swimming costumes. Wading in upstream from the stepping stones at Bamford Mill, I was instantly ecstatic, while the children sat in the shallows, covering themselves in river mud.
That evening, we followed a winding road up into the hills above Ladybower reservoir. Lockerbrook Farm Outdoor Centre is a hill farm now run as a residential education centre by Woodcraft Folk, a national youth charity promoting education for social change. “We will make an exception,” they explained in their email, “because the camping field is empty.” They don’t usually rent camping pitches to individuals who are not on their courses, but have a cottage on the site available for rentals.
The friendly warden showed us around: field, sink, toilet, the most stupendous view of the high moorlands and deep cut of Derwent valley. The field was on an incline and, while we set up camp, the children bickered over which molehill was theirs. A group of cyclists passed above: “You’re very brave!” shouted one, and I thought he meant the children until my partner pointed out the dark clouds bruising the horizon.
The cosy cabins at the Beeches, a former Quaker residential community house in the village of Bamford. Photograph: Coco Lone Neal
“I’m hungry, Mama!” I went to light the camp stove. It didn’t work. Drizzle turned to rain. The packet of macaroni cheese said it would be edible with cold water. It wasn’t. I ran to beg the warden for boiled water and found a scene of pure bliss – young people cooking together in a warm cottage. One hot flask, two pots of apology-porridge and countless-kisses later, the children were asleep.
And so, this is how my partner and I found ourselves pressed together outside the tent in the dark, in the rain. “Next time we must bring a waterproof blanket to sit on,” he said.
“And an umbrella,” I said.
“And test the stove,” he laughed. “And then maybe we’ll be ready for a wild camp!”
We were giggling, shushing one another, when a female tawny owl screeched, quickly answered by the male, echoing from what seemed to be all the trees: ke-wick hoo-hoo, ke-wick hoo-hoo.
The next morning, we packed up early and drove down to Fairholmes car park, where the Refreshment Kiosk was waiting with hot drinks and pasties. From here, there’s a family-friendly trail featuring carved wooden creatures on the shores of Ladybower reservoir. I told the children about the lost villages beneath its waters. They were already there, one foot always in the imaginary.
We smelt of mildew, wildflower, woodsmoke, river water and sweat. Dandelion seeds were caught in my daughter’s curls. I blew the wishes free.
The Beeches has cabins sleeping four from £125 a night; camping £10pp per night. Lockerbrook Farm is predominantly for large groups, but the Warden’s Cottage sleeps six from £33pp per night. The weekend is accessible from Bamford train station for those who love hiking: the Beeches is a 15-minute walk; pub and wild swimming 20 minutes; Fairholmes is two hours; and Lockerbrook Farm a further 30-minute uphill hike from there.
June 3 (UPI) — People in the United States have pulled back from support of LGBTQ+ issues over the past few years, with 65% percent showing support for same-sex marriage now as opposed to 71% in 2022-2023, a Gallup poll released Wednesday shows.
The percentage of U.S. residents saying that gay or lesbian relations are “morally acceptable” also fell to 62%, the lowest that percentage has been since 2016.
This comes after a surge in acceptance in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Gallup said that between 1996 and 2022, the percentage of those in favor of legal same-sex marriage increased from 27% to 71%. However, that percentage has declined since.
The poll (Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey) first asked about same-sex relationships and morality in 2001. Then, 40% percent said they were “morally acceptable.” That percentage grew to 71% by 2022, dropping to 64% in 2023.
The Gallup release noted that Republicans are largely responsible for the decline in acceptance. In 2021 and 2022, it said, 55% of Republicans expressed acceptance for same-sex marriage, but that has now dropped to 37%. Democrat views, however, are the same today as in 2022, with 87% in favor. Independents dropped from 73% to 67%.
There is a similar trend in opinion on the overall morality of same-sex relationships. In 2022, a high of 56% of Republicans said same-sex relationships were morally acceptable, but that percentage has now fallen 21 points to 35%. Democrats remain at 81% for that measure, while Independents have fallen eight points to 64%.
Gallup noted that Republican views on that measure are now where they were between 2005 and 2014.
The poll also asked about the perceived morality of changing one’s gender. The percentage of those in support has decreased from 46% over five years to 38 percent. Among Republicans, 22% expressed support in 2021, the first year the question was asked, compared to 5% today. Among Independents, the percentage decreased from 48% to 42%, and among Democrats, it decreased from 67% to 60%.
“The change has come as conservative leaders have pushed back against diversity, equity and inclusion programs that were intended to foster greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and other historically disadvantaged groups,” a Gallup release said.
The Trump administration has worked against protections for LGBTQ+ people in both terms, including ending civil rights settlements with college and school districts intending to prevent discrimination against transgender students.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 adults between May 1-17 with a 4% margin of error.
THERE’S bad news for Brits heading to Spain this summer as they might not be able to enjoy a drink in the sun on an outdoor terrace.
Under new rules, terraces in Spain will be forced to close when the weather gets too hot.
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The rules – that were campaigned for by hospitality unions – will apply when the State of Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issue an orange or red alert.
AEMET’s orange alert means there is a major risk such as severe storms, heavy snow or intense heat and then for a red alert, it is an extreme risk and includes extreme rainfall, life-threatening storms and dangerously high temperatures.
In the case of exceptionally hot weather, restaurants, bars and cafes have to close their terraces if there is not enough shade or cooling systems for staff.
The rules are likely to apply during the hottest hours of the day.
Areas across Spain reach high temperatures, especially during July and August, with some destinations reaching over 40C.
Even though closure of outdoor spaces is a last resort measure, if a bar, restaurant or cafe does not follow the new rules then it could face a fine of more than €50,000 (£43,326) in extreme cases.
For tourists, this could mean when temperatures reach high levels they won’t be able to grab a cold drink and sit on a restaurant’s terrace.
If you do want a drink though, you can still head inside as this is a shaded area.
As a result of the new rules, businesses across Spain are being encouraged to create different schedules for staff, with more breaks so they can stay hydrated.
