The Brief

Summer may be long over, but what if I told you that camping in the wintertime in California can be just as magical as in the warmer months — or even more so?

And you don’t even have to embark upon camping in snow, like you might be envisioning. While that’s certainly available if you want it, there are also a wealth of incredible campsites right here in the Bay Area — or close at hand — where the weather isn’t even all that cold in winter.

From firsthand experience, I can tell you that it doesn’t take much to convert your normal summer setup to a winter one — and it’s also much easier to get reservations to hard-to-get spots during the winter months.

“It can be a lot of fun as long as you come prepared,” said Lillie Oravetz, a state park interpreter II at Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. “You’re gonna get cold, but it’s really beautiful.”

Read on for tips from the experts, or jump straight to five great winter camping spots to start planning your winter excursion now. And remember: If you read this and the idea of pitching your tent in the colder months still doesn’t appeal, you can always go glamping instead.

Expert tips on planning a successful winter camping trip

Tip: For warmer winter climates, head to the coast — but still check the weather forecast

Therese Cools, park aide for Sonoma Coast State Park, said the Sonoma Coast can get some of its best weather in the winter, with blue skies overhead and less wind than usual.

But be aware: That area does get heavy rains starting in January, so don’t forget to check the weather forecast ahead of time.

“If it’s raining heavily, it’s not a great place” for camping, Cools said, “But when there’s not a storm coming through, it’s beautiful.”

November is also crabbing season on the coast, so if you’d like a fresh catch, come this month. Or for a front seat for California’s famed King Tides, plan your trip for January, she said.

Wintertime isn’t the best for water sports, so unless you’re an expert, you may want to leave your surfboard at home and plan to stay out of the ocean altogether. But you should bring your binoculars, as there’s a wealth of seabirds and other wildlife to explore on the Sonoma Coast, many of which spend the winter on the coast in large flocks.

Tip: Unless you’re ready for snow, avoid the mountains

If you’re planning on heading to higher ground, know it’s likely to snow. In Calaveras, which is 4,600 feet above sea level, “it’s pretty unpredictable when we will get snow,” Oravetz said — “but we can guarantee at some point there’ll be snow.”

And conditions can change rapidly at high elevations, so don’t just check the weather once a few weeks out, Oravetz warned. Double check the forecast regularly, “a couple of days in advance” for a more accurate forecast, she cautioned.

Don’t forget: No matter where you’re going, but especially if you are planning to go up high in elevation, be sure to check nighttime temperatures ahead of time and be prepared for below-freezing nights.

Tip: Make a plan — and a plan B

Rachel Borick, operations manager at private campground Costanoa on the San Mateo County coast, said her number one piece of advice for winter camping is: “Be prepared and always have a backup plan.”

On the coast, that might mean preparing for heavy rains in the winter. In the mountains, you’ll need to prepare for snow and below-freezing conditions as well.

But even “a rainy day spent in a tent with the right supplies can be more memorable than a perfectly sunny day on the trails,” she said. “Having an open mind and leaning in to what Mother Nature provides is vital.”

Know where you’re going and what you’re planning to do, but make sure you have other options in case your trailhead is no longer accessible — or if winter weather makes travel downright unsafe. Take note of towns with services like gas stations and hotels near your camping destination, just in case you need to bail on your plans outright and hunker down.

Don’t forget that many campgrounds and wilderness areas have no cellphone service — so in winter, it’s especially important to know your exit routes and bailout points ahead of time.

Tip: Bring layers

No matter where you’re going, remember to bring waterproof and windproof gear.

Calaveras’ Oravetz went one step further and advised campers to come prepared for almost any weather. “Sometimes it might snow, but then be pretty warm the next day, and we don’t want people to overheat,” she cautioned

Brian Low is the general manager at Club Urban Diversion, a Bay Area-based social club that organizes all sorts of outdoor trips, including winter camping. Low said his winter packing list varies by location, but “no matter what the forecast is showing, you’re always going to want to pack some sort of rain gear,” he said. And don’t forget insulating layers to go underneath for warmth, too, urged Low.

Layers are the most efficient way to pack for winter camping “because it’s easy to either layer up to get warmer, or easy to take off layers to adjust your body heat to make sure that you’re not getting too warm or too cold,” he said.

