TRAILS

Joshua Tree National Park beckons hikers with pathways leading to a diversity of desert environments, including sand dunes, native palm oases, cactus gardens and jumbles of jumbo granite.

Joshua Tree is a great place to take a hike. And there’s a lot of park to hike!

JT is a large national park, slightly larger than Yosemite in fact, with compelling sights-to-see scattered over nearly 800,000 acres. With elevations that range from 900 feet to more than 5,000 feet, the park has a great deal of biodiversity as well.

With limited time, it’s best to choose a strategy to explore Joshua Tree. One approach is to focus on one area per visit: Cottonwood Springs, Black Rock Canyon or the Wonderland of Rocks for example. Another way to go is to choose one route of travel—say from the West Entrance or North Entrance—and stop for hikes along major park roads.

Another strategy to employ is to take a lot of short hikes. The park has a dozen interpreted nature trails ranging from 0.25 mile to 1 mile in length. They travel over gentle terrain and offer an ideal introduction to the wonders of the desert.

In combination with stops at the park visitor centers, the park’s nature trails deliver an excellent overview of the park. Taking several short hikes in a day is a good way to go for the first-time visitor as well as for those new to desert hiking, and who may be unfamiliar with its rigors and requirements.

In Joshua Tree, hikers have the opportunity to experience two deserts: the Mojave and the Colorado. The Mojave Desert in the western part of the park includes Joshua tree forests and some intriguing geology—particularly the dramatic hills of bare rock, usually broken up into loose boulders. Along with the Joshua trees that dominate the open spaces, the park also holds enclaves of pinyon pine, California juniper and the desert scrub oak.

Below 3,000 feet, the eastern part of the park reflects the Colorado Desert—with habitats of creosote bush, ocotillo, yucca and cholla cactus. This lower and drier desert features cactus gardens and dunes, plus palm oases, where water occurs naturally year-around and the native California fan palm thrives.

Paths to palm oases are one of the park’s special attractions. Oasis Visitor Center is located alongside the Oasis of Mara, also known as Twenty-nine Palms. For many hundreds of years Native Americans lived at “the place of little springs and much grass.”

Cottonwood Spring, near the south end of the park is a little palm and cottonwood-shaded oasis that attracts desert birds and bird-watchers. The trail to Fortynine Palms Oasis winds up and over a hot rocky crest to the dripping springs, pools, and the blessed shade of palms and cottonwoods. Lost Palms Oasis Trail visits the park’s premier palm grove.

No visit to JT would be complete without a short hike into the Wonderland of Rocks, twelve square miles of massive jumbled granite. This curious maze of stone hides groves of Joshua trees, trackless washes and several small pools of water.

Hikers often cross paths with rock-climbers and spot them practicing their craft on formations high above the desert floor. From Hidden Valley to the Wonderland of Rocks, the park has emerged as one of the world’s premiere rock-climbing destinations. The park offers relatively easy access to about 3,000 climbing routes, ranging from the easiest of bouldering to some of the sport’s most difficult technical climbs.

The Jumbo Rocks area is Joshua Tree National Park to the max: a vast array of rock formations, a Joshua tree forest, the yucca-dotted desert open and wide. Check out Skull Rock (one of the many rocks in the area that appear to resemble humans, dinosaurs, monsters, cathedrals and castles) via a nature trail that provides an introduction to the park’s flora, wildlife and geology.

In Queen Valley, just west of Jumbo Rocks, is the signed beginning of Geology Tour Road, a rough dirt road (four-wheel drive recommended) extending 18 miles into the heart of the park. Motorists get close-up looks at the considerable erosive forces that shaped this land, forming the flattest of desert playas, or dry lakebeds, as well as massive heaps of boulders that tower over the valley floor. Good hikes begin off Geology Tour Road, which delivers a Joshua tree woodland, an historic spring, abandoned mines and some fascinating native petroglyphs.

One of my favorite footpaths is Black Rock Canyon Trail, which follows a classic desert wash, then ascends to the crest of the Little San Bernardino Mountains at Warren Peak. Desert and mountain views from the peak are stunning.

Must-do classic hikes include the short but steep ascent through a lunar landscape of rocks and Joshua trees to the top of 5,470-foot Ryan Mountain. Reward for the climb is one of the park’s best views. Lost Horse Mine Trail visits one of the area’s most successful gold mines, and offers a close-up look back into a colorful era, and some fine views into the heart of the park.

Hike smart, reconnect with nature and have a wonderful time on the trail.

Hike on.

In 2010, hikers and movie fans from across the nation and around the world were delighted to learn that creative conservation efforts, combined with fundraising from private and public sectors, succeeded in purchasing the peak and adding it to Griffith Park.

