Siberia Creek Trail

California nurtures some superlative trees. The tallest tree on Earth is a coast redwood, the oldest tree a bristlecone pine. And in the San Bernardino Mountains grows the world champion lodgepole pine.

It's a pleasant stroll, suitable for the whole family, to the world champion. More ambitious hikers will enjoy tramping down Siberia Creek Trail to the appropriately named rock formation "The Gunsight," and on to Siberia Creek Trail Camp for a picnic.

Siberia Creek, born atop the high mountains near Big Bear Lake, is a delightful watercourse. It flows southwest through a deep coniferous forest and lush meadowlands, then cascades down a steep rocky gorge and adds it waters to Bear Creek.

Cold Spring Trail

Cold Spring Canyon’s near-wilderness nature is all the more surprising when considering its location--scarcely a mile as the orange-crowned warbler flies from the villas of the rich and famous, and just two miles from Montecito’s boutiques and bistros.

When the Santa Ynez Forest Reserve was established in 1899, rangers used the trail up the West Fork of Cold Spring Canyon to patrol the Santa Barbara backcountry. Forest rangers soon realized that this tricky trail, which climbed around a waterfall and crossed shale slopes, was difficult to maintain. In 1905, the Forest Service built a trail up the East Fork of Cold Spring Canyon. West Fork lost its status as a government maintained transportation artery, and the pathway even disappeared from some maps over the years.(Local hikers, however, never forgot the wonders of West Fork Trail and today, while little used, it offers a fine hike. )

“Our favorite route to the main ridge was by a way called the Cold Spring Trail,” wrote Stewart Edward in his 1906 classic, The Mountains. “We used to enjoy taking visitors up it, mainly because you come on the top suddenly, without warning. Then we collected remarks. Everybody, even the most stolid, said something.”

Pine Knot Trail

Rim of the World Highway offers the traveler a fine view of Big Bear Lake. A better view, a hiker's view, is available from Pine Knot Trail, which climbs the handsome, pine-studded slopes above the lake and offers far-reaching panoramas of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Big Bear Lake is a great place to escape the crowded metropolis, and Pine Knot Trail is a great way to escape sometimes-crowded Big Bear Lake.

The idea for Big Bear Lake came from Redlands citrus growers, who wanted to impound a dependable water source for their crops. Farmers and city founders formed Bear Valley Land and Water Co. and in 1884, at a cost of $75,000, built a stone-and-cement dam, thus forming Big Bear Lake. In 1910 a second, larger dame was built near the first one. This second dam is the one you see today.

Mt. Baden-Powell Trail

This trail and peak honor Lord Baden-Powell, a British Army officer who founded the Boy Scout movement in 1907. The well-engineered trail, grooved into the side of the mountain by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930s, switchbacks up the northeast ridge to the peak.

The peak was once known as North Baldy, before Southern California Boy Scouts lobbied the Forest Service for a name change. Mount Baden-Powell is the terminus of the scouts' 53-mile Silver Moccasin Trail, a rugged week-long backpack through the San Gabriels. Scouts who complete the long trail earn the Silver Moccasin Award.

The trail follows a moderate, steady grade to the top of the mountain, where there's a monument honoring Lord Baden-Powell. On the summit, you'll meet those ancient survivors, the limber pines, and be treated to superb views across the Mojave Desert and down into the Iron Fork of the San Gabriel River.

Mount Lowe Railway Trail

Professor Thaddeus Lowe, Civil War balloonist, man of fame and fortune, was the quintessential California dreamer. His dream was to build a railway into--and a resort complex atop--the San Gabriel Mountains high above Pasadena. In the 1890s, his dream became a reality.

During the height of its popularity, millions took Professor Lowe's "Railway to the Clouds" to fine hotels and spectacular views of Southern California. Until it was abandoned in the 1930s, it was the Southland's most popular tourist attraction.

From Pasadena, visitors rode a trolley up Rubio Canyon, where a pavilion and hotel were located. After taking refreshments, they boarded the "airships" of the great cable incline, where carried them 3,000 feet (gaining 1,300 feet) straight up to the Echo Mountain Resort Area. "Breathtaking" and "hair-raising" were the most frequent descriptions of this thrilling ride. Atop Echo Mountain was the White City, with a hotel, observatory, and a magnificent searchlight purchased from the Chicago World's Fair. When the searchlight swept the mountaintop, the white buildings of the resort were visible from all over Los Angeles. From Echo Mountain, tourists could board a trolley and ride another few miles to Mount Lowe Tavern at the end of the line.

