Where to find hiking trails accessible to just about everyone in L.A.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Oct. 14. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Where to find accessible hiking trails in L.A.
• How did the Airbnb “tenant from hell” get away with living rent-free for 540 days?
• 52 ways to celebrate Día de Muertos in L.A. and O.C.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Where to find hiking trails accessible to just about everyone in L.A.

The heat waves have passed (hopefully for a while). Now it’s time to lace up your boots for fall hiking.

Trails in Malibu’s Solstice Canyon offer sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. To the east, in the San Gabriel Mountains, a picturesque panorama of Altadena hides at the end of trails like Henninger Flats.

When picking a trail, there are plenty of options for shade and difficulty level. But what about nature lovers who use wheelchairs or other equipment to help them get around? Folks who are older or have physical disabilities? Or children who aren’t yet able to traverse rocky or steep inclines?

We’ve got you covered. Times reporter Laura Newberry compiled a list of hikes within an hour of L.A. that make the great outdoors accessible for anybody.

As Laura writes, trails that can be enjoyed by the widest range of abilities have a few things in common: “They’re either paved or made from firm ground that wheelchairs can traverse safely; they’re at least 3 feet wide; and they have a low grade, meaning they’re relatively flat. They should also have accessible parking spots nearby.”

In Long Beach, El Dorado Nature Center’s 100-acre park is a lush, hidden oasis with 1- and 2-mile trails, and a 0.25-mile trail. For those using wheelchairs or who can’t walk up inclines, the 0.25-mile trail is better because it’s entirely paved, very flat and has handrails the entire way.

An accessible trail in Long Beach’s El Dorado Nature Center.

(Laura Newberry)

Near Culver City, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area’s Gwen Moore Lake is surrounded by a flat, paved walkway that is over a quarter of a mile long. Towering eucalyptus trees shade the path with accessible cutouts where wheelchair users can fish or watch the ducks and turtles.

Geese at Gwen Moore Lake in the Westside’s Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.

(Laura Newberry)

For ocean views, a trail at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center & Lighthouse in Rancho Palos Verdes provides paved sidewalks that aren’t entirely flat but pretty close. Plus, there are several benches on the path that face the ocean.

A visitor takes in the view of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island from Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Whether you’re looking for ocean views or trails lined with native plants and trees, anyone should be able to enjoy the outdoors.

For more accessible L.A. trails, read Laura’s guide.

The week’s biggest stories

War in the Middle East

• She was away when Hamas militants invaded her kibbutz and kidnapped her family.
• Column: Who’s to blame for the Hamas attack on Israel? That debate is already going off the rails.

Politics

• The attack on Israel, and how to respond to it, is roiling L.A.’s election campaigns.
• Former Dodgers star and Republican Steve Garvey enters U.S. Senate race.

New at Disneyland

• Disneyland announces another round of price hikes in time for the holiday season.
• $50 tickets and everything else that’s new at Disneyland this fall.

Climate and Environment

• Tribal leaders and researchers have mapped the ancient ‘lost suburbs’ of Los Angeles.
• How L.A.’s bird population is shaped by historic redlining and racist loan practices.

More big stories

• Column: Splat! Humiliated Dodgers swept into next season.
• Kaiser Permanente and unions reach tentative agreement one week after strike.
• How exactly did the Airbnb “tenant from hell” get away with living rent-free for 540 days?
• Cameras, cops and paranoia: How Amazon’s surveillance network alters L.A. neighborhoods.
• L.A is in the middle of a cookie craze. The best ones to try now.
• WGA members easily ratify new contract to end 148-day strike as anxieties loom.
• The cheap streaming era is over. Here’s why your bills are going up.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

The week’s great reads

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Kevin de León says he deserves another chance. Critics say he’s “gaslighting” L.A. Kevin de León is the last one standing after an audio leak caught him in a conversation that featured racist and derogatory remarks. Now he’s running for reelection.

More great reads

• Created in California: Packaging pleasure, one sex toy at a time.
• Fallout of Skid Row Housing Trust collapse big and small: broken promises, homelessness and lost dentures.
• “America does not deserve me.” Why Black people are leaving the United States.
• Ice bath dates? Yes, people do that in L.A.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

(Illustration by Diana Ramirez/De Los)

Going out

• 🌺💀🌸 52 ways to celebrate Día de Muertos in L.A. and O.C.
• 🎭 Peso Pluma in concert, a catrina costume exhibit and more things to do this weekend.
• 🌑 A “ring of fire” solar eclipse is coming today. Here’s what you should know.
• 🐑 Volunteers wanted: Must love Santa Barbara’s great outdoors. And sheep.

Staying in

• 🏈 No. 10 USC vs. No. 21 Notre Dame: Trojans prepare for a wet, bruising game day.
• 📺 No objections to Jamie Foxx in the entertaining courtroom drama “The Burial.”
• 🥥 Here’s a recipe for coconut raspado with jammy plums.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Holly Farndell / For The Times)

My Situationship was humiliating. Would a solo trip heal my heart? Karen’s relationship was over. She needed to get out of cold and dark Toronto. She needed to find the sun, the light. She just needed to go to California.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

P.S. For the record: Yesterday’s newsletter said that the Chinatown Neighborhood Night Market was organized as a fundraiser for those facing eviction at the Hillside Villa apartment complex. The market did include a fundraiser, but it was not its sole or primary purpose.

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