As the story goes, Cahuenga Peak piqued the interest of aircraft mogul (and movie producer) Howard Hughes, who purchased it in the 1930s with the intention of building a mountaintop love nest for Ginger Rogers. She turned him down and the property remained undeveloped (a minor miracle in SoCal) until 2002 when a group of Chicago developers bought the land from the Hughes estate.

When the developers announced plans to subdivide the peak into luxury estates, local conservationists, film fans, and celebs rallied to “Save the Peak.” Some $12 million was raised to purchase the 138-acre site. Hollywood notables, including Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, plus the Tiffany & Company Foundation, Hugh Hefner and Aileen Getty contributed serious cash, as did state and local agencies.

As the story goes, Cahuenga, which names a pass, a peak and nowadays a boulevard was once a native Shoshone village located on the banks of the Los Angeles River near present-day Universal City. The peak is the 12th highest in the Santa Monica Mountains.

DIRECTIONS

From Highway 101 in North Hollywood, exit on Barham Boulevard and head north 0.3 mile. Turn right on Lake Hollywood Drive and continue 0.5 mile to intersect Wonder View Drive (which has no street parking). Park alongside Lake Hollywood Drive.

THE HIKE

Walk 0.25 mile up paved Wonder View Drive to its end. Hike past a yellow vehicle gate on dirt road 300 feet to unsigned Wonder View Trail on your right. Begin a steep eastward ascent east, zigzagging up the south slope of Cahuenga Peak. Enjoy wonderful views of Mt. Lee with its forest of antennae, Griffith Observatory, Mt. Hollywood and downtown L.A.

After a quite aggressive half-mile climb the rough trail gains a ridgeline and splits. A short side trail leads left to a lone pine tree and the top of Burbank Peak (1,690 feet). Pause to read the summit logbook stashed below the Wisdom Tree; hikers have been know to get very creative with their philosophizing in this book. Clear-day panoramic views are terrific—particularly angles on the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Mountains.

Return to Wonder View Trail and hike across a ridge. The path drops to a saddle between Cahuenga Peak and Mt. Lee (1,680 feet) and ends at Mount Lee Road. Turn right and walk up the paved road for a view through chain-link fence at the HOLLYWOOD Sign.

Hike on.

John McKinney

For more great hikes, check out my new guide, Hike Griffith Park & the Hollywood Hills.

As a young adult I lived in the most urban section of the Santa Monica Mountains—the Hollywood Hills—and in one of the most rural parts—Topanga Canyon.

The home mountains are where I camped overnight with the scouts and learned to drive a car with a clutch. Later in life, the home mountains helped me unwind from the stresses of metropolitan life.

Going back to the 1980s, I’ve helped defend the home mountains from unwise developments, cheered supporters and chastised bureaucrats, celebrated new parklands and new trails. I even spent the greater part of a year mapping, promoting, and speaking out for the Backbone Trail, the 65-mile pathway that extends across the spine of the range.

All of which means I have a particular fondness for hiking the Santa Monica Mountains and delight in sharing my favorite trails. Wildflowers, waterfalls and wonderful scenery that’s been the backdrop for hundreds of movies and thousands of episodes of TV shows are highlights for hikers.

Spring wildflower blooms are impressive. A hike to Nicholas Flat might reveal wishbone bush, encelia, chia, Parry’s phacelia, ground-pink, scarlet bugler, goldfields… check out the “What’s Blooming?” section of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area website.

Trails lead by still waters—Nicholas Pond, Century Lake and Charmlee’s Old Reservoir—and by lively creeks in Sullivan Canyon, Malibu Canyon and Zuma Canyon. Behold surprising waterfalls in Temescal Canyon, Sycamore Canyon and La Jolla Canyon.

More movies and TV shows have been filmed in the Santa Monica Mountains than anywhere else in the world, and it’s lots of fun to hike to and through movie locations. Malibu Creek State Park, just to name one park, has served as Wales, Korea, Connecticut, and even the Planet of the Apes. Other park sites in the mountains have subbed for the Wild West, Italy, Switzerland, Asia, outer space, and a variety of fantasy locations. More than 500 productions a year take place in these mountains.

Because M*A*S*H, both the original movie and the long-running television series, was filmed here, and because what is now parkland used to be a movie ranch, Malibu Creek is the state park most associated with the film industry. Thou¬sands of visitors a year hike out to the original site of the M*A*S*H filming.

We who love hiking in these mountains are forever grateful to Milt McAuley, who wrote trail guides and the classic Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains.