Mt. Rubidoux Trail

The isolated, 1,337-foot high granite hill towering above the city’s western edge has long been a landmark to travelers and residents alike, ever since the 1880s when Riverside emerged as the quintessential Southern California citrus town. The mountain was named for one of its 19th century owners, wealthy ranchero Louis Robidoux.

With the help of the deep pockets of Southern Pacific Railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington, Frank Miller, owner of the lavish, pride-of-Riverside Mission Inn, purchased the mountain in 1906. Their intention was to use the mountain as an attraction to sell residential lots at its base.

Mt. Rubidoux was landscaped and a road constructed to the summit, where a cross was planted. Some historians believe America’s first Easter sunrise service took place atop Rubidoux in 1909 and inspired similar observances around the continent.

Nicholas Flat Trail

Leo Carrillo State Beach has always been a popular surfing spot. Surfers tackle the well-shaped south swell, while battling the submerged rocks and kelp beds. In recent years, the state added a large chunk of Santa Monica Mountains parkland, prompting a name change to Leo Carrillo State Park.

The park's Nicholas Flat area is one of the best spots in the Santa Monica Mountains for spring wildflowers because it's a meeting place for four different plant communities. Chaparral, grassland, coastal scrub and oak woodland all converge near the flat. Another reason for the remarkable plant diversity is Leo Carrillo's elevation, which varies from sea level to nearly 2,000 feet.

Along park trails, look for shooting star, hedge nettle, sugar bush, hollyleaf redberry, purple sage, chamise, blue dick, deer weed, burr clover, bush lupine, golden yarrow, fuschia-flowered gooseberry, and many more flowering plants. Around Nicholas Pond, keep an eye out for wishbone bush, encelia, chia, Parry's phacelia, ground-pink, California poppy, scarlet bugler and goldfields.

Placerita Canyon Trail

Placerita Canyon has a gentleness that is rare in the steep, severely faulted San Gabriel Mountains. A superb nature center, plus a walk through the oak- and sycamore-shaded adds up to a nice outing for the whole family.

In 1842, seven years before the '49ers rushed to Sutter's Mill, California's first gold rush occurred in Placerita Canyon. Legend has it that herdsman Francisco Lopez awoke from his nap beneath a large shady oak tree, during which he had dreamed of gold and wealth. During the more mundane routine of fixing his evening meal, he dug up some onions to spice his supper and there, clinging to the roots, were small gold nuggets. Miners from all over California, the San Fernando Placers, as they became known, poured into Placerita Canyon. The prospecting was good, though not exceptional, for several years. The spot where Lopez made his discovery is now called the Oak of the Golden Dream. A plaque marks his find.

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail is serpentine, but otherwise far more inviting than its name suggests.

The joys of the canyon were first promoted by none other than the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce. Many early 20th century visitors to Santa Barbara resorts enjoyed hiking and riding in the local mountains. Eager to keep the customers satisfied, in 1902 the chamber purchased easements from canyon homesteaders to develop a recreation trail.

"Chamber of Commerce Trail," as the chamber called it, was an immediate success with both tourists and locals. However, to the chamber's consternation, both the trail and the canyon itself continued to be called Rattlesnake. Chamber of Commerce Canyon sounded a bit self-serving, so the chamber tried to compromise with an earlier name, Las Canoas Canyon, and adopted a 1902 resolution to that effect. "The name of Rattlesnake Canyon is unpleasantly suggestive of a reptile," it argued, "which is found no more plentifully there than elsewhere along the mountain range and may deter some nervous persons from visiting that most delightful locality."

San Bernardino Peak Trail

Mount San Bernardino, together with its twin peak, Mount San Gorgonio, just five miles away and 900 feet higher, anchors the eastern end of the San Bernardino Mountains. At 11,499 feet, Mount San Gorgonio is the peak by which all other Southern California peaks are measured. Mount San Bernardino, too, is quite a landmark.

In 1852, Colonel Henry Washington and his Army survey party were directed to erect a monument atop Mount San Bernardino. The monument was to be an east-west reference point from which all future surveys of Southern California would be taken.

The colonel's crew took many readings, but heat waves from the San Bernardino Valley below befuddled their triangulations. The surveying party ingeniously solved this dilemma by lighting bonfires atop the peak in order to make their calculations at night.