Hi. I am visiting L.A. for the first time at the end of next week for 5 days and am a nature buff. I will be staying with a friend in Echo Park but would love to check out the beaches and mountains. I will be renting a car to help with this. Any advice as to what nature activities I should check out? Thanks.

Well LA isn't normally visited in order to see Nature... however, you could ride a bike along the bike path which runs North and South from Santa Monica... You can hike in Temescal canyon in Pacific Palisades. Visit Will Roger's home, also in Pac. Pal.

There are lots of options for nature lovers in the Greater L.A. area:

You can try whale watching, from either a boat out of Redondo Beach or Long Beach, or from the shore at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. There are also great little hikes along the Peninsula. Most have ocean views.

A day trip to Catalina Island with a tour of the interior is also a possibility. If you are lucky, you may be able to spot the bison living there, along with other wildlife.

Griffith Park has a network of hiking trails. You can even hike up to and above the Observatory there.

Huntington Botanical Gardens, The L.A. Arboretum and the Descanso Gardens are all wonderful.

If you Google "Day Hikes, Los Angeles", you will find other suggestions.

A highly underrated destination is Mt. Baldy, in the San Gabriel mountain range near Upland. It is ski season right now, but you'll get a glimpse of what the San Gabriel range has to offer.

There are areas where, when looking western toward the desert from the mountain range, you can clearly see where the San Andreas fault runs. Very cool.

The part of the Santa Monica mountains that run west of the 405 freeway all the way to Camarillo are wild and beautiful.

Do you like to hike? Try Topanga State Park, Malibu State Park, Sycamore Canyon. Check out nps.gov/samo. Unfortunately the weather has been a bit dry and it's early in the year, so things are still a bit brown, but most people have no idea how wild these mountains are, so close to the city.

Horseback riding in Griffith park is offered at a local stable. I don't know if they still do it, but they had a night ride and you would ride out to the Burbank stables have dinner at a local restaurant, then ride back.
http://sunsetranchhollywood.com/

A fun urban walk would be the Venice canals. You can get to them from Washington Blvd. near the Baja Cantina.

Our weather is looking good for this weekend, sunny and warm thru Sunday, but some rain possible on Monday.