“Come on an adventure, walk the trails,” urged McAuley, who hiked until shortly before his death at the age of 89. “Experience the beauty and friendship that is waiting for you.”

Bordered by two of the busiest freeways in the world—the Ventura and San Diego—they remain a near-wilderness. Within easy reach of 16 million people, they nevertheless offer solitude and plenty of silent places.

Geography

The Santa Monica Mountains is the only relatively undeveloped mountain range in the U.S. that bisects a major metropolitan area. The mountains extend from Griffith Park in the heart of Los Angeles to Point Mugu, 50 miles away. The range is 12 miles wide at its broadest point, and reaches an elevation of about 3,000 feet.

One of the few east-west trending ranges in the country, the Santa Monica Mountains can cause a little geographic confusion to the first-time visitor. Santa Monica Bay and the Malibu coastline also extend from east to west alongside the mountains so that the mountain explorer actually looks south to the ocean and heads west when hiking up-coast.

Natural Attractions

The mountains host a Mediterranean ecosystem, the only one in the country under National Park Service protection. Large stretches are open and natural, covered with chaparral and oak trees, bright in spring with wildflowers. Oak woodland and fern glens shade gentle seasonal creeks.

Largest areas of open space are in the western part of the mountains. Point Mugu State Park holds one of the finest native tall-grass prairies and one of the best sycamore groves in the state. The gorge sculpted by Malibu Creek is an unforgettable sight.

In the eastern portion of the mountains, open space is harder to come by, but those pockets that do exist are all the more valuable because they are so close to the metropolis. Canyons such as Los Liones, Caballero, Rustic and Sullivan are precious resources.

History

Ancestors of the Chumash Indians lived in the mountains as early as 7,000 years ago. Abundant food sources helped the Chumash become the largest Indian tribal group in California at the time of Juan Cabrillo’s arrival in 1542. The Chumash’s highly developed culture included oceangoing plank canoes called tomols and a system of astronomy that was both mystical and practical.

Spanish missionaries, soldiers and settlers displaced the Chumash. During the 19th century, the Santa Monicas were controlled by a few large land holdings—including Rancho Topanga-Malibu-Sequit—and used primarily for cattle ranching. As the land holdings were broken up, some ranchers supplemented their modest living by renting space to visiting horseback riders and vacationers.

Conservationists proposed Whitestone National Park in the 1930s and Toyon National Park in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until Will Rogers, Topanga, Malibu Creek and Point Mugu state parks were established in the late 1960s that the mountains received any substantial government protection. In 1978 the bill creating Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area was approved by Congress.

Administration

Some 70,000 acres of public land is preserved within the boundaries of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. This represents about one-third of the 200,000 acres covered by the range.

The National Recreation Area is not one large area, but a patchwork of state, federal and county land, as well as private property still to be acquired. The major land stewards are California State Parks and the National Park Service.

For three decades the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency, has been particularly effective at acquiring parkland in the mountains. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority manages and provides ranger services for parks that it owns and are owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Hike smart, reconnect with nature and have a wonderful time on the trail.
Hike on.
–John McKinney

Interested in more hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains? Check out the “HIKE the Santa Monica Mountains Pocket Guide” at The Trailmaster Store.

With densely forested ridges, wild and open coastal bluffs, and deserted beaches, Point Reyes National Seashore is an unforgettable place to ramble.

I’ve liked hiking Point Reyes ever since I discovered it back during my college days, but I really grew extra fond of it when I led week-long hiking adventures around the peninsula during the first decade of the 21st century. Sometimes when you have the experience of leading others along favorite trails, you learn to admire a place all the more.

I usually had about a dozen hikers with me, walkers from across the nation as well as from Europe, clients of an upscale British walking vacation company. We walked the Rift Zone Trail to the back door of Point Reyes Seashore Lodge, our “base camp,” then set out on each day to discover more of the many wonders of the peninsula: Bear Valley, Arch Rock, Mt. Wittenberg, Abbotts Lagoon, Chimney Rock, Point Reyes Lighthouse, Hearts Desire Beach, Tomales Bay and Tomales Point.

My English friends say that with its moors, weirs, glens, and vales, Point Reyes Peninsula calls to mind the seacoast of Great Britain. California coast chauvinist that I am, I usually come back at them by saying that when I’ve hiked the Shetland Islands or wandered the Devon Coast, these landforms have reminded me of favorite landscapes in Point Reyes National Seashore.

I delight in the whole Point Reyes experience: kayaking Tomales Bay, cycling the back roads, camping, cheese-tasting, wildflower walks and lighthouse tours. I’ve hiked Point Reyes with friends, family and school children and everyone who ventures into this area seems to experience—and retain—some of the peninsula’s magic.