Costanoa Lodge & Camp offers year-round hot showers, hot meals and even a sauna.

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Courtesy of Costanoa Lodge & Camp)

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Tip: Pack smart, and bring backup gear

Calaveras’ Oravetz said starting in November, anyone traveling up to the higher elevations should bring chains for their car, “just in case.” That goes for extra fuel in your car, too.

“You could come up for a couple of days here or go further up the mountain, and then a snowstorm comes in,” she said.

If you’re parking on the side of the road and not at a campsite, be aware of potential avalanche areas and snowplow routes. Low warned — you don’t want to return to your car only to find it buried.

Low said some auto shops like Les Schwab even allow you to buy chains and return them at the end of the season for a full refund if you never end up using them. You can check chain controls online and learn how to properly install chains on Caltrans’s website, and read more about preparing to drive in wintry conditions with our KQED guide.

Bring or plan to store extra water, Oravetz said, since the pipes at some campgrounds, like Calaveras’, can freeze, so the only available water is at a central location. And remember that even in the winter, you need to store your food safely away from bears in bear canisters or food lockers provided at each campsite.

The upside? There shouldn’t be too many bugs in the winter, so you can leave your DEET at home. But remember that the sun sets early in the winter, so make sure to bring ample light and something to do during the night hours, like a deck of cards or a book to read.

Staying warm at night is important, Low said — and one way to stay toasty that might surprise you is to get up and out of your tent as soon as you realize you have to pee.

That’s because your body is sending energy to your bladder that could otherwise be used to keep you warm, he said.

“It’s a lot better to just actually bite the bullet, get out of your tent, put on your shoes and just go pee,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’ll be a lot happier because you’ll sleep better, you’ll be warmer.”

Just remember that even in winter, you have to properly dispose of any and all waste — that includes any trash, food waste and especially poop — as anything buried in snow is headed for a waterway come spring. 

In general, if you have any questions — or are at all worried about winter camping — you can always call ahead to the campground or wilderness area for advice on that particular spot.

“Winters, especially snow camping, can be very intimidating for people just because of the temperatures,” Low said. “But with the right gear list and the right techniques, then you can really have an amazing time.”

Your winter and snow camping gear checklist

As an expert in winter camping, Low recommends bringing these items for your next cold-weather or snow trip:

A zero-degree sleeping bag, or warmer

Remember: the ratings on sleeping bags tell you the temperature at which it will keep you alive, not comfortable: “Generally speaking, you want a zero-degree bag for anywhere that it’s going to be below 30 degrees,” Low said. “It’s better to have a bag that is a little too warm and not warm enough.”

If you’re still worried about warmth, a sleeping bag liner can add five or 10 degrees of warmth to the bag you might already have.

Synthetic or wool clothing to hike and sleep in

Forget cotton, Low said, because once you sweat in it, or it gets wet, cotton takes a really long time to dry out. If you’re backpacking or going for a long hike, abide by the saying “be bold, start cold” by peeling off layers before they get drenched in sweat.

And if you’ve just gotten back from a hike and are overly warm, take that opportunity to remove any sweaty items and change into your warmest clothes, including a beanie and gloves — to best retain your body heat all evening long.

Sunglasses 

So you can avoid snow blindness when it’s sunny out.

A first aid kit 

… and knowledge of not only what’s in it, but how to use it.

A bear canister 

For food storage, if one is required, where you’re camping.

A liquid fuel stove 

Low recommends this type of stove over a more typical backpacking gas fuel stove because the fuel canister will maintain its pressure and perform better at cold temperatures.

In addition to cooking, you can use your stove to melt snow for drinking water, but remember to find a clean, undisturbed patch of snow — and to be extra safe, you can always boil the water before drinking it.

Microspikes, crampons or snowshoes

For traction underfoot, depending on your activity. Low said he loves using microspikes for walking around camp in slippery conditions because they keep you on your feet while not being as clunky as snowshoes.

Lots of food

Eating a good amount of calories will keep you warm, and cooking up a hot meal of fresh — not dehydrated — food can make your evening that much more enjoyable, Low said.

