Day Hiking Los Angeles

• 125 of the best trails throughout the Los Angeles metro area • Easy-to-use, well-organized guide to hiking in the greater Los Angeles area • Hikes feature ocean views, waterfalls, coastal canyons, native grasslands, rocky peaks, desert wildflowers, and more In Southern California, the city of Los Angeles alone covers more than 500 square miles. Yet beyond the freeways and suburbia, there is a surprising amount of hikeable green space and wilderness. This new guide details trails in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the world’s largest urban national park stretching from the Pacific Coast right into Hollywood itself; the Santa Susana Mountains in Los Padres National Forest; Angeles National Forest, including the San Gabriels and Mount San Antonio, the highest point in Los Angeles County; the striking desert landscape of Antelope Valley; the Santa Ana Mountains; portions of the San Bernardino Mountains; Chino Hills State Park; and slivers of green space and city parks such as famed Griffith Park.

Residents and travelers will find this comprehensive guide essential to locating an amazing number of hiking trails throughout the 50-mile-long Santa Monica Mountains. The range parallels the coastline in southern California, dividing the Pacific coast from the interior valleys. Included are 138 day hikes, with an additional section of 13 hikes that traverses the full length of the 68-mile Backbone Trail. 496 pages with clear trail descriptions, ample maps, index. All hiking levels.

LA Times Best Seller and four-time award winner from three Outdoor Writers Associations, including Best in Show and Best Guidebook! Expanded 6th edition includes 160 day hikes in and around Los Angeles and over 230 maps. Hikes range from boardwalk strolls along the ocean to shady canyon trails that lead to panoramic overlooks. This is an essential guide to discovering the city's thousands of acres of public green space as well as many access points to the coastline.

People all over the world have seen Los Angeles’s famed "Hollywood" sign and the iconic domed Griffith Observatory. Both are part of Griffith Park, a place visited by more than 10 million people each year--more than Yosemite and Grand Canyon National Parks combined. Rugged and vast, the 4,511-acre Griffith Park encompasses a sprawling 70-mile long network of trails, ranging from paved paths through manicured landscapes to challenging ridgeline climbs, and is a destination for hikers, trail runners, cyclists, equestrians, picnickers, and museum-goers. It’s a unique outdoor space in a city that is not well known for its outdoor amenities. Discovering Griffith Park uses the park’s extensive trail network as an anchor to explore the park in full, whether on foot, wheel, or hoof. Readers will also find out where the best views of the Hollywood sign are, where they can catch free Shakespeare on summer evenings, and how to attend one of the legendary Los Angeles Breakfast Club meetings for good food, good friends, and a bit of early morning learning

The rugged San Gabriel Mountains, rising starkly from the edge of the Los Angeles Basin, provide a sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle of the city and its surroundings. Angelinos across the county (a population of almost 10 million), as well as visitors from out of state, welcome the opportunity to escape from city chaos into the quiet wilderness. This 9th edition of the classic Wilderness Press guide has been revised and updated to reflect recent trail changes, and now includes trips in the Fish Canyon Narrows, along Alder Creek, and to Jones Peak, as well as perennial favorites such as Old Baldy, Mt. Wilson, and Devils Punchbowl. Each detailed trip description notes the distance, difficulty, and ideal season, and points out the highlights of the trail. The guide includes a companion 4-color waterproof topo map.

Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles is a sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, and features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty, and is accompanied by a map. The walks, like those in Secret Stairs, are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarks—the original Bat Cave from Batman, the lake where Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show, or the storage barn for one of L.A.’s oldest wineries. The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer and philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times; and tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica and create his American “Venice.” Written in the entertainingly informed style that has made Secret Stairs a Los Angeles Times best-seller, Secret Walks is the perfect book for the walker eager to explore but tired of the crowds at Runyon Canyon or Temescal Park.

Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located. From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike through “Hollywoodland” to enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, Secret Stairs takes you on a tour of the staircases all across the City of Angels. The circular walks, rated for duration and difficulty, deliver tales of historic homes and their fascinating inhabitants, bits of unusual local trivia, and stories of the neighborhoods surrounding the stairs. That’s where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that’s where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . . Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short film—Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, from 1932—these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city’s residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new “trails” all around the city of Los Angeles.

10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 52 Walking Adventures is for urban adventurers with a passion for healthy living who are also hungry to explore L.A.’s hidden, unsung, and sometimes quirky side. This unique guidebook provides everything readers need to venture out and tackle the city’s 500 square miles. The book is based on a concept that first took hold in Japan—that if people walked 10,000 steps each day, they would burn 20 percent of their caloric intake through that activity alone. Now an ingrained part of the American lifestyle, the 10,000 steps phenomenon is taking the country by storm; it is now a recognized daily goal by a number of major insurance companies like Kaiser Permanente and health institutes such as the World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the American Heart Foundation. In this first-ever book to explore the 10,000 steps concept in the City of Angels, these walks take readers through the terrain that makes Los Angeles the envy of many a metropolis—beaches, mountains, rivers, and reservoirs, not to mention the nation’s largest urban park, Griffith Park—all while immersing them in the city’s history and lore, offbeat locales, and popular landmarks. 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. promises three things: 10,000 steps in each walk, a blueprint for doing it each weekend of the year (52 walks equals a year’s worth of weekends), and a sense of fun and discovery about L.A. that will only make the 10,000 steps goal that much easier to attain. Readers need bring only their feet—pedometers optional.

The Pacific Crest Trail was designated as one of the first National Scenic Trails way back in 1968. As it traverses the “high road” from Mexico to Canada, incredible views are not only commonplace but also uniquely diverse, because the trail connects six of North America’s seven eco-zones. The PCT’s familiar, well-worn path is a special place for hikers from all walks of life on walks of all lengths and for all reasons. Instead of guiding you through the arduous task of hiking the entire PCT, the goal of this book is to help you plan trips that incorporate hiking on the PCT in Southern California, whether you have just an afternoon to spare or you want to escape for the entire weekend. Carefully edited maps and elevation graphs generated with GPS data collected by the author on the trail will help make your trip a success. This cargo-pocket guide offers author-tested advice to help you make the most of your time away from civilization, however long (or short) that stretch may be.

This new book from The Trailmaster Inc. covers all the best day hikes in Los Angeles County. It is heavily illustrated with photos and maps. This book is a must-have for anyone looking for a great hike in Los Angeles County.