The Do Not Enter sign is located at the end of Mustard Canyon Road, a scenic loop in Death Valley National Park. The road was erased by flash floods on August 20, 2023. The road has been repaired and will be open on Oct. 15, 2023.
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Courtesy of National Park Service
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Topline:
Death Valley National Park will reopen Sunday, Oct. 15, after record rain from Tropical Storm Hilary led to the longest closure in park history.
Why it matters: For the first time in nearly two months, visitors will be able to explore many of the park’s most popular attractions, but not every section is reopening.
The backstory: The park has been closed since late August, when the historical storm dumped more than 2 inches of rain on the Furnace Creek area, breaking a record set last year. The resulting flood pushed debris and rocks onto roads — which is where most of the damage occurred.
Death Valley National Park will reopen Sunday, Oct. 15, after record rain from Tropical Storm Hilary led to the longest closure in park history.
For the first time in nearly two months, visitors will be able to explore many of the park’s most popular attractions, including Zabriskie Point, the Artists Drive Scenic Loop, and Dante’s View. The Furnace Creek Campground, Sunset Campground, and Texas Springs Campground will also be open.
Surveying the damage
The park has been closed since late August, when the historical storm dumped more than 2 inches of rain on the Furnace Creek area, breaking a record set last year. The resulting flood pushed debris and rocks onto roads — which is where most of the damage occurred.
“Water is very powerful, especially when it's flowing,” said Death Valley Park Ranger Nichole Andler. “Most of the roadsides in Death Valley are gravel, and so the water is moving fast enough that it just starts moving that gravel.”
That momentum, said Andler, created a ripple of flowing debris that eventually left the edges of the paved road without any support, causing it to collapse.
In some locations flash floods washed mud, rocks and other debris over roads. The 25 MPH speed limit sign is buried in a debris flow in the Wildrose area.
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Courtesy of National Park Service
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Road repairs
State Route 190, which provides access to the park’s eastern and western entrances, has undergone enough repairs to reopen at 6 a.m. on Sunday, but Caltrans is warning of significant delays. There will be multiple places allowing for just one lane of traffic as construction to restore the road continues.
Drivers coming from U.S. 395 will also only be able to access State Route 190 via State Route 136. The State Route 190/U.S. 395 junction is not yet open.
Flood scars
Though most of the park is cleaned up, visitors will still be able to see the effects of the floods in the land — like in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
Rains from the remnants of Hurricane Hilary created flash floods. The flowing flood waters washed water and rocky debris over roads and trails. In many places it eroded road shoulders and undercut pavement.
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Courtesy of National Park Service
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“When they get down in between the dunes, they're going to see these little muddy spots,” Andler said. “Some of them are probably already dry enough that they're cracked and look really cool.”
Andler said the spots are remnants of the mini lakes that formed between the sand dunes after the rains this year.
Badwater Basin, on the other hand, is not as close to drying out. Rangers are asking visitors not to step off the boardwalk to hear the crunch of the famous salt flat.
“As soon as they get off the boardwalk, they're going to discover how thick and sticky and muddy that mud is really quickly, and their footprints are going to stay there for a long time. And everybody is going to see those for a really long time,” Andler said.
Exercise caution
Though State Route 190 will be open all throughout the park, there are still many roads that drivers cannot safely access. Andler asked that visitors respect any closures they come across, because not all of the damage is immediately visible.
“You may get started someplace and be like, ‘I don't know why they have this closed. There's nothing wrong with this.’ And then a couple miles later, you can be coming up against a road cut through a dirt road that has a six-foot drop off. And if you get yourself in there, we're not going to be able to get you out,” Andler said. “We always say that help may be hours to a few days away. It could very seriously be at least hours, if not multiple days away — just because we don't have safe access.”
Visit nps.gov/deva for the latest information on the availability of roads and facilities in Death Valley National Park.
Jordan Rynning
has been following this case for months, including interviewing the man at the center of allegations.
Published October 31, 2026 7:00 AM
Michael Angel Alvarez, 41, spoke with LAist on Sept. 16, 2026, about the federal body armor case against him being dismissed.
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Jordan Rynning
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LAist
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Topline:
The L.A. County District Attorney’s office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez earlier this week. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Most serious claims haven’t materialized: Though federal prosecutors made headlines claiming in court documents and on social media that Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City,” they have not filed charges related to those claims.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez on Wednesday. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He had served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Why Alvarez’s arrest made headlines: Alvarez was working as a city-contracted peace ambassador in MacArthur Park when he was arrested by federal agents in May. Federal and county prosecutors each brought felony charges against him, claiming he was in possession of body armor as a violent felon.
Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A., pointed to the case on social media to criticize city officials for allowing taxpayer money to be “shelled out to a convicted gang murderer.”