In hindsight, some conservationists believe that the drawn-out preservation process (a 30-year struggle) actually benefited Pt. Reyes because in the interim attitudes shifted a bit from parks-as-playgrounds to parks-as-nature preserves.

So few roads or recreation facilities were constructed here, and I say thank God for that. The area’s three tiny towns—Olema, Pt. Reyes Station, Inverness—have remained very small. San Franciscans have an altogether different attitude toward their wilderness-next-door than, say, Bostonians have toward summer-crowded Cape Cod National Seashore. BTW it was  President John F. Kennedy who signed the legislation creating Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962.

Bear Valley is the busy hub of Pt. Reyes National Seashore, and there’s not a hotel or restaurant in sight. Lots of trails to hike, though. From the park visitor center about 40 miles of trail thread through the valley, and to the ridges and beaches beyond.

More than a hundred miles of trail meandering through the national seashore beckon the hiker to explore wide grasslands, Bishop pine and Douglas fir forest, chaparral-cloaked coastal ridges and windswept beaches. The paths range from easy beach walks and nature hikes to rugged mountain rambles. If you want to plan a backpacking trip, Point Reyes has four hike-in camps available by reservation.

And take it from someone who has walked the entire length of the California coast: the coastal trails in Point Reyes National Seashore are among the finest along the entire 1,600-mile California Coastal Trail.

Hike on.
John McKinney

Interested in more Point Reyes hikes? Check out HIKE Point Reyes

And take a hike in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

If you only drive through you’ll be disappointed: Sequoia and Kings Canyon have the superlative scenery and postcard views found in the country’s most noted national parks, but you have to hike to find them.

Naturally the groves of sequoia are the primary draw to both namesake Sequoia National Park and to Kings Canyon National Park. “Noblest of a noble race,” is how the great naturalist John Muir described the trees, biggest on earth, and the prime reason for the formation of the parks. General Sherman, standing 274 feet tall and measuring 36.5 feet in diameter at the base of its massive trunk, is the largest of the large trees.

Scenic 46-mile-long Generals Highway connects the national parks and offers access to the most popular sequoia groves, but auto travel is restricted to lower and middle elevations, so if you want to fully experience the park you need to hike into the Sierra Nevada high country.

Want to get away from it all? Famed High Sierra Trail extends east-west across Sequoia National Park. Nearly half of one of the great trails of the world—the 225-mile long John Muir Trail—extends through Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. By some accounts, a backpacker in Sequoia National Park can hike to a spot farther away from roads than anywhere else in the continental U.S.

Long-distance backpacking expeditions aren’t required to reach many of the alpine charms of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Where the road ends, an extensive trail system begins and many of the parks’ most compelling natural attractions—waterfalls, rivers, lakes, vista points and remote sequoia groves—can be reached by easy, moderate and all-day hikes.

You can choose from day hikes in what the National Park Service considers to be the five major regions of the parks: Giant Forest, Mineral King and the Foothills areas of Sequoia National Park plus the Grant Grove and Cedar Grove areas of Kings Canyon National Park.

The groves are great, but it’s possible to take many hikes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks without sighting a single sequoia. Hillsides with chaparral and dotted with oaks aren’t exactly rare in California but the California Foothills ecosystem in the lower elevations around Ash Mountain in Sequoia National Park is the only one in the nation under National Park Service protection. Some foothill trails, including footpaths along forks of the Kaweah River, can be hiked all year around.

Mineral King, a gorgeous, avalanche-scoured valley ringed by rugged 12,000-foot peaks, is another area irresistible to hikers. Views from atop the Great Western Divide and the many lakes hidden in glacial cirques compel hikers to return summer after summer.

The hiking season for much of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks is a fairly short one. Middle elevations—5,000 to 9,000 feet—are often snow-covered from November through May. In Mineral King, and higher in the High Sierra, the season can be even shorter.

If you have only one day (promise yourself to return soon when you have more time!), drive from Grant Grove to Giant Forest or vice-versa and hike amidst the magnificent sequoia in each locale.

Ideally, the hiker needs at least three days to get a fair sampling of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Take in the sequoia groves on the first day, on the second day, head for the high country (Lakes Trail is a good choice) and on the third day, take a hike in Mineral King.

Hikes in the parks are suited for a range of abilities: memorable family walks among the big trees, pleasant excursions to lakes and waterfalls, challenging hikes high into the Sierra Nevada.

More than one million visitors per year pass through the parks, and major trails are well-traveled during the summer, but I’ve rarely felt over¬whelmed by humanity when hiking in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Many hikers told me they have found quiet and tranquility on the trail to the park’s natural treasures—provided, of course, you avoid tourist-trafficked hot spots such as Moro Rock and General Sherman Tree.

