Earth City Wonder: Where LA’s Urban Wilds Meet Cultural History
Sustainable Walking Tours in Los Angeles Since June 2023
My painting “P-22: The Virgin of Hollywood” with our company slogan.
Earth City Wonder offers immersive walking tours, naturalist workshops, and business or education opportunities to locals and visitors of Los Angeles, weaving together the city's rich cultural heritage with its vibrant urban ecology.
Our guided walks reveal the hidden natural wonders within LA's diverse neighborhoods, from the Hollywood Hills to Downtown's historic core.
Our Core Values & Philosophy
1. Climate Optimism as a Revolutionary Act
The sun sets over Griffith Park and DTLA.
At Earth City Wonder, we believe in climate optimism as a revolutionary act—not optimism born from naiveté, but one that grows from understanding that the Earth has an extraordinary capacity for self-renewal. This is what we are fighting to preserve—and embody.
And in a time when cynicism and resignation often dominate the conversation, we reject the notion that our problems are too great to solve. Instead, we embrace the challenge of creating new systems—systems that regenerate living systems, rather than destroy them.
Optimism, for us, is an act of defiance. It’s not passive hope; it’s empowerment and action.
2. Culture Problems, Not Scientific Problems
Everlasting or rabbit tobacco, in Brush Canyon.
The interrelated environmental crises of our time – global warming, biodiversity loss, deforestation, acidification of the oceans to name just a few – are cultural problems, not scientific problems. Earth City Wonder believes that cultural change begins with new human relationships with the living systems that comprise the rest of the biosphere.
Through our Los Angeles nature walks and urban ecology tours, we're fostering these vital connections right in the heart of the city.
Earth City Wonder plays an active role in this cultural shift by presenting encounters with nature right in the beating heart of Los Angeles. We recontextualize urban and cultural history as expressions of ecology themselves. Ecology isn't just another niche interest alongside sports, history, video games, fashion, or the film industry – it's the foundation that connects them all.
Our sustainable LA tours tell the stories of Los Angeles and its diverse peoples within the living ecological context of Southern California.
3. Wonder & Delight in Urban Nature
Figueroa Mountain in the Santa Barbara Backcountry.
As humans, we're naturally predisposed to experience wonder and delight when encountering nature. The more we attend to nature – truly seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and hearing it – the more likely we are to experience relaxation and a sense of belonging in the universe.
Our small group walking tours create space for these meaningful encounters with LA's urban wildlife and natural landscapes.
A sense of wonder and delight at an encounter with nature plants a seed of a personal relationship – including, perhaps, a feeling of affection – with nature and particular species. This seed will inform each person’s unique further expression of that relationship.
Each person might then personally articulate that affection in their own lives according to the laws of their own individualities and as they see fit. This just means Earth City Wonder doesn’t preach or tell anyone what to do. We just try to show them things that might bring them a sense of wonder and joy. We place our trust in the ripple effects of this act.
4. Distributive, Not Extractive Economy
A wild cucumber fruit returns to the earth revealing its complex construction.
Earth City Wonder is designed from the ground up to be distributive rather than extractive. As local guides in Los Angeles, it's natural for us to connect guests with additional resources, restaurants, local businesses, people, and institutions that fuel their curiosity.
Our enthusiasm is contagious, and by ensuring our recommendations are authentic and relationship-based, Earth City Wonder becomes a multiplier for the local economy. We direct visitors and locals alike to hidden gems and neighborhood treasures they might never have discovered otherwise.
5. Buying New Stuff Isn’t the Answer
We don’t believe consuming different products will solve global warming or any other environmental problem. We often can feel anxious about these problems because they feel out of control and most of all, out of our control. This is the nature of anxiety – the feeling of being simultaneous required to take and incapable of taking action.
We do believe that if we see ourselves as holding multiple roles simultaneously – consumers yes, but also children, parents, neighbors, employees, employers, creatives, hobbyists, and voters – we can find ways in each of these roles to take action to build a world that functions within the limits of the biosphere.
Each of us has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to summon our greatest creative inspiration and innovation yet to find regenerative solutions in all of our roles.
Earth City Wonder itself is an attempt at this and hopes to live this belief and be a pioneer and an inspiration to other entrepreneurs – in our success and in our mistakes. We are building a regenerative business within the constraints of the free market by providing a product for which there is a demand while operating within the limits of the biosphere. We know it can be done.
Curious About How You Can Be Part of the Change?
Learn more about how you can get involved with Earth City Wonder. Whether you want to learn through our immersive tours, workshops, or by partnering with us in creating regenerative systems, there’s a place for you in this movement.
6. The Opportunity of Crisis
A famously graffitied section of the Berlin Wall.
It’s an exciting time to be alive. We are faced with great challenges but living systems have been operating within the limits of the biosphere for 3.5 billion years. There are trillions of examples. Just think of all they have to teach us! We believe it all starts with becoming acquainted with them.
7. The Regenerative Future
It’s sunrise in Los Angeles.
Our work invites everyone to become the eyes of the world, observing and understanding the more-than-human world around them. This shared knowledge and collective action are the foundation of our hope for the future.
Experience LA Differently
Whether you're interested in exploring the Hollywood Hills on the way to the Hollywood Sign, discovering the “Batcaves’” hidden secrets, or understanding how nature shapes our city's story, our walking tours offer a unique perspective on Los Angeles.
Join us for morning nature walks, sunset tours, or custom private tours that combine LA's natural and cultural heritage. Or sign up for a naturalist workshop for hands-on learning in Griffith Park’s Brush Canyon.
Book Your Tour
Small group walking tours (2-3 hours)
Private guided tours
Custom eco-tours for groups and corporate teams
Educational tours for students and institutions
Single Session
10-Sessions
[Contact information and booking details]
Ready to Make a Difference?
A birch leaf mountain mahogany styles shining in the sun.
Get Started with Earth City Wonder
Explore how you can transform your relationship with nature and take part in our regenerative movement. Whether you're interested in immersive walking tours, naturalist workshops, or our sustainable business services, we offer engaging and impactful experiences for locals and tourists alike. Contact us about our educational or business solutions and discover how we can help you and your organization become part of the solution.
Earth City Wonder is committed to regenerative tourism in Los Angeles, creating experiences that benefit local communities and ecosystems while delighting our guests.