Author: Brian Melley, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andy Farquhar’s plans for an outdoor adventure have gone up in smoke twice this summer. The retired attorney and teacher from the Philadelphia area had planned to hike with a friend for several weeks on the Pacific Crest Trail north of Lake Tahoe until the second-largest fire in California history stampeded…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Climbing El Capitan and the famous big walls of Yosemite National Park got a bit harder Friday. The park added red tape to cut through before climbers can begin the physically grueling and mentally demanding feat of inching up vertical granite walls that take days to conquer and require spending the…