When I hit the trail in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, I feel as if I’m living large and hiking larger: the trees are huge, the mountains high, the canyons deep and the trail system is quite extensive—a well-maintained network of more than 800 miles. The parks offer hundreds of thousands of acres of untouched Sierra high country, of which more than 90 percent is designated wilderness. If you’re a hiker, that’s a dream come true.

Hike on.
John McKinney

Interested in more hikes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon? Check out my “HIKE Sequoia and Kings Canyon Pocket Guide” at The Trailmaster Store

A bighorn sheep standing watch atop painted cliffs, sunlight and shadow playing atop the salt and soda floor, a blue-gray cascade of gravel pouring down a gorge to a land below the level of the sea—these are a few of the many awesome scenes I’ll always remember and why I like to hike Death Valley National Park.

Hike Death Valley National Park? The Forty-niners, whose suffering gave the valley its name, would have howled at the notion. “Death Valley National Park” seems a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron of the great outdoors.

Park? Other four-letter words are more often associated with Death Valley: gold, mine, heat, lost, dead. And the four-letter words shouted by teamsters who drove the 20-mule team borax wagons across the valley floor need not be repeated.

Hike? Well, “hike” is a four-letter word not commonly associated with Death Valley. However, we who like to hike Death Valley intend to subvert the dominant paradigm and share the park’s many intriguing trails.

In fact, “Death Valley” got its name from some hikers—all be it some very unhappy ones. Looking for a shortcut to the California gold country, two groups of travelers with about 100 wagons got lost in the huge valley for weeks in December of 1849. After slaughtering their oxen and burning the wood of their wagons to cook the meat, they finally located a pass and hiked out of the valley. One of the women in the group is reported to have said, “Goodbye Death Valley!” and the name stuck.

Even the hiker with little or no interest in geology can be awestruck by Death Valley, where the forces of the earth are exposed to view with dramatic clarity: a sudden fault and a sink became a lake. The water evaporated, leaving behind borax and above all, fantastic scenery. Although Death Valley is called a valley, in actuality it is not. Valleys are carved by rivers. Death Valley is what geologists call a graben. Here a block of the earth’s crust has dropped down along fault lines in relation to its mountain walls.

Death Graben National Park?

Nope. Just doesn’t have the right ring to it.

Many of Death Valley’s topographical features are associated with hellish images—Funeral Mountains, Furnace Creek, Dante’s View, Coffin Peak and Devil’s Golf Course—but the national park can be a place of great serenity for the hiker.

At 3.3 million acres, Death Valley is the largest national park outside of Alaska. The very notion of hiking the desert in general, and at a place like Death Valley in particular, is a surprising one to some people—even to some avid hikers. The desert that seems so huge when viewed from a car can seem even more intimidating on foot.

Compared to forest or mountain parks, Death Valley has a limited number of signed footpaths; nevertheless, hiking opportunities abound because roads (closed to vehicles), washes, and narrow canyons serve as excellent footpath substitutes.

The distances across Death Valley are enormous. If you only have one day, stick around the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Take in Harmony Borax Works, Badwater, Dante’s View and hike the interpretive trail through Golden Canyon.

For the average hiker, there’s a week or two’s worth of hiking in the park, though you can get a fair sampling of this desert in three to four days. Although it’s tempting, don’t over-schedule. Death Valley is vast, with abundant sights to see and hikes to take.

To see as much of the park as possible, choose a different entrance and exit highway. Several routes lead into the park, all of which involve crossing one of the steep mountain ranges that isolate Death Valley from, well, everything. If you enter on Highway 127 through Death Valley Junction, exit on the scenic byway through the Panamint Valley. If you entered from the Panamint side, take your leave of the park by following Badwater Road (Highway 178) south from Furnace Creek, across the Black Mountains and Greenwater Valley to intersect Highway 127 at Shoshone.

A particular highlight of hiking Death Valley is encountering the multitude of living things that have miraculously adapted to living in this land of little water, extreme heat and high winds. Two hundred species of birds are found in Death Valley. The brown whip-like stems of the creosote bush help shelter the movements of the kangaroo rat, desert tortoise and antelope ground squirrel. Night covers the movements of the bobcat, fox and coyote. Small bands of bighorn sheep roam remote slopes and peaks. Three species of desert pupfish, survivors from the Ice Age, are found in the valley’s saline creeks and pools.

In spring, even this most forbidding of deserts breaks into bloom. The deep blue pea-shaped flowers of the indigo bush brighten Daylight Pass. Lupine, paintbrush and Panamint daisies grow on the lower slopes of the Panamint Mountains while Mojave wildrose and mariposa lily dot the higher slopes.