A doubled-up sleeping pad

Low said that one of his guiding colleagues — who’s summited Denali, the highest mountain in North America — swears by putting an inflatable pad underneath a foam pad for the warmest night’s sleep. (Don’t forget to check the “R value” of any pad you bring — that will tell you its warmth).

Low even recommends inflating your pad with a small pump instead of blowing it up by mouth, to keep out condensation, which can freeze inside your pad.

A small shovel

If the snow is deep where you’re camping, bring something with which you can dig out a seating area, kitchen and even a trash bag-lined toilet to use, as recommended by Low.

Any durable tent 

Any model will do, Low said — even a three-season tent, so long as heavy snow isn’t in the forecast. When to consider a four-season tent instead: If you know you’ll be out in a heavy storm with the risk of high winds, or snowfall that could pile up and break your tent poles.

A Nalgene-style water bottle 

Before going to bed, a bottle like this can be filled up with boiling water, screwed nice and tight and placed inside your sleeping bag to act as a heater. Just remember to wrap it in a sock, so you don’t get burned by accident.

Hand and toe warmers

Typically used by skiers, these are perfect for placing inside clothes or a sleeping bag for warmth.

Plastic bags

Use these to keep your socks dry in your boots, if they’re not as waterproof as they need to be.

Gaiters

To keep snow out of low-cut shoes.

5 beautiful wintertime camping spots to try this year

Sonoma Coast State Park

Both Bodega Dunes and Wright’s Beach at Sonoma Coast State Park are open all winter long to campers and RVers, although they don’t have hookups. Campsites start at $45 per night and reservations can be made on ReserveCalifornia. Both campgrounds allow campfires all year round.

Park aid Cools said while Wright’s Beach fills up more quickly, Bodega Dunes tends to have more availability on winter weekends — and weekday reservations are easy to get in the winter.

“During the winter, the Sonoma Coast can be really nice with blue skies — and it tends to be less windy,” she said.

Yosemite National Park

Itching to experience Yosemite without the craziness of summer crowds? Winter might be your best bet.

“I love to go to Yosemite in the wintertime,” Low said. “It is so beautiful, and you can get a piece of Yosemite all to yourself without a person in sight.”

Tioga Road and the road to Glacier Point — and much of the upper areas of the park — close during the early months of winter. But if you want to soak in the snow-dusted granite walls from Yosemite Valley, you can make a reservation (typically $35 per night) or try your luck at first-come, first-served campgrounds in the park.

Or, take Low’s suggestion and get a wilderness permit to backpack into Dewey Point or along any route off Glacier Point Road once the first five miles of road to Badger Pass Ski Area are plowed (check the park website or call 209-372-0200 for status updates) and the rest is groomed for cross-country skiing.

Just remember: You must camp at least one mile away from any plowed road. 

“How often do you get to go to a place that’s as busy as Yosemite and camp in a spot where there’s not another soul around for as far as you can see?” Low said. “Waking up to see Half Dome or to see El Cap and watching the sun rise on the dawn wall while having a cup of coffee or tea is spectacular.”

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

Located on Highway 4 in the Sierra Nevada range, Calaveras Big Trees State Park — known for its massive sequoia trees — is open all year round. That said, some camp spots and parts of the park close to cars after the first significant snowfall or by Dec. 1, Oravetz said. This includes Parkway Road, which closes off access to the Stanislaus River and two groves of big trees, plus a couple of picnic areas and some camping. But those areas are still accessible to snowshoers and cross-country skiers, she said — so your sense of adventure could be rewarded by having these beautiful areas devoid of summer crowds.

Oravetz recommends the North Grove Trail for visitors looking to wander among the big trees on snowshoes or cross-country skis.

“The snow is beautiful against the giant sequoias,” she said.

But be warned, the trail is popular with visitors and locals alike, and can get quite busy between Christmas and the New Year.

That area is not open to general snowplay, so Oravetz recommends heading to Parkway Road instead to sled, build snowmen or start a snowball fight.

Reservations for family campsites are $35 and can be made on ReserveCalifornia.com.

San Mateo’s Memorial Park

Among the redwoods of Memorial Park in San Mateo County, the Azalea Flat campground stays open all year long while other nearby camping areas close for the winter. RVs, trailers and campfires are allowed, and buying wood to burn at the park is recommended to avoid spreading bugs from park to park, said Carla Schoof, spokesperson for San Mateo County Parks Department.

