Cate Le Bon Is a Slippery Tour Guide Through Time and Space

Topanga, a canyon community tucked into the Santa Monica Mountains, an hour’s drive west of downtown Los Angeles, is a place of contradiction. There is unadulterated beauty, accessible via 36 miles of hiking trails across protected land. And there is a simmering threat. Wildfires have ripped through the area periodically over the decades, with the most recent one, in 1993, claiming 18,000 acres and three lives. (Last year’s neighboring Palisades Fire was visible from certain Topanga hilltops.) The coexistence of risk and reward is a routine consideration for people who spend time there, even outside of peak fire season. The… Read Full Article