Explore 376 write-ups tagged with Free Trails

Not far from Arthur's Pass National Park in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, you'll come across an alluring playground of limestone boulders in Kura Tawhiti / Castle Hill Conservation Area. Mountain climbers have fun scaling its many misshapen boulders and hikers will enjoy venturing through the area as well. A level 600-meter long track leads to the foot of a grassy hill covered with a crown of misshapen rocks. ...Read more.

Las Flores Motorway weaves its way up ridges on the southeast end of the Verdugo Mountains in Glendale. The wide dirt trail blooms when it reaches Mount Thom, a 2,460-foot summit with panoramic views over surrounding city-flanked mountain ranges and the skyline of downtown Los Angeles. Las Flores Motorway gains 1,220 feet in 2.5 miles to join Beaudry Motorway just below the summit. ...Read more.

In a park full of massive features, it might surprise you to learn that a couple small ponds are a premier hiking destination. The Sealy Tarns are located 500 meters up a steep mountainside, with mirror-like water that can reflect nearby mountains like Mount Sefton and Mount Cook. Sealy Tarns Track is not very long, but it is very steep, coming it at 5. ...Read more.

Kea Point offers a captivating vantage point from a perch above a glacier lake. Mighty Mount Sefton rises high in front of the viewpoint and Mount Cook is in sight as well. Kea Point can be reached from Mount Cook Village for a two-hour outing and you can cut that time in half by beginning from a car park next to White Horse Hill Campground for a three-kilometer round trip hike with 95 meters of elevation change (or 1. ...Read more.

Hooker Valley Track is among the most popular walking tracks in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park and the reasons why are obvious. This 11-kilometer (6.8-mile) round trip hike has non-stop mountain views and the destination is incredible. The track ends at the edge of Hooker Lake, where you can watch icebergs that were set adrift from Hooker Glacier, glide across the water below Aoraki/Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in the Southern Alps. ...Read more.

Two tracks are combined in Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier View Walk for a 1.85-kilometer (1.15 mile) round trip outing, netting views of small pools and a big lake below New Zealand's largest glacier. This Tasman Valley hike ascends rocky moraine to a viewpoint that looks down on a long, milky-colored lake below Tasman Glacier and several peaks in the Southern Alps. ...Read more.

East Cuesta Ridge Road, also known as Mount Lowe Road, is a dirt road that crosses the dominant ridgeline in the Santa Lucia Mountains northeast of San Luis Obispo. Views from the trail extend over San Luis Obispo and its surrounding peaks toward the ocean to the west at Morro Bay and to the south by Oceano Dunes. The hike starts just off Highway 101 at the top of Cuesta Grade. ...Read more.

Above Stenner Creek Road near the Cal Poly Campus, a freestyle bike course is hidden within a eucalyptus grove. The easiest route to The Eucs is to head up and back on Stenner Creek Trail. For a longer hike that explores neighboring grassland on slopes below the Santa Lucia Mountains, consider this 4.25-mile loop with 550 feet of elevation change. This hike takes Stenner Creek Trail up to the Eucs and then continues on Red Dog Trail, which sets out across grassy ridges and descends to Poly Canyon Road, a dirt road back to the beginning of Stenner Creek Trail. ...Read more.

Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon and not the sort of waterfall that leaves you asking for more. Still, the Columbia River Gorge has so many waterfalls to offer that you can pair scoping out Multnomah Falls from top to bottom with admiring a quintet of other waterfalls on an immensely beautiful hike. This loop combines Wahkeena Trail with Larch Mountain Trail and is 6. ...Read more.

Do you have a need for waterfalls? Heading to the Columbia River Gorge is a good start (the area is stocked full of them). If you choose to hike Horsetail Falls Trail, you'll get a tall waterfall right at the trailhead. Half a mile up the trail, you'll find another waterfall that you can actually walk behind. Combine Horsetail Falls Trail and Oneonta Trail for a 2. ...Read more.