Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park
What looks like ruddy wasteland as you whiz past on the freeway turns out to be a magical network of rivulets and trails meandering across a thriving salt marsh. Pathways…
Big Rock Preserve
An unexpected bevy of oases are hidden under tree canopies and behind hedges in the small but wondrous Big Rock Preserve. While the paths are pristine and carefully delineated, you…
Chino Hills State Park Trails
Seas of orange poppies and deep blue lupines give way to corridors of yellow mustard flowers every spring in this famous wildflower terrain. Bloom time generally spans from March through…
Theodore Payne Foundation Wildflower Trail
This sweet adventure includes a native plant demonstration garden, education center, native plant nursery, gift shop, and Wildflower Trail. Bring a picnic to enjoy in your choice of canopied terrace,…
Port Hueneme Lighthouse Promenade
From Hueneme Wharf Plaza, the newly-repaired Lighthouse Promenade threads between the beach and the port to a hidden architectural treasure presiding over the port entrance: the Port Hueneme Lighthouse. Art…
Summerland Lookout Park Trail
Poised atop a seaside cliff, this place would be marvelous even without the bocci court, ping pong tables, grape trellises, nice playground, clean toilets, and dog washing kiosk (not kidding).…
Rose Valley Falls Trail
Our crew spanned from 8 years old to over 80 and everyone made it, safe and enchanted, to the falls. Under a mile long, the well worn out-and-back trail flanks…
Coffin Family Trail
You’ll feel as if you’ve wandered into a landscape painting. A really pricey one. This kind of magic just doesn’t usually show up in real life. The trail flows generally…
Garden of the Gods Trail
The ghosts of Hollywood’s by-gone cowboys play here all day long, I think. You can practically hear shwa-pings hitting the boulders as you shimmy between them and duck into caves.…
Orcutt Ranch Trail
Surprises linger around every corner of this hidden garden. One third of it is formal and manicured, often featuring a bride; another third is a park-scaped barranca with picnic areas…
Oak Creek Canyon Whole Access Trail
Braille signage and a guide cable running the full length of the level, half-mile Oak Canyon Whole Access trail help those with impaired vision find their way – and the…
Las Posas Equestrian Trail
Secret passages tunnel through a stately neighborhood along a towering, aromatic row of eucalyptus trees, between blooming hedgerows and through a sandy canyon. It takes a little investigating to link…
UCSB Lagoon Island Labyrinth & Trail
Racing scoops of pelicans and tucking into gangly tree hideaways along the grooved paths above the Pacific was already a lovely adventure …. and then we found the labyrinth! Bigger…
America’s Teaching Zoo
America’s Teaching Zoo is the happy ending to each of its inhabitant’s unsettling story; when living in the wild becomes unsurvivable, a cage doesn’t seem so bad. “Happy,” the crocodile…
Emma Wood River Trail & Seaside Wilderness
The shrubby, duney, jungled wild space between Emma Wood State Park, Ventura River’s estuary, the freeway, and the ocean is etched with footpaths. There are two jumping off points from…
Seaside Gardens (Secret) Path
This secret seaside garden will sweep you off your feet. One enchanted, tucked away space begets the next – with several pretty seating areas along the way. It’s the marvelous…
Chumash Village Trail
This shaded half-mile footpath dives into Chumash history and heritage, anchored by the Chumash Indian Museum and leading to a replica of a Chumash village. The village burned in the…
Haskell’s Beach / Hel’apunitse Trail
Shrouded in history and surfers’ lore, Haskell’s Beach is partially named after the surfer who used to hold the key back when you needed one. Hel’apunitse, which is the Chumash…
Shalawa / Hammond Meadow Trail
A secret passage in plain sight whisks you to this venerated seaside meadow. From the small parking lot, a footpath squeezes between the hedgerows, across Montecito Creek, past estate gardens…
Hartley Botanica Garden Paths
A beguiling marriage of the natural and the unnatural, of hummingbird baths and peacock paths and sculpted caves under waterfalls – this secret garden rewards eager feet and keen eyes.…
Paramount Ranch Trail
Trails explore prairies in all directions from the parking lot – but the centerpiece here is entirely “Western Town,” which 2018’s Woolsey fire reduced to the picturesque white church featured…
Oxnard Historic Farm Park Path
A vibrant oasis of Oxnard’s agricultural heritage, Oxnard Historic Farm park is brimming with community heirlooms, including three buildings that have held their ground as acres and acres of farmland…
Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve
The speakeasy of gardens! Over the hills and not so faraway there rests a paradise of exotic botanicals, grand views, tunneling colonnades, a zen garden, art exhibits, sculpture, and wildlife.…
High Tower Elevator & Pathways
For key-carrying residents, the High Tower is a 1920s elevator from a bank of garages to the meta level of meandering pathways leading to quirky stoops and gateways. For the…
Venice Canals Pathways
Venice’s real magic doesn’t happen on the Pacific, if you ask us, but 2 blocks from it at a different waterscape. The Venice Canal Historic District is what remains of an…
Sea God Cemetery Beach Path
See those things sticking up over there on the beach between the cobblestones and the mini jungle to the south of the pier? You should definitely take a closer look!…
Leo Carrillo Beach Trail
We will forever call this “the cave beach,” which is an utter injustice to the tide pools, overlooks, life guard station and crab coves. You could spend the whole day…
Summerland Loop Trail
This horseshoe-shaped trail through wildflowers around a canyon ridge gives you constant views of the Pacific over Summerland’s rooftops. You can turn the horseshoe into a loop through verdant neighborhoods…
