This post was submitted by raphael

Where to hike in Southern California

Whether you’ve got a group of homos to hike with, or you just want to hit the trails with your friends, you now can take your pick of the many areas beckoning hikers in socal. Here’s an overview of some of the regions nearby. I’ll highlight specific trails and parks in future updates.

Santa Monica Mountains

Fantastic chaparral (California’s signature ecosystem) and ocean views galore. This is a hodgepodge of National, State, and County parks managed under the auspices of the National Parks Service (as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area). The backbone trail takes you over 65 miles, including Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the range.

The San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and San Jacinto Mountains

Soaring mountains over 10,000 feet tall and incomparable wilderness. It’s a scenery of superlatives. These mountains are what makes southern California a hiker’s paradise and a biologist’s dream–The San Bernardinos host more endemic plant species than any other mountain range in the US. More than 200,000 acres are federally designated wilderness–the highest level of protection possible–safeguarding the homes of black bears, gray foxes, bighorn sheep, and several endangered amphibians. There are some easy and many tough hikes–several areas are completely unreachable without several days on the trail. This area is largely managed as part of the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests.

The Urban Core

Although the LA Basin may seem to be one of the most overdeveloped parts in an already overdeveloped region, there are some fantastic hiking opportunities right within the city. Griffith Park and the Hollywood Hills offer hikes to fantastic (if smoggy) city views. Runyon Canyon‘s proximity to WeHo make it a favorite for homos hoping to spot an exercising celebrity (or shirtless muscle queens). Chino Hills is a large island of greenery separating the dreary sprawl of the Inland Empire from the, uh, dreary sprawl of North Orange County. In south LA, Palos Verdes offers some dizzying clifftop trails. Bolsa Chica will probably show you more wildlife per minute than any other park in the region.

Northern LA and Ventura Counties

This area is the southern terminus of the massive Los Padres National Forest. Many people cross paths with the mountains north of LA when mounting the Grapevine, the treacherous stretch of road that separates Southern California from the Great Central Valley. Day-hikers and through-hikers will find plenty of trails here, and photographers flock here in spring to catch the amazing floral displays that center around Gorman.

San Diego, Southern Orange County, and Southwestern Riverside

Comprised of the Cleveland National Forest, several state parks, three county park systems, and even a number of sizable city parks, this region has plenty of hiking. I particularly love the Santa Ysabel/Julian area in East San Diego County, and the Santa Rosa Plateau in Southwestern Riverside–these massive county parks have preserved a bucolic landscape of rolling hills and oak savannas that have largely been eradicated from Southern California. For a more rugged landscape, check out the San Mateo Wilderness, Palomar Mountain, and Mount Laguna.

The Deserts

California is home to three deserts, and two of them (the Mojave and Sonoran) are in southern California. The Great Basin desert extends into the northwestern reaches of the state, and is a bit more than a day-trip from a LA. Perhaps the best place to see the Mojave Desert is Joshua Tree National Park, a park celebrated for its Seussian trees and rock formations. The drier and lower elevation Sonoran dessert can also be seen in J-Tree, as well as Anza Borrego State Desert, the largest state park  in the United States (unless you count all the private inholdings and timberlands within New York’s Adirondack State Park). This area is too dry for Joshua Trees and the larger cacti, but ocotillos can provide dramatic splashes of greenery in the landscape. In “good” years (i.e., winters with plenty of early rainfall, but no late-season scouring storms), the blooms of unparalleled beauty carpet the desert. Catching the “peak” bloom is tricky, because it doesn’t last in any one spot for more than a week or so. Other great places for desert hiking include the Coachella Valley around Palm Springs, as well as the northern slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The Channel Islands

California’s Channel Islands are perhaps our largest and least accessible open space, requiring a ferry service to reach if you aren’t lucky enough to own your own boat. There are eight islands, four of which are fairly large (~3-5 times the size of Manhattan). The four northern islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Anacapa) are part of the Channel Islands National Seashore and are managed by the National Parks Service. Of the southern islands, Catalina is closest to Los Angeles, and is managed by the Catalina Island Conservancy. It contains two cities (Avalon and Two Harbors, with a permanent population under 4000), and is the only island you could easily visit as a day trip (ferries leave from Marina Del Rey, Long  Beach, San Pedro, Newport Beach, and Dana Point). The recently completed Trans-Catalina Trail lets you hike 37 miles across the backbone of this island. The Channel islands particular interest to biologists, who will encounter plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. The Island Fox, for example, is a dwarf version of the gray fox found on the mainland, and has a much bolder disposition (having evolved in a land free of coyotes and other terrestrial predators). Catalina is famous for its free-roaming bison herd, introduced in 1924 for a movie. No motor vehicles are allowed on any of the islands, so be prepared travel around by foot, golf cart, or kayak.

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