Schoof said while the park gets crowded in summer, it’s not so full in the winter, which can make it feel extra peaceful.

“It’s relatively easy to get to, but you really do feel like you’re far away,” she said. “You are deep in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range, surrounded by redwoods.”

Plus, the nearby towns of Loma Mar and Pescadero offer opportunities to get supplies and explore — which may be extra necessary in the winter, when Memorial Park’s camp store is closed, she said.

At over a century old, the park is “a special place to a lot of people … who’ve been going camping there since they were pretty small,” Schoof said.

Park rangers are happy to answer questions about park conditions and camping. They can be reached at 650-879-0238, Schoof said, and reservations can also be made online and are $32 per night in the off-season.

Costanoa Lodge & Camp

If you’d like a more bougie experience (and who could blame you?), the Costanoa private campgrounds on the San Mateo County coast are known for their “failproof camping,” Borick, the camping and glamping resort’s operations manager, said.

But still, prepare for anything: “You could end up with a full storm, huddled with your campmates, hot cocoa in hand, with a story to tell — or out on a muddy trail with the spectacular view of a clear winter’s day, she said.

“Having a beach all to yourself, or the top of a viewpoint with the silence surrounding you, can be truly worth the invigoration of a winter camping trip,” Borick said.

And the winter season brings abundant bird migrations and elephant seal pupping at nearby Año Nuevo State Park that can even be heard from the property, Borick said.

In any case, the private campground has year-round hot showers, hot meals and even a sauna. And if you get tired of braving the elements, you can always upgrade to a glamping tent, cabin or a room in the lodge.

Today will be dry and warm. Expect temperatures in the mid-to-low 90s in some areas, as a heat advisory is in effect for much of L.A. County between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Wind speeds between 30 and 40 miles per hour can be expected in the valleys. In downtown L.A. and along the coasts, the gusts will be a bit weaker, between 15 and 20 miles per hour.

The increased temperatures are fueled by northeasterly winds originating in Nevada’s Great Basin that have pushed their way into Los Angeles, resulting in moderate Santa Ana winds.

Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, says to expect areas around downtown L.A. to hit at least 90 degrees.

“Pretty warm temperatures for this time of year, in general," he said. “Even all the way down to the coast, we're going to see some very warm temperatures, upper 80s to low 90s.”

Temperatures are expected to cool down for the next couple of days as the Santa Ana winds dissipate, but they’re likely to pick back up on Wednesday.

Higher temperatures — between 80 and 90 degrees — could last until Friday.

Across much of the United States and Canada, daylight saving time begins Sunday at 2:00 a.m. local time.

Most people will turn their clocks forward an hour, trading an hour of sunlight in the mornings for more daylight at the end of the day. When it ends, clocks will turn backward by an hour nearly eight months later to have more morning light in the darkest days of winter.

But British Columbia will switch their clocks for the last time — ushering in a new era of permanent daylight saving time. The switch was supported by "more than 90% of British Columbians," said David Eby, premier of British Columbia.

"The way that we live our lives now in the modern era, having an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day, whether it's the winter or the summer, makes a big difference for people," Eby told NPR's Adrian Ma on All Things Considered.

While the idea may be a popular one among British Columbia residents, experts in sleep medicine and public health are not fans of the time change.

"Daylight saving time has been shown to have a lot of negative effects," said Emily Manoogian, a senior staff scientist at the Salk Institute and an executive member of the Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California, San Diego. "And actually the United States tried permanent daylight savings in the '70s for one year. It was so awful that they reverted it almost immediately."

People went to work in the dark and children walked to school in the dark. And then, "there were a few fatal car accidents," she said, which led to the reversal.

Eby acknowledged health risks, but added that people in his province are used to waking up in the dark and taking their kids to school in the dark during the winter.

"We're on the very western edge of the time zone, and so we have dark mornings anyway," he said. "People really want that hour at the end of the day."

Why daylight saving is bad for our bodies

While our modern world and lifestyles may favor permanent daylight saving, our biology supports a permanent standard time. That's because our internal circadian clocks — which control not just our sleep-wake cycle, but also our cardiac and metabolic pathways — are synced to daylight, according to Manoogian.