About his criminal record: Judges in federal and state court have now dismissed prosecutors’ felony charges against Alvarez, after U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang found on Sept. 9 that Alvarez did not have a violent felony conviction. Alvarez was 15 when he committed a gang-related murder. He was tried and convicted as an adult in 2002. After a change in state law increased the age at which minors could be sentenced as adults to 16, Alvarez’s case was sent back to juvenile court, and he was released in 2024. At that point, he had served more than 20 years.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday, Oct. 7 that Republican Bill Essayli is not legally serving as the top U.S. prosecutor in Los Angeles.
The ruling is the latest roadblock to the Trump administration’s effort to extend handpicked acting U.S. attorneys beyond the 120-day limit set by federal law. The strategy was designed to bypass confirmation by the U.S. Senate — something that generally requires a degree of bipartisan support.
Essayli “is unlawfully serving as a ‘de facto’ United States Attorney,” U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote.
The order won’t take effect until the court rules on the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal. Essayli said he doesn’t agree with the court’s order. He said the president and Attorney General “have every right to select supervisors within the Justice Department.”
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Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published October 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Myrna Velasco (left) performs as Dolores Huerta in “¡Sí Se Puede!” at Boyle Heights City Hall on April 2, 2026.
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Carlin Stiehl
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LAist
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Topline:
An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The backstory: Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Eliana Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring. “There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” Pipes said. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The show's extension had been announced prior to the news that Huerta died Wednesday, Oct. 28., at her Bakersfield home. She was 96 years old.
“There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” said playwright Eliana Pipes. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring.
CSULA seeks memories from underground music scenes
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published October 31, 2026 5:00 AM
CSULA is seeking memorabilia from LA's underground music scenes for its research archives.
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Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State University, Los Angeles.
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Topline
There’s a whole world of underground Southern California music history that’s hidden in storage boxes — photos, fliers, cassettes and other memorabilia. Research librarians at the California State University, Los Angeles are holding a community archive event on Nov. 5 to ensure the cultural memory of L.A.’s underground music scenes are preserved for future generations.
Why it matters: The memorabilia are the physical remnants of the supportive L.A. communities built around music and enjoyment. But many of these objects languish out of sight, and run the risk of being lost, along with the memories attached to them.
Why now: For four years, archive staff have held an annual day to receive ephemera from the public. They're doing it again on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Read on… to hear how goth, rockabilly and other underground clubs in L.A. inspired the head archivist.
Right around the year 2000, there was a club night in Hollywood called Clockwork Orange. Fans of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus and other bands came for the DJ’s mix of their favorite songs but also for a vibe that welcomed people regardless of race, ethnicity or sexual and gender identity.
“I was a pretty shy person, and so that was a place where I could sort of be myself and express myself,” said Azalea Camacho, a regular there in those days.
She had just graduated from Workman High School in the City of Industry and was also clubbing at rockabilly music nights in Rosemead and goth club nights in downtown L.A.
Camacho said there was lots of memorabilia from those times, such as photos taken in and outside the clubs, ticket stubs and promotional fliers. They're the physical remnants of those supportive communities built around music and enjoyment, but many of them languish in shoeboxes and storage units, at risk of being lost — along with the memories attached to them.
Cal State LA has hosted Sounds of the Underground Archive for the last four years. It's an opportunity for people to donate their underground music scene memorabilia.
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Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, University Library, California State University, Los Angeles
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“I think the danger is maybe those stories are not being told, or people don't know about the story,” she said.
Keeping stories alive
More than two decades later, Camacho is now in a position to make sure those stories are kept alive. She’s head of special collections and archives at the university library at California State University, Los Angeles.
Four years ago, she and library staff created an annual day for area residents to donate or digitize memorabilia for their Sounds of the Underground Archive. This year it's on Thursday, Nov. 5. They’ll accept physical donations, but they’ll also have a scanner to digitize printed material, so people can keep items that are precious to them.
SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND ARCHIVE
Date: Thursday, Nov. 5 Time: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Location: Cal State LA Library Community Room, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles
Camacho is hoping this year will bring in a bumper amount of memorabilia. It's taken time to get the word out, she said.
“From the actual community archiving day [we’ve collected] maybe 100 or less than 100 items. … It's not a lot,” she said.
She said they're on the lookout for a wide range of mementos, including:
Fliers
Handbills
Zines
Newsletters
Posters
Set lists
Photographs (prints, negatives or digital files)
Cassette tapes, CDs, or vinyl records
Ticket stubs
Wristbands
Band merchandise (stickers, buttons, patches, T-shirts)
DIY press kits or liner notes and correspondence (letters, emails, messages related to music scenes)
Venue or collective ephemera (membership cards, schedules, announcements and more)
