“Vancouver is one of the world’s best cities for hiking because the wilderness is right in our backyards,” declares Manfred Schollerman, owner-operator of Rockwood Adventures, a walking tour company. “A twenty minute walk takes you from city streets into a rain forest with thousand-year old trees.”

Asian and European visitors, whose cities are far, far from any wilderness, are particularly awestruck by the close proximity of the forest primeval to civic center, explains Schollerman. Indeed his most popular jaunt, the Capilano River Canyon Walk begins near a shopping center and almost before his walkers can say “banana slug,” they find themselves in a temperate rain forest. Trails weave through an emerald forest of hemlock, red cedar and Douglas fir, over a forest floor carpeted with moss, ferns and flowering plants.

Adapted from A Walk Along Lands End: Discovering California's Living Coast (HarperCollins) by John McKinney. (In this excerpt, we join John in far northern California, some 1,400 miles into his 1,600-mile solo trek up the California coast.)

It doesn't get any wilder than this. California has a very long coastline, and millions of acres of wilderness, but it has only one wilderness coast. The Lost Coast.

By Cheri Rae and John McKinney

The Crown Jewel of the California Desert

Discover America's Magnificent New National Parkland!

Mojave National Preserve: A Visitor's Guide reveals the wonders of Hole-in-the-Wall, the Mojave River, Kelso Dunes and Mitchell Caverns.

Lively tours, clear maps and directions, nature and history notes enrich appreciation for one of the nation's most spectacular natural areas.