"Light is the largest cue to coordinate behavior," she said. When we wake up and our eyes detect sunlight, they send a signal to the brain to tell the rest of the body to wake up and gear up for the day.

"So when you're not getting light in the morning, your body thinks it's not morning yet," she explained. "And it's very hard to just force your body to wake up without that light."

Similarly, in the evenings, when it's bright outside, our bodies find it harder to go to sleep. And it's easy to get stuck in a cycle of later bedtimes and a tougher time waking up in the mornings. That cycle can affect our cognitive functioning during the day and our metabolism all day long. This has widespread public health impacts, said Manoogian. It can also lead to more car accidents, heart attacks and strokes in the week following the start of daylight saving time.

"We know that sleeping, eating, getting light at the wrong time is a huge risk for cardiometabolic disease," said Manoogian. "Every medical and scientific society would argue we should never go to daylight saving time. It was originally created to try to save energy, [but] evidence has shown it does not save energy."

A study by Stanford researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September 2025 found that switching our clocks twice a year takes a massive public health toll, primarily by driving up the number of strokes and cases of obesity per year. It also found that switching permanently to standard time would result in 300,000 fewer people having strokes and more than 2 million fewer cases of obesity.

"When we can realign better to our environment, we get better sleep," said Manoogian. "We have lower risks of almost any chronic disease you can imagine — cardiometabolic, cancer, even depression, bipolar disorder."

The Stanford researchers also found that permanent daylight saving reduced the number of strokes and obesity, but less so than permanent standard time. In other words, as Manoogian puts it, "the health benefits of standard time are pretty great."

Soften the blow of time change on your body

If you're concerned about how daylight saving time might affect your and your family's health, Manoogian has some tips to soften the transition on your body.

• Get enough light in the mornings: If the sun is out when you wake up, make sure you get enough light, said Manoogian. If it's dark when you wake up, at least turn on as many lights in your home as possible. 
• Prioritize getting enough sleep: Seven to nine hours of sleep is considered ideal for adults, with some people needing closer to seven and others needing closer to nine hours. You know what your body needs, so make sure you get that. "Consistency is also key," said Manoogian. So try to get the same amount of sleep every night. 
• Have consistent meal times: "Keeping a consistent eating pattern to the part of the day when you're active and best able to process food can have dramatic health benefits," she said. That might mean waiting an hour or two after you wake up to eat breakfast and keeping all meals to within an eight-to-10-hour window. "It can decrease Hb1C, which is kind of the gold standard for measuring blood glucose," she says. "It also is shown to decrease cholesterol in animal studies. It's shown to increase health span and even lifespan." 
• Ease kids into the time shift: "Usually what we do for our family is we try to shift like 20 minutes a day over like three days," said Manoogian, who has two children. "That can go a long way" toward helping kids' bodies to adjust to the shift forward.

Copyright 2026 NPR

When Tina Trahan first stepped into the Studio City house made famous by The Brady Bunch, she thought, “I have to have it.”

The art collector grew up watching the classic family sitcom and was struck by a rush of familiarity in the mid-century, split-level house used in the sitcom’s exterior shots.

The Brady Bunch house in North Hollywood, CA on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025.

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Myung J. Chun

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Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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“It feels like you walked into your childhood home when you were 10 years old,” Trahan said. “I thought, ‘No one can get this feeling anywhere else.’”

Her 2023 purchase has led to something more: The Brady Bunch house is now officially a Los Angeles landmark, putting it in the same league as the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Bowl.

The City Council last Wednesday granted the house at 11222 Dilling St. historic-cultural monument status — the culmination of a two-year campaign Trahan embarked on to preserve the house for future generations of fans.

Tina Trahan painstakingly recreated the sets of the Brady Bunch.

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Courtesy of Tina Trahan

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“People are really, really connected to the whole TV show,” Trahan said. “It just made me realize, what if I get hit by a bus tomorrow? Is there anything I can do to preserve this?”

Now, as a historic-cultural monument, the house can’t undergo demolition or major changes by any future owners without city review.

The Zillow listing

The Brady Bunch, which debuted in 1969, isn’t even Trahan’s favorite sitcom. That honor is reserved for Three’s Company.