In reality, Death Valley celebrates life. Despite the outward harshness of this land, when you hike Death Valley, you see it in a different light. As naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch put it: “Hardship looks attractive, scarcity becomes desirable, starkness takes on an unexpected beauty.”

Hike smart, reconnect with nature and have a wonderful time on the trail.

Hike on.

The Trailmaster John McKinney

California’s Gold Country offers many treasures for the hiker. Most of the gold in California’s Gold Country was mined long ago, but the wonderful scenery in the High Sierra foothills remains, a favorite of hikers and history buffs.

Highway 49 pays tribute to the Gold Rush and links a wonderful collection of restored mining towns and parks that preserve the heritage of that colorful era. Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, Empire Mine State Historic Park, and other Gold Country parks preserve tunnels, trails, mines, and mountains made famous by the 49ers.

Also on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada are the famed giant sequoia groves of Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The “Big” in the park name is no exaggeration; sequoias are the largest living things on Earth.

The Gold Country is a splendid destination in autumn. Autumn colors the trees in the Sierra foothills with gold and other fall hues.

Highway 49 winds its way for about 350 miles through the Gold Country, a region that requires two to three packed days to explore. Choose to camp in or near the California state parks en route or make a “base camp” in a B&B or other lodging then venture out to explore the marquee Gold Country state parks—Empire Mine SHP and Marshall Gold Discovery SHP. Calaveras Big Trees State Park is well worth an entire day on its own.

And wait, there’s more. Hike around Indian Grinding Rock SHP and see the impressive bedrock mortars and a reconstructed Miwok village. And you just have to take a long walk around Columbia SHP and see this restored gold rush town. After you take a hike, take the train. Head for Jamestown and visit Railtown 1897 SHP, where steam train trips are offered from April through November.

On your tour along Highway 49 south of Sacramento, The Trailmaster recommends a trio of trails in California State Parks. These are easy to moderate hikes that offer a great intro to the scenic treasures of California’s Gold Country.

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park Monument Trail and Monroe Ridge Trail add up to a fine Gold Country ramble that offers great views, both panoramic and close-up of what is likely the single most important locale in California history. This hike (4-mile loop) visits the Marshall Monument, where a bigger-than-life figure holds a bigger-than-life gold nugget and points to the spot where he made the discovery that put California on the world map.

Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park Check out the amazing grinding rock—a 173-foot length of bedrock with 1,185 mortar cups, and truly something to behold. Then join two short trails: North Trail begins near the museum, follows a low ridge and loops back to a reconstructed Miwok Village. South Nature Trail tours meadowland, oak woods, plus stands of sugar pine and ponderosa pine.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park The “Big Trees” in the park name is a tip-off: Two groves of giant Sequoia redwoods are the highlights of Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Most visitors tour the easy-to-access North Grove, while hikers in the know head for the park’s more remote South Grove, which has ten times the number of big trees and is far less visited than North Grove. North Grove is protected in a “Natural Preserve,” the highest category of environmental protection offered by the state park system. South Grove Trail is 5 miles round trip with a modest 400-foot elevation gain.

Interested in more hikes in California’s Gold Country? Check out my guide, Hike Southern California

Mt. San Antonio, more commonly known as Mt. Baldy, is the highest peak (10,068 feet) in the mountains and visible from much of the Southland. Its summit gleams white in winter and early spring, gray in summer and fall. Old Baldy is so big and bare that it seems to be snow-covered even when it’s not.

Baldy is a bit austere from afar, but up-close, the white granite shoulders of the mountain are softened by a forest of pine and fir. Padres of Mission San Gabriel, circa 1790, named the massive stone bulwark after Saint Anthony, a 13th-century friar from Padua, Italy. In the 1870s, gold-seekers dubbed the massive peak a more earthly “Old Baldy.”

From Baldy Notch, Devil’s Backbone Trail offers a moderately challenging route to the summit. This popular trail is the one most hikers associate with Baldy. Clear-day views from the top offer a panorama of desert and ocean, the sprawling Southland and the Southern High Sierra.

An alternative is to walk up a fire road to Baldy Notch. This option adds 3 miles each way and a 1,300-foot gain to the hike. The fire road switchbacks up the west side of steep San Antonio Canyon, offers a good view of San Antonio Falls, then climbs northward to the top. This fire road is subject to closure. Check with the US Forest Service before you go.

