Good Gravy!

Shake Your Giblets: Hike a hidden slice of open space with great views and autumn hues, at Mulholland Ridge Open Space Preserve, a little-known 250-acre open space area in the East Bay. Like your open space and trails? Check out the nonprofit Outdoor Voice, a coalition creating new parks, protecting farmlands, making over 1 million acres of parks publicly accessible, and ensuring thousands of miles of trails remain open for exploration.

Week: 11.24.2015
Regions: Northern CA

Shake Your Giblets: Hike a hidden slice of open space with great views and autumn hues, at Mulholland Ridge Open Space Preserve, a little-known 250-acre open space area in the East Bay. Like your open space and trails? Check out the nonprofit Outdoor Voice, a coalition creating new parks, protecting farmlands, making over 1 million acres of parks publicly accessible, and ensuring thousands of miles of trails remain open for exploration.

#FreshAirSaturday: Get swept up in iconic coastal scenery on this 5-mile (round-trip) classic dog-friendly hike in the Marin Headlands. Also here: the Marine Mammal Center (free admittance, closed Thanksgiving Day but open Black Friday and all weekend). The world's largest veterinarian hospital for marine mammals is currently rescuing a record number of northern fur seals stranded on beaches due to lack of food sources and abnormally warm ocean waters. Your visit can help send these seals home for the holidays!

State Park Coastal Gems: As an official partner of California State Parks Foundation, we're pretty thankful for their commitment to keeping the parks open and accessible. One of our favorites? The hike-in and hidden Greenwood State Beach on the Mendocino Coast is absolutely beautiful. There's also this hidden coastal hike in Big Sur's Garrapata State Park ... and maybe a little wine-tasting afterwards…

Trending Stories NorCal

View all Stories

  1. Serene Las Gallinas

    A serene stroll alongside marshland, passing ponds and grasses frilled in seasonal wildflowers, with Mount Tam a beacon in the background … how nice. As part of the esteemed Bay Trail, San Rafael’s Las Gallinas Valley Birding Loop and Wildlife Ponds comprises about 3.5 miles of wide-open trail.

    View

  2. Paint Brushy

    This time of year you’ll have good reason to head for the hills—the electric-green rolling hills of Brushy Peak Regional Preserve in Livermore. This 4.5-mile loop hike is like stepping into a plein air painting.

    View
  3. Sponsored

    2025 POST Wildflower Walks

    Get flower empowered! POST’s complimentary 2025 Wildflower Walks guide blooms with the best places to see a variety of florals across the Peninsula and South Bay this spring.

    View

  4. All right, Almaden!

    Take a trip through time on this 5-mile loop in Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Explore the ruins of an old cinnabar mine and enjoy the first hints of wildflower season.

    View

Trending Stories SoCal

View all Stories
  1. Sponsored

    Weekend in Reno Tahoe

    Weekend plans? Reno Tahoe! Just a few hours by car or a short flight away, Reno Tahoe springs to the moment with great ways to combine adventure and relaxation in its beautiful mountains-meets-desert setting.

    View
  2. Hiker walking along the North Bluff Trail on Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park

    Purely Wild

    Channel Islands National Park lives up to its nickname as “North America’s Galapagos.” This less-traveled national park is an undeveloped and isolated series of five dramatic and distinct islands reached by boat. Hike the largest of the islands, Santa Cruz.

    View
  3. Woman hiking the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon

    Truly Grand Day Hike

    One of the best spring day hikes in the Grand Canyon? See layer upon layer of the park’s grandeur—including the river—on this 3-mile (one-way) journey to Skeleton Point via the South Kaibab Trail.

    View
  4. A woman stands amid an array of yellow and purple flowers at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles

    Petal Paradise

    Tulips, lilacs, and daffodils—flower power is in full bloom at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge. Sprawling across 150 acres surrounded by mountains, the gardens are putting on their best show right now.

    View