The living room has been recreated to look like the TV show’s iconic set, with the open staircase and mid-century décor.

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Courtesy of Los Angeles Conservancy

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But growing up in front of the TV as a kid in the Chicago suburbs, she came to know The Brady Bunch episodes by heart from years of syndicated reruns.

Decades later, when she was on the hunt for a new house, she caught sight of the Brady Bunch house while scrolling through Zillow.

She stopped at a photo of an open floating staircase that looked just like the one the Brady kids barreled down on their way to the next family misadventure, always neatly wrapped up by episode’s end.

HGTV had put the house up for sale, after previously gutting the interior for a reality series with the original cast and rebuilding it to match the show’s sets.

Not everyone approved of the $3.2 million purchase, including Chris Albrecht, Trahan’s husband and the former HBO chief who oversaw shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City in the late '90s and early 2000s.

Owner Tina Trahan had three elephant stuffed animals made for the girls' room until she settled on the right size.

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Tina Trahan

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“He said, ‘Have you lost your mind?’” Trahan said. “He was under the impression that I wanted to move into it.”

But Trahan said she cares too much about preserving the house to ever live in it.

“What if someone drops a meatball on the sofa, or something?” she said. “I would have a nervous breakdown.”

Over the last couple of years, she’s added some 400 items to the rooms, easter eggs nodding to different episodes — like the flashlight that oldest brother Greg used to fake a UFO sighting and the stuffed giraffe in the room shared by the three girls. Trahan had three different giraffes made until she settled on the right size.

Fan destination

Trahan has also opened up the house for tours, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities like No Kid Hungry, the John Ritter Foundation and Wags and Walks, from where she’s adopted elderly and disabled dogs.

She said the actors who portrayed the Brady kids — including Christopher Knight, who played Peter, and Maureen McCormick, who was Marcia — gamely take part in the fundraisers at the house.

The Brady Bunch cast members continue to support the show's legacy and appear at fundraisers.

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Getty Images North America

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“They could not have found six people to better represent that show,” she said.

In the time that she’s owned the house, Trahan said she’s come to realize that Brady Bunch fans aren’t fading away, but continuing to grow in number.

The show has essentially been in nonstop reruns on various channels since its original run ended in 1974, and is also available to stream. Every day, fans of all ages make the pilgrimage to Studio City to take selfies in front of the house.

Tina Trahan sits on a Plymouth Satellite wagon she bought for the house. It's,like the ones the Bradys drove on the show.

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Courtesy of Tina Trahan

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“I just don't want that taken away from people who it means so much to,” Trahan said.

So Trahan set her sights on landmark status, and brought in legal and preservation experts to help make the case. Among them was Heather Goers, an architectural historian who also worked on getting Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood home designated as a historic-cultural monument in 2024.

Protecting a pop culture icon 

Trahan thought the team had an uphill battle, given the fact that the house was not very old (having been built in 1959) and that only the exterior was filmed for the show.

“I'm sure there are people that are like ‘But wait, that's not historical,'” Trahan said.

But then the nomination was approved by the Cultural Heritage Commission, which Trahan said surprised her by extending the historic-cultural designation to the interior, even though it had been thoroughly remodeled.

Then came approvals by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee of the City Council and finally the full council.

Tina Trahan's eye for detail extended to the backyard of the Brady House.

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Courtesy of Tina Trahan

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“It was a relief because it’s been two years I’ve been working on this,” Trahan said. “It’s been a long, long road.”

So how does it feel to own a landmark? Trahan says not much has changed — except she now needs a new homeowner’s insurance policy.

Her insurer canceled coverage last week after news broke that the house had gained landmark status.

Historic homes are seen as pricier and trickier to insure — but a small tradeoff she's willing to accept to protect a piece of TV history.

Happy Daylight Saving, when time is bent so mere mortals can have more time to play in the sunshine.

It's a reminder of how much we treat the sun as an inalienable right here in L.A., as we emerge from months of long nights when darkness descends at the inconvenient hour of, say, 4:30 p.m.

For artists, filmmakers, writers, the light of Los Angeles has been a source of inspiration.

The late David Lynch was an avowed fan. He wrote about its transformative quality in his 2006 book of musings and reflections, "Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity."

