#big-basin

#big-basin

Mammoth Mountain reported between 12 and 18 inches of new snow over the past 48 hours, with additional snowfall forecasted to add to an already solid late-season base.

According to the Forest Service, these changes are taking place as part of an effort to 'unify research priorities, accelerate the application of science to management decisions, and reduce administrative duplication.'

The storm will begin warm and wind-affected on Friday, with snow levels starting around 7,000 to 8,000 feet, leading to wet conditions at lower elevations initially.

The nine national parks in the Golden State - including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree - attracted nearly 12 million recreational visits in 2025, according to statistics from the National Park Service. That's up more than 800,000 visits from 2024 and up more than 300,000 from the previous record set in 2019, according to the data, which stretches back to 1979.

For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.

The new trees number in the thousands - at least 4,000 per acre or as many as 20,000, depending on who is counting. A few rise above head-height, the most energetic sentinels of regeneration. What will become of this nursery in the wild in the next hundred years, or thousand, is the crux of a scientific and policy dispute.

Named after the legendary Big Sur female pioneer and rancher, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park stands out even among the rest of the region's attractions. The park features stands of centuries-old redwood trees and provides a haven for a variety of California wildlife, though it's best known for the 80-foot-high McWay Falls, an impressive cascade that drops directly from a sheer cliff to the sandy beach below.

As a SoCal resident, I visit Anza-Borrego at least once a year to explore the sandstone Slot canyon and surrounding desert, keeping an eye out for animals like chuckwalla lizards and bighorn sheep. Despite its incredibly dry environment (the park averages just four to eight inches of rain a year, and summertime temps routinely hit the hundreds), Anza-Borrego teems with life and opportunities to explore one of the nation's most unique ecosystems.

The flurry of quakes rattled close to a relatively unknown fault called Blue Cut, according to Kate Scharer, a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program in Pasadena. "This happened in Joshua Tree National Park, a beautiful part of the world where many people have actually probably been and unknowingly traversed near this fault," Scharer told SFGATE. "This is a good reminder that there are many other faults besides the San Andreas in California that can give us a little jolt."

If you're planning to visit one of the 11 most popular national parks in the U.S. - two of which are in California - staff might ask a question that could be disquieting: Are you an American citizen? A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said that the question is being posed only to confirm whether the visitor will have to pay a nonresident fee - which is hefty.

Longer days, blooming flowers, and increasing temperatures make spring the perfect time for an escape to one of the 63 major US national parks. After traveling solo to all of them, there are a few I think are especially worth seeing between the months of March and June.

SWE is the most important metric for all of our water resources. It's the metric that we deal with the most and the one that the entirety of the snow research and operations community is working to get right. So, seeing an increase in SWE like that, even if it's from mid-winter rain, is a great thing because that means we have more water stored in the snowpack moving forward.

Now, in a recent study published in Geology, retired University of New Mexico geologist Karl Karlstrom and his colleagues conclude that the asteroid's impact shook Marble Canyon hard enough to dislodge great chunks of stone and send a landslide tumbling into the river. The debris formed a natural dam that backed up the Colorado for over 50 miles to near present-day Lees Ferry.

"Wildflower growth depends on a delicate mix of weather factors, including rain and its timing, amount of sunlight, seasonal temperature patterns, and wind," State Parks wrote in its forecast. "Depending on the region and weather, the peak bloom season typically begins in mid-February onward." Currently, some colors have already been spotted in both the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is northeast of San Diego, and the Red Rock Canyon State Park, which sits north of Los Angeles.

This quaint little town, surrounded by green pastures and granite cliffs, is the northern gateway to the High Sierra. Bridgeport always evokes nostalgia and is one of my favorite views of the Eastern Sierra. In my younger years, it was all about the resorts, and Bridgeport was a place to stretch the legs on the way to Mammoth Mountain. Now, I look more to the backcountry trailheads, and Bridgeport has become an alluring area along the 395 corridor.

My father was a petroleum geologist. A lot of my childhood, he was gone, away on oil rigs in the Powder River Basin and remote parts of Wyoming, living in man camps long before cellphones. We had to wait days to talk to him. When he went into the nearest town to shower, he'd find a payphone and call us. I was always breathless with news.

Confidence is highest through Saturday because the individual models agree well on the timing of the Thursday storm and the following break. Southern California's mountains pick up a quick shot of snow on Thursday with strong winds, then dry out into the weekend. Beyond the weekend, the signal stays active, but model spread grows fast on storm timing, snow levels, and wind impacts, so expect meaningful swings from run to run.

"A dry January, which is historically the wettest month of the year in California, has now eroded the gains made at the start of the year and forecasts currently show no major precipitation in the next two weeks," California Department of Weather Resources spokesperson Jason Ince wrote in a Jan. 30 news release. The first month of the year certainly left the area warmer and drier than usual, weather officials confirmed.