L.A. Hikes: Best places to go
Explore the many opportunities for walking in (and around) Los Angeles.
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It’s an easy climb with big payoffs for those who love ocean views.
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This 2-mile jaunt in Pasadena takes you away from the busy Rose Bowl loop to a quieter path.
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The 2-mile route promises something rare in L.A.: a lake to savor
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The out-and-back Alta Canyada trail in La Cañada Flintridge gives you panoramic view of L.A.’s basin and hills.
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A three-mile walk in Griffith Park delivers high-up views, as well as an unusual look at the back of the Hollywood sign.
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This ramble in Northridge is shady, lush and likely to have running water much of the year.
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Here is an opportunity to visit the South of France, and take a hearty hike, without leaving Los Angeles.
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What an unlikely delight in the heart of industrial Torrance.
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This walk doesn’t fall into the category of bucolic country stroll, but it offers an unusual opportunity to get outside in the middle of the urban sprawl.
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Silver Lake has become known as the hipster capital of Los Angeles, or the state, or the universe.
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During the hottest, driest summer months, this trek to Ed Davis Park in Newhall’s Towsley Canyon might not be such a special walk, but this spring — wow!
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There are so few wide-open green spaces in Los Angeles that sometimes a cemetery offers the best option for an urban nature walk.
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The city of Santa Monica turned 6 acres of asphalt parking lot into a verdant green space, named it Tongva Park after the native people who once populated Southern California, and opened it to the public in 2013.
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The Palos Verdes Peninsula is laced with equestrian, bike and hiking trails.
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Folks may think more about great Chinese food than great walking when they head to Monterey Park.
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Angeles Crest Highway is one of Southern California’s best motoring roads, with high elevations and huge vistas.
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Sycamore Canyon in Point Mugu State Park boasts dozens of miles of hiking and biking trails in what the state park system calls the finest example of sycamore savanna in California.
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Here’s a short, simple hilltop walk off one of L.A.’s most famous streets — Mulholland Drive.
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This is a gentle stroll, a lovely walk through Glendale’s Brand Park and some fascinating Southern California history.
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Griffith Park is a popular hiking destination with dozens of trails and routes.
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Our city has great walks in the most unexpected places.
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This hillside hike high above Tarzana and Encino is a gateway to the Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park.
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This short, steep loop in La Cañada Flintridge is more of a hike than a walk.
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Here’s an urban walk in Pasadena, easily accessible by car, bike, bus or Metro, that offers plenty of the green stuff.
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An important L.A. architectural artifact and a small public green space, hidden in the heart of East Hollywood, are the backdrop for this short stroll in the Barnsdall Art Park.
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Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Lake View Terrace is a popular spot for swimming, horseback riding, golf and soccer.
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People all over the world know Vasquez Rocks because it’s been a featured location for decades in movies such as “Planet of the Apes” and “Blazing Saddles” and TV shows like “Westworld” and “Star Trek.”
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This popular walk in the Santa Monica mountains offers cool canyon trails and glorious ocean views.
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The Verdugo Mountains separating the communities of Montrose and La Crescenta from Glendale and Burbank rise sharply and present impressive city and valley views.
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Much has been made of the greening of the Los Angeles River, especially in the areas between Griffith Park and downtown L.A.
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Various government agencies have spent the last decade deciding how to turn the Southern Pacific’s long-abandoned “Cornfield” rail yard into a public space.
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Corriganville was one of Southern California’s premier movie ranches, where from the 1930s to the 1970s camera crews shot seemingly everything from film director John Ford’s “Fort Apache” to the TV shows “Sky King” and “Star Trek.”
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Animals strolling here in past millenniums got stuck in the muck, but today the La Brea Tar Pits’ open-air museum is a great place to take a walk.
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Even people who know Los Angeles well (or think they do, like me) may be surprised to learn there is a well preserved ghost town, the site of Southern California’s first commercial oil well, freeway-close in nearby Valencia.
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The Verdugo Mountains rise sharply and form a striking backdrop to Glendale and Burbank.
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Most people probably visualize the Pacific Ocean when they think about Long Beach and a body of water.
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If current trends persist, the properties fronting the Los Angeles River could become some of the city’s most desirable addresses.
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Lumber magnate Charles Cobb and his wife, Carrie, built an Altadena mansion in 1918.