Manning Park Pathways
A congregation of wonderlands connected by stone steps and zigging pathways is tucked into one of Montecito’s verdant canyons. There are rose-lined lawns, colonades draped in vines, a picnic meadow…
Ennisbrook Open Space
Ambling in perpetual shade through passageways of bent and gnarled oak trees, this flat lollipop trail generally follows San Ysidro Creek, crossing it twice over charming stone bridges. Nasturtiums and…
Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve Trail
Tucked away between Venice beach and Marina Del Ray harbor, Ballona Lagoon is one of the last tidal wetlands in southern California, with high and low tides twice daily. A…
Ojai Demonstration Garden Path
A dressing room for landscapes, Ojai’s Demonstration Garden sends you along stepping stones and narrow pathways to audition an intriguing spectrum of plants and learn about garden tending. Nestled between…
Channel Islands Visitor Center Hidden Garden Path
Just across from the Children’s Beach, this sweet little garden tucks neatly into the little triangle beside the Visitor Center entrance. Signage and boxes at the start describe the flora…
Meher Mount
Reverence for nature is inevitable when you take in the view at Meher Mount, which is exactly as Meher Baba intended. Affectionately called “Baba,” he was an important spiritual leader…
Harmon Canyon Trail
A fire road forges the main path through Harmon Canyon, alongside and across the creek to a lookout, ostensibly 3.5 miles in – and up. But we got happily distracted…
Pleasant Valley Charles Honn Botanical Garden Path
This sweet little garden wedge is brimming with curiosities and pollinators. It’s a designated urban bee lab for UC Berkeley and includes a certified wildlife habitat area. On a Saturday…
Potrero Ranch Trail
The green rolling meadows, bright wildflowers and winding sandy pathways against a dramatic mountain ridge backdrop had me imagining I’d rambled straight into the Pyrenees – until I glimpsed inimitable…
Bridlewild Trail
From the road, the horse trail skirts a vineyard and then plunges down to follow and cross the dry creek, diving under oak canopies and sidling along classic white split…
King Gillette Ranch Trail
Mr. Gillette’s glamorous, elaborate Spanish Colonial Revival style villa in its sea of sprawling lawns floats like a green island in the rolling caramel-colored, oak-dotted Calabasas hills. From the Visitor Center,…
Ventura Botanical Gardens Trail
Draped with endless strands of loops and switchbacks connected by steep, sculptural stone stairways, the hillside garden reveals exquisite plant life and a breathtaking view at every bend. From the…
Ventura Marina Jetty to Soter’s Point Beach Path
If Ventura’s Marina Park were an amusement park, this would be its adventure ride. Past the big lawn, beach, sand dunes, playground and marooned “pirate ship,” the first part of…
Ventura Harbor Ecological Reserve Trail
Don’t let the chain link fence keep you from exploring this wonderland; the gate off of Angler Court is unlocked daily between 9am and 5pm. Sandy pathways loop around the…
Conejo Botanic Garden & Nature Trail
Bordering the charming Conejo Community Park, the Botanic Garden’s colorful blossoms burst from 15 specialty gardens spread across the hillside. Footpaths meander through Australian, Mediterranean, Desert, Rare Fruit and Butterfly…
Tarantula Hill Trail
This peculiar little knoll opposite the Conejo Valley Botanic Gardens boasts a panoramic view from the bench on its bald summit that extends from the Santa Monica Mountains, across the…
Shelf Road Trail
Broad and level, this sandy road clings to the hillside’s contours, providing every possible vantage point of the verdant, peaceful Ojai valley. Park at either end and back track, leap-frogging…
Carpinteria Bluffs Open Space & Seal Sanctuary
….or, “The Train Beach,” as this family pilgrimage site shall always be known to us. With trains, seals, and bathing poolets, this is a great family adventure destination – but…
The Cross Path
A cross has stood in the spot on the hill overlooking Ventura since the late 1700s, roughly since Junipero Serro founded the San Buenaventura Mission. Surrounded by a beautifully maintained…
Arroyo Verde Park Trail
Wedged amidst Ventura’s foothills, Arroyo Verde Park is the launch pad for trails of various lengths and climbs, though a lovely view with fragrant, pretty flora is guaranteed. Trails start…
Ellwood Bluffs
The trail leading through Goleta’s Ellwood Mesa and Bluffs to the beach is bustling with adventure. It dives from the edge of a neighborhood into a Eucalyptus forest, from which…
Coronado & Ellwood Monarch Butterfly Groves
These two adjacent famed Monarch butterfly habitats reached via the Ellwood Bluffs trail attract butterflies November through February. A decade ago, tens of thousands of butterflies would spend the winter…
Bates Road Railroad & Rincon Tidepools
From the same parking lot, you can hover high above the ocean with the paragliders where trains whiz past, or you can crouch close to a sea anemone and watch…
Surfer’s Point Dunes Beach Boardwalk
This mini adventure along the boardwalk through the dunes at Surfer’s Point feels like an elongated viewing platform. Of course, the ocean looks beautiful from the bike path, too –…
Wiman Canyon & Old Pueblo Trail
From the shaded, green belly of a canyon, the Wiman Canyon Trail quickly shoots up to meet the dry, baked pathways of the Old Pueblo Trail that run behind the…
Ojai Meadows Preserve
Serenity hovers in this flat basin among the brush and Eucalyptus trees, surrounded by a picturesque mountainscape. At its heart, a bridge and benches are lovely spots to peer at…
Art City Studios & Stone Garden
Stone sculpture studios meld one into the next along this otherworldly mini footpath, open to the public Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm. Classical alabaster nudes, rustic Buddhas, monolithic towers, exquisite pebbly jellyfish and…