DIRECTIONS:

From the Foothill Freeway (210) in Claremont, exit on Baseline Road and head west one block to Padua Avenue. Turn right and drive north 1.7 miles to a stop sign and an inter¬section with Mt. Baldy Road. Turn right and drive 7.2 miles to the national forest’s Mt. Baldy Visitor Center in Mt. Baldy Village, then a few more miles up to Manker Flats. To walk up the fire road, drive to the upper end of the Manker Flats Campground. Look for a vehicle gate and a paved road.

Those riding the ski lift will continue 0.25 mile past the campground to the Baldy Ski Lifts and free parking. Purchase a ticket and ride the ski lift up to Baldy Notch. (The lift is operated weekends and holidays all year.)

THE HIKE:

From Baldy Notch, a wide gravel path leads to a commanding view of the desert. Join a chair lift access/fire road, and ascend a broad slope forested in Jeffrey pine and incense cedar. The road ends in about 1.25 miles at the top of a ski lift.

From here, a trail leads onto a sharp ridge, the Devil’s Backbone. Look north down into the deep gorge of Lytle Creek, and south into San Antonio Canyon. Pass around the south side of Mt. Harwood, “Little Baldy,” and up through scattered stands of lodgepole pine.

Reach a tempestuous saddle (Hold onto your hat!) and continue on a steep rock-strewn pathway that zigzags past wind-bowed limber pine to the summit. Atop Baldy’s crown, rock windbreaks offer shelter. Enjoy vistas of San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain peaks, the Mojave and the metropolis.

Interested in more hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains? Check out my “HIKE the San Gabriel Mountains Pocket Guide at The Trailmaster Store.

Topanga State Park is a quiet retreat, surrounded by L.A. sprawl but retaining its rural character. The state park is sometimes billed as “the largest state park within a city limit in the U.S.”

The name Topanga is from the Shoshonean Indian dialect. Until the 1880s, there was little permanent habitation in the canyon. Early settlers tended vineyards, orchards, and cattle ranches.

In the 1920s, the canyon became a popular weekend destination for Los Angeles residents. Summer cabins were built along Topanga Creek and in surrounding hills. For $1 round trip fare, tourists could board a Packard auto stage in Santa Monica and be driven up Pacific Coast Highway and Topanga Canyon Road to the canyon’s scenic spots.

Most Topanga trails are good fire roads. In the heart of the state park, the hiker will discover Eagle Rock, Eagle Spring and get topographically oriented to Topanga.

I have a particular fondness for Topanga Canyon, having resided there and hiked there often during my grad school days. The park definitely offers four-season hiking: On a blustery winter day, city and canyon views are superb, in springtime, the hillsides are colored with wildflowers, and autumn offers great hiking weather and clear-day vistas.

Summer, too, has its charms. It’s doubtful any poets will rhapsodize about such summer bloomers as bursage, mugwort, Indian milkweed, chaparral pea or ashyleaf buckwheat, though the scarlet petals of the California fuchsia and the tiny pink petals of the slim aster do have a certain charm. Just get an early start!

DIRECTIONS TO TOPANGA STATE PARK

From Topanga Canyon Boulevard, turn east on Entrada Road; that’s to the right if you’re coming from Pacific Coast Highway. Follow Entrada Road by turning left at every opportunity until you arrive at Topanga State Park. The trailhead is at the end of the parking lot.

THE HIKE

From the Topanga State Park parking lot, follow the distinct trail eastward to a signed junction, where you’ll begin hiking on Eagle Springs Road. You’ll pass through an oak woodland and through chaparral country. The trail slowly and steadily gains about 800 feet in elevation on the way to Eagle Rock. When you reach a junction, bear left on the north loop of Eagle Springs Road to Eagle Rock. A short detour will bring you to the top of the rock.

To complete the loop, bear sharply right (southwest) at the next junction, following the fire road as it winds down to Eagle Spring. Past the spring, you return to Eagle Spring Road and retrace your steps back to the trailhead.

Three-mile long Musch Ranch Trail, which passes from hot chaparral to shady oak woodland, crosses a bridge and passes the park pond, is another fine way to return to the trailhead.

Interested in more hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains? Check out my guide: Hike the Santa Monica Mountains

Before land for Malibu Creek State Park was acquired in 1974, it was divided into three parcels belonging to Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and 20th Century Fox. Although the park is still used for moviemaking, it’s primarily a haven for day hikers and picnickers.

Today the state park preserves more than 7,000 acres of rugged country in the middle of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The trail along Malibu Creek explores the heart of the state park. It’s an easy, nearly level walk that visits a dramatic rock gorge, Century Lake and several locales popular with moviemakers.