"The light is inspiring and energizing. Even with smog, there’s something about that light that’s not harsh, but bright and smooth. It fills me with the feeling that all possibilities are available. I don’t know why. It’s different from the light in other places," Lynch recounted.

That same L.A. glow was memorialized in the New Yorker three decades ago by writer Lawrence Weschler, who chopped it up with a constellation of notable names in the arts, sciences and beyond — including the great Vin Scully — about the light that the writer "pined for every day" since leaving Southern California.

Actually, it's pollution

All this sweet talk rankles  Paul Wennberg, who teaches air pollution chemistry at Caltech. He and his research team have worked to reduce pollution in cities across Asia, Mexico and the U.S.

 "They're waxing poetic about the L.A. glow," he said. "A lot of it is caused by smog."

L.A. glow

Wennberg is not talking about the glorious magic hour sunsets, but the gentle sunlight we've come to associate with Los Angeles.

The kind of light that doesn't produce harsh, defined shadows. And why not? Because of the many tiny particles of smog in the air that are perfectly sized to ricochet light in all conceivable directions.

"It's all the pollution in the air that is scattering, as we say, redirecting the light from the sun," he said.

That process, Wennberg said, makes the air "glow, literally."

Lynch’s "bright and smooth."

"This is why artists say they like Los Angeles — it's because the light comes at us from all directions," he said.

And on really polluted days, Wennberg continued, the sky looks overcast. "It keeps us from having shadows."

That means we're actually getting less sunlight, says Suzanne Paulson, director of the Center for Clean Air and a professor at UCLA.

" It varies obviously from day to day, but it can be easily half the sunlight that is actually not reaching the ground because of the pollution," Paulson said.

The drastic difference on a non-polluted day — with its full direct sun casting hard shadows — can be seen on clear days, like during the Santa Anas.

Those winds can be “so strong that they come and basically scour out the whole basin and push all the smog off the coast," Paulson said. "And sometimes you can see this smog layer out over the ocean."

Even as the L.A. light continues its glow, both Wennberg and Paulson said the bad air we experience here in 2026 is nothing like what it was in decades past — thanks to the pioneering work done by the state and the city.

'L.A. smog'

The first major Los Angeles smog event happened July 26, 1943, and caused panic among the populace who feared the ominous dark haze was a Japanese chemical attack.

In essence, that was the birth of photochemical smog, often known as L.A. smog, distinct from other serious episodes that had happened in the winter elsewhere.

But how it was different chemically wasn't known until the early 1950s, when Caltech professor Arie Haagen-Smit discovered that certain tailpipe pollutants along with industrial emissions get baked by intense sunlight — and result in L.A. smog.

By then, the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District was formed, the first in the nation. It was merged with similar entities in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties to create the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 1977.

"The air quality was horrendous," Paulson said.

But through hundreds of laws, from those regulating consumer products like lighter fluid or oil paint, to requiring reformulated gasoline and catalytic converters for cars, the air has become dramatically healthier.

"Over the years in California, we have really led the world and made what has been a crowning achievement," she said. " The air is 70, 80% cleaner than it was."

So much has been done, she said, that regulations have just about reached their limits.

"We've done all the easy things, and it's just really hard to find additional things that we can regulate to improve the air quality," she said.

Bigger changes — for example, electrifying more vehicles and appliances, and burning less fossil fuel — will be needed to curb pollution further. Because even at reduced levels, pollutants are still harmful, leading to not just respiratory illnesses but cardiovascular issues and environmental degradation.

Are we special?

So is the L.A. light unique?

Los Angeles's geological features — our mountains that trap heat, deserts that produce hot winds and coasts that create cool sea breezes — all contribute to pollution being held close to ground in a process known as inversion, Paulson and Wennberg noted.

And the stuff just sits there, stubbornly shrouding the city until the winds come to chase it away.

But no, the glow in L.A. isn't special, said Wennberg at Caltech, but our romanticization of it is. And if you are ever curious if pollution is around, he said just look at the ground.

" You'll see a shadow, but it'll be much less sharp," he said.  "When I see the really bad pollution here, it still makes me very sad. I think we need to, you know, make shadows great again."