Hikes in California

Limekiln State Park is located in Big Sur about halfway between Monterey and Morro Bay. The 716-acre park has one entrance along Highway One where you will find a 29-site campground. Some sites are nestled in a shaded redwood grove along Limekiln Creek while others are exposed to more sun and ocean views at the bottom of Limekiln Canyon. Campers have access to a small beach and nice short hiking trails up Limekiln Canyon to Hare Creek, Limekiln Falls, and historic lime kilns. ...Read more.

For pleasant hiking along creeks in canyons shaded by coast redwoods, you can't do much better than Limekiln State Park in Big Sur. A trio of short trails in the park provide variety and great scenery on a 2.65-mile round trip hike with 250 feet of elevation gain. Hare Creek Trail is a supremely peaceful creekside stroll, as is Limekiln Trail, which heads to historic lime kilns that the park has preserved, and Falls Trail ascends another fork of Limekiln Creek to a hundred-foot tall waterfall. ...Read more.

Most of Big Sur's beautify is obvious – tall green mountains, a ragged coastline, and lots of ocean blue, but some attractive features are practically hidden, and Pfeiffer Beach is one such gem. Pfeiffer Beach has great sand and iconic rock formations, but you won't see this beach from Highway One (or its begging-to-be-photographed wave-tunneled rocks). ...Read more.

Plaskett Creek Campground is a convenient place for tent or RV camping in Big Sur. The campground is close enough to the coast for visitors to smell the ocean, and there are several short hikes nearby. Trails to Sand Dollar Beach, Jade Cove and Plaskett Rock Point are just across Highway One from the campground and Pacific Valley Bluff Trail is only a mile to the north. ...Read more.

Big Sur has a dramatic rocky coastline that's stunning to look at, but can be challenging to access. Where do you go when you want to take a good walk on the beach? To dip your toes in Big Sur's sand, there may be nowhere better to visit than Sand Dollar Beach. This half-mile long beach (or longer if the tide is out) is a crescent-shaped arc of pale sand between the blue water of the Pacific Ocean and the orange rock of tall sea cliffs. ...Read more.

Kirk Creek Campground might as well be called Amazing Ocean Views Campground. This national forest campground is perched atop ocean bluffs that are over 100-foot tall and overlook miles and miles of Pacific Ocean along the beautiful Big Sur coastline. Kirk Creek Campground is a stunning place to put up a tent or park an RV and is sure to be a treat for anyone able to stay here on a trip through Big Sur. ...Read more.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur has a word famous waterfall named McWay Falls, which tumbles off a coastal bluff straight into the Pacific Ocean in a display of unique natural beauty. The park has a second waterfall too, just inland from McWay Falls, with the more generic name of Canyon Falls. This lovely little waterfall can't rival McWay for postcard beauty, but the 0. ...Read more.

With an inspired name and inspiring view, Vital Link Trail presents a rewarding hike in the Verdugo Mountains near Burbank. The trail delivers a good workout too, ascending 1,275 feet in a mile and a half, with opportunities to hike even farther. The steep single track looks out over the east end of the San Fernando Valley toward the Santa Monica Mountains and the skyscraper skyline of downtown Los Angeles. ...Read more.

Monserate Mountain offers a workout of a hike, beginning just off Interstate 15 in the Northern San Diego County city of Fallbrook, just ten miles south of Temecula in Riverside County. There is 1,200 vertical feet between the trailhead at the base of Monserate Mountain and the panoramic summit at the top, tackled on a 1 2/3-mile ascent. You can turn around at the top for a 3 1/3-mile out-and-back hike or explore more of Monserate Mountain Preserve on a 4. ...Read more.

Very few places in nature would you feel comfortable getting up close to 5,000-pound animals. Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery is one of them. While visiting the seal colony, you can get up close to these impressive (and vocal) animals and observe them in their natural habitat. In addition to two quarter-mile long boardwalk trails, the rookery is also the starting point for a dirt trail up the coast to the Piedras Blancas Light Station, a lovely thimble-shaped lighthouse on Point Piedras Blancas just north of the rookery. ...Read more.