Fans of the long-running TV show, M*A*S*H, will enjoy making the pilgrimage to the site where so many episodes were filmed. Some rusted vehicles, interpretive panels, a picnic table and helicopter pad are at the site. The prominent Goat Buttes that tower above Malibu Creek were featured in the opening shot of each episode.

DIRECTIONS

From Pacific Coast Highway, turn inland on Malibu Canyon Road and proceed 6.5 miles to the park entrance, 0.25 mile south of Mulholland Highway. If you’re coming from the San Fernando Valley, exit the Ventura Freeway (101) on Las Virgenes Road and continue four miles to the park entrance.

THE HIKE

From the parking area, descend a staircase near the restrooms at the western edge of the parking lot. Cross a small bridge, passing signs marked “Backcountry Trails.” Crags Road soon forks into a high road and a low road. Go right and walk along the oak-shaded high road, which makes a long, lazy left arc as it follows the north bank of Malibu Creek. You’ll reach an intersection and turn left on a short road that crosses a bridge over Malibu Creek.

Gorge Trail is well worth a detour; follow it upstream a short distance to the gorge, one of the most dramatic sights in the Santa Monica Mountains. Malibu Creek makes a hairpin turn through 400-foot volcanic rock cliffs and cascades into aptly named Rock Pool. The Swiss Family Robinson television series and some Tarzan movies were filmed here, as were a number of scenes from the “Planet of the Apes” series of flicks.

Retrace your steps back to the high road and bear left toward Century Lake. As the road ascends you’ll be treated to a fine view of Las Virgenes Valley. When you gain the crest of the hill, you’ll look down on Century Lake. Near the lake are hills of porous lava and topsy-turvy sedimentary rock layers that tell of the violent geologic upheaval that formed Malibu Canyon. A side trail leads down to the lake which was scooped out by members of Crag’s Country Club, a group of wealthy, turn-of-the-20th century businessmen who had a nearby lodge.

The road follows a (usually) dry creek bed though, after a good rain, it can be wet and wild going. Soon after passing a junction with the Lost Cabin Trail, you’ll reach the M*A*S*H site.

Interested in more hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains? Check out my guide: HIKE the Santa Monica Mountains

Earthquake Trail uses old photographs and other displays to explain the seismic forces unleashed by the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This well-done and entertaining geology lesson is particularly relevant because most of the land west of the San Andreas Fault Zone is within boundaries of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Plates forming the earth’s crust do not always creep quietly past each other. In 1906 they clashed violently, and the result was California’s worst natural disaster. During the great quake, Point Reyes was shoved 16.4 feet to the northwest. A cow barn, located near the park rangers’ headquarters, was ripped in two. A corner of the barn stayed on the foundation and the rest was carried sixteen feet away.

The San Andreas Fault is long (780 miles), narrow (one mile) and deep (20 miles). For obvious reasons, the fault is much-studied by scientists and as a result much research is available to share with the public. Surely a hike along Earthquake Trail is one of the most interesting ways to learn more about this great maker and shaker of continents.

Paved and fully accessible for all visitors, the nearly flat trail is an engaging experience for all ages. On this memorable nature trail view creeks and fences that were rearranged by the 1906 quake.

And Earthquake Trail is more than an earth science lesson. The path also offers a friendly intro to the parkland’s meadow and woodland communities. Even the most time-pressed  tourist will enjoy walking the trail.

DIRECTIONS TO EARTHQUAKE TRAIL:

Bear Valley Visitor Center is located just outside the town of Olema, 35 slow and curving miles north of San Francisco on Highway 1. A quicker route is by Highway 101, exiting on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and traveling 20 miles to Olema. Turn right on Coast Highway 1, proceed 0.1 mile, then turn left on Bear Valley Road, which leads 0.4 mile to parking for the Point Reyes National Seashore Visitor Center. Earthquake Trail begins at the southeast corner of the Bear Valley Picnic Area, right across the road from the Bear Valley Visitor Center.

THE HIKE

Study the interpretive panel of the San Andreas Fault in relief and walk into the meadow. Earthquake Trail soon forks: arrows on the pavement suggest you bear left (east).

View photos of the San Francisco Earthquake and follow the trail amidst tangles of blackberry to an oak woodland and crosses a bridge over a branch of Olema Creek.

The path curves south and passes more interpretive panels. Be sure to read the story of the cow caught in…well, I won’t spoil the colorful tale. Suffice it to say that it’s the best-known urban legend—rural legend, really—of Point Reyes.

And finally, make sure you walk the short side trail to inspect a 16-foot break in the old fence line; this is the showstopper, a memorable illustration of the power of the quake of 1906 and quakes to come.

Interested in more hikes in Point Reyes National Seashore? Check out HIKE Point Reyes