Walks, hikes, and strolls that show off the state’s splendor.
Explore California on Foot: Nature’s Year-Round Playground

One of California’s great pleasures is the ability to go for a breathtaking hike just minutes outside of the state’s great cities. One of those hikes is Sunset Cliffs Trail in San Diego, which offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. Located along the rugged cliffs of Point Loma, this easy trail is just a mile and a half long, but will still offer you stunning spots to watch the sun set over the water. The path winds through coastal scrub and wildflowers, with occasional rocky outcrops and tide pools to explore. Be sure to make the hike at golden hour, just before sunset, to watch the way the cliffs seem to glow with warm light.

The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, located in Southern California, is a hidden gem of a park that offers a glimpse into the region’s rich natural and cultural history. Here you can pass through a variety of California ecosystems, like oak woodlands, vernal pools, and native grasslands, then observe historic adobe buildings. The Santa Rosa Plateau Adobes, a collection of historic structures inside the reserve, were built in the 1800s by early settlers, and serve as a testament to the area's past. The 7,500-acre reserve contains a robust trail system, meaning it’s a wonderful way to explore the area on foot while experiencing the rich flora and fauna that California has to offer.

If you’re looking for a scenic stroll that will make you think you’re walking the Yellow Brick Road, the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve is for you. With eight miles of trails, this high-desert landscape is known for its breathtaking wildflower blooms, particularly the orange poppies that blanket the hills each spring. From March through May, visitors can immerse themself in nature’s potential as vast fields of poppies hit peak bloom, attracting photographers and nature lovers alike. And while the reserve is known for its poppies, there is also an abundance of yellow flowers called Gold Fields, which create wide swaths of yellow on some of the surrounding hills.

If you’re looking for a thrilling climb, look no further than the Eureka Dunes in the northern stretches of Death Valley National Park. These striking dunes, with their waves of sand across vast skies, are the tallest sand dunes in California and quite possibly the tallest in North America. Eureka Dunes are also the most likely of the dune ranges in the region (the others being the Kelso and Panamint Dunes) where you may, if conditions are right, hear the phenomena known as "the singing sands", in which the sand grains produce a booming sound akin to a small engine plane passing as they fall. A walk along these dunes will make you feel beautifully secluded, but that also means that you should come prepared with the essentials: food, water, and ideally, a hiking buddy.

Big Sur, a stretch of coast in Central California, is known for its dramatic cliffs and striking views. And while most people experience the landscape by driving along Highway 1, it can also be enjoyed on foot. One of the most scenic ways to see this jaw-dropping stretch of coast is via the area’s hiking trails, such as Ridge Trail. Located in Andrew Molera State Park, the Ridge Trail offers panoramic views of the surrounding rugged coastline and, of course, the Pacific. The hike meanders through dense forests of redwoods and chaparral, then opens up to breathtaking overlooks where the misty cliffs meet the sea.

(As of September 2024, a section of Highway 1 remains closed in Monterey County south of Big Sur due to repair work. The area is not accessible from the south. For the latest on road closures and possible detours, check the CalTrans Quick Map.)

Alamere Falls is a rare and wonderful example of a "tidefall," a coastal waterfall that plunges directly from a cliff down onto the beach to join up with the sea. Viewed from the cliffs above or the beach below, it's spectacular. Arriving here takes a significant hike—13 miles roundtrip—but you’ll be rewarded with unique views of this misty wonder along Wildcat Beach. This is just one of two tidefalls in California; the other one is McWay Falls in Big Sur.

In the mid-19th Century, Theodore Judah set out to build a railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains. A series of now-abandoned tunnels were completed in August 1867, and the first train passed through it in 1868. Almost all of these tunnels have now been abandoned, and despite being on private property, they are a popular (though eerie!) destination for curious hikers and snowshoers. Tunnel #6, which is the longest, took tens of thousands of hours to complete: teams had to drill from the east, from the west, and from above in order to get through the granite. Tunnels #7 and #8, along with the "Chinese Wall", which was built to hold up the trains as they transitioned between two tunnels, are the other parts of the system that are commonly visited.

These sunset-colored dunes at Lassen Volcanic National Park look like a landscape pulled straight from a watercolor painting. Red and orange blotches cover the rolling terrain, with trees speckled throughout their range. The inky blackness of the surrounding volcanic earth highlights their fiery hues, pulling everything into relief. This landscape owes its colorful face to the nearby volcanoes, whose ash fell atop a bed of still-hot lava flows. The reaction between the ash and the lava created these gorgeous colors. Hiking up Cinder Cone, the almost perfectly symmetrical volcano that looms nearby, offers the park’s best views of this strange landscape. Those who make the steep trek to the summit are rewarded with a sublime vista of the splashes of red and orange within their dark surroundings.

Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California is one of the best places on the continent to experience a diversity of volcanic activity. The park contains 46,000 acres of semi-desert terrain dominated by fumaroles (gas-emitting openings in the Earth's crust), cinder and spatter cones (mounds of ejecta that form around vents), and maars (craters formed in the explosive meeting of hot lava and groundwater). Below ground are lava tube-caves, tunnels formed by lava flows up to 40,000 years ago. The park contains 25 lava tubes accessible to visitors, most of which require a flashlight—ask a ranger to borrow one if you haven’t brought your own.

Just outside of Northern California’s Redwood National Park lies Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, where you’ll find a narrow canyon with walls that stand over 30 feet high. The walls are covered in dewy, sparkling green, thanks to a blanket of lush ferns, mosses, and other verdant fauna. Five different types of ferns line the canyon’s walls, some of whose ancestry can be traced back 325 million years. The canyon itself is surrounded by a dense forest of coastal Redwoods, including some of the world's tallest trees. A longer hiking trail runs through it, meaning that you can take in this otherworldly lush landscape, and then continue on through the redwood forest.