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Geographically, walking in Long Beach is like strolling along the Marina Peninsula near Venice, but with more affordable housing, friendlier people and plenty of free parking.
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This centrally located Mt.
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Malibu Creek State Park, in the Calabasas area north of Los Angeles, is a great hiking hangout, replete with sunny hillsides, shady valleys and hidden streams and lakes.
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Is it weird to take a walk in a cemetery? It needn’t be.
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From 1924 to 1936, tens of thousands of fans filled the stands at New Ascot Speedway near Ascot Hills Park, just minutes outside downtown Los Angeles.
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This San Dimas stroll will be too far afield for some folks, but Bonelli Park is a great place to take a long, flat walk by a large body of water that isn’t the ocean. 1.
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Everyone goes to Manhattan Beach to swim, surf or walk on the Strand to look at the ocean.
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Sierra Madre was the starting point for many expeditions into the San Gabriel Mountains during the “great hiking era,” which began in the 1880s and continued until the Great Depression.
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Griffith Park and environs are laced with equestrian trails, and some of them offer good walking too.
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Mere blocks from the busy streets and freeways dividing Silver Lake from Echo Park and Atwater Village is a wide, bucolic green space: all that’s left of the Red Car electric trolley line that once ran from downtown Los Angeles through Edendale and to Glendale and beyond.
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Like so many hidden Los Angeles gems, Rocky Peak Park in Simi Valley is one of those places I’d driven near and wondered about for decades.
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Tucked into the Palos Verdes coastline, this quiet cove offers good walking, great ocean views, a secluded beach and some of Southern California’s most accessible tidepools.
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A working movie ranch in Agoura Hills that since 1927 has been home to the Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy and Dr.
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Just off the Pacific Coast Highway between Pepperdine University and Point Dume, Solstice Canyon is an unusually scenic hike to the ruins of a once-grand private estate.
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Tucked away in an off-the-map spot between the communities of Cypress Park and Mount Washington, the quiet, 35-acre Elyria Canyon Park is a nice break from big-city noise. 1.
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This popular route north of Burbank, more of a hike than a walk, is a steady climb into the Verdugo Mountains, punctuated by shortcuts up steep inclines.
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The Tujunga Wash Greenway in the San Fernando Valley offers natural wonders and an epic mural.
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The merry-go-round and the ruins of the original zoo link up on this brisk stroll.
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Stoney Point Park in Chatsworth has trails that allow walkers to view rock climbers as they attempt Stoney Point.
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Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte offers an easy lakeside hike with views of swans and herons.
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Head to Thousand Oaks’ Wildwood Park, where the moderately difficult trail to Paradise Falls leads to a robust waterfall.
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Climbing the city’s little-known public staircases helped him sidestep surgery and kick-started a movement among urban explorers.
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In the Studio City area, try this Fryman Canyon path that was once named the best running trail in the city.
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In Sylmar, walkers can see the cascades of water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct spill into the San Fernando Valley. A loop hike leads to views.
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This delightful oasis, a beloved destination for my wife when she was a young girl and our daughters when she was a young mother, is one of the few local walks that can be done at midday, no matter the season, entirely in the shade.
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This walk in the Angeles National Forest is a great chance to get some real mountain hiking experience without driving too far or breaking too much of a sweat.
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Panoramic city and mountain views are a feature of this trail near Dodger Stadium.
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A beginner’s guide to a mellow walk with views.
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Most folks probably don’t look to Culver City for hiking trails with majestic city views.
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The Los Angeles River in some stretches is more flood control channel than river — but it’s also a bike path, a walking path, and increasingly a nature preserve.
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A steep walk to beautiful views along Owl Trail.
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Spend a hot summer day on a cool summer walk around the Naples district of Long Beach.
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If you’re up for a long walk in the Malibu hills that features ocean and city views and varying terrain, head for the Sandstone Peak trail head.
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Nobody walks in L.A.? Ridiculous! This is one in a series of articles exploring the many opportunities for walking in (and around) a major city.
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The hike offers staggering views and polo matches if you time it right.
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Sure, it’s a little tough, but the rewards are worth the sweat: classic coastal chaparral, views all the way to Santa Catalina Island and a sweet breeze.
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A lovely country-in-the-city stroll.
