Palos Verdes, Vasquez Rocks, Big Tujunga Canyon and Point Dume are lesser visited, but gorgeous locations that are a short drive away from the Los Angeles city center. So next time you have a free Saturday afternoon, check out these 4 destinations.

If you live in Los Angeles and you take road trips, you’ve definitely seen, talked about or photographed Vasquez Rocks. It’s the place you see as you drop back into the the Los Angeles basin after coming back from anywhere in Eastern Sierras or Death Valley…

There’s a beautiful bit of coastline in Palos Verdes. The weathered cliffs, tide pools and sea caves are reminiscent of Montaña de Oro. At only 35 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, Palos Verdes is a good stand-in for the Central Coast for a weekend day trip.

We are big music lovers, but our introvert tendencies, 10:30pm bedtime and aversion to noisy campgrounds makes it sound like just the worst. But we are grateful to that behemoth of a fest. Since most bands play both weekends, those bands hang around the area…

Sometimes the best adventure is in your own backyard. On a recent weekend where we couldn’t go out of town on a big trip, we made a mini-trip of exploring the hills of Elysian Park. We can walk from our home in Echo Park so we filled a canvas bag with sundowner…