All "Dog Friendly" Stories in Southern CA
Mediterranean Diet
Niguel Botanical Preserve features a variety of vegetation, both native and from the similar climates of Australia, Chile, South Africa. It's also got a cool little labyrinth.
ViewAt Play on Rocky Peak
Big views, big boulders, and a great hike are all good reasons to rock out on the Rocky Peak Trail in Simi Valley. This hike gradually ascends for nearly five miles to (surprise!) a rocky peak whose 2,715-foot summit straddles the border between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.
ViewJive on the Hive
Griffith Park is home to more than one awesome rock venue. Sure, the Greek Theatre stages legendary rock concerts, but Bee Rock provides beautiful wide vistas and some fun rock scr
ViewHike-in Hidden Beach
Blink and you'll miss some hidden beach bliss. Located in the tiny town of Elk on scenic Highway 1, Greenwood State Beach is easy to miss because it's a half-mile walk down to it.
ViewBig Horn Full of Gold
You don’t have to travel to Gold Country to strike gold in California! When it comes to old mines, SoCal has some gems. Big Horn Mine in the San Gabriels is a perfect example. You
ViewStairway to Weirdness
Here’s one to put in your Stranger Flings file: a hike that’s also a peek into the history of several Angeleno residents and their ties to the Third Reich. This weird chapter linge
ViewLight at the End of the Road
Looking for the light at the end of the road? How about a light station?! Dramatically perched at the tip of a headland and surrounded by 30 acres of open space, Point Cabrillo Lig
ViewPicnic at Pumpkin Rock
“‘This is Halloween, this is Halloween,’ pumpkins scream in the dead of night,” intones a chorus of disembodied voices in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, whose protago
ViewFace It: You're Lost!
You smell the kettle corn, you hear the farm animals, you feel the Halloween spirit … but let’s face it: You’re lost! Actually, you’re in Temecula’s Big Horse Corn Maze and Harvest
ViewThe Undead Ghost Town
Every Halloween, the worlds of the living and the dead blur together. In the “living ghost town” of Randsburg, that condition is permanent. This strange gold-rush town near the El
ViewBehold the Superslabs
Bored with the scenery between LA and Vegas along I-15? You must have missed Mormon Rocks. Wedged smack on the San Andreas Fault in Cajon Pass, these massive, tilted slabs of sands
ViewPsychedelic Lava
You’d be hard-pressed to find a volcanic landscape in California as memorable and psychedelic as Fossil Falls. This chasm of water-sculpted lava rock in the Coso Mountain Range nor
ViewPlanet of the Pinnacles
The Trona Pinnacles have costarred as backdrop in sci-fi epics like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but seeing these tufa towers in person is far more jaw-d
ViewSan Pedro Outside the Box
How much does San Pedro appreciate art? Well, in this historic waterfront community, even the utility boxes are works of public art! Discover 10 of these decorated traffic signal power prisms (by 10 different local artists) on a 5.5-mile walk that also includes maritime history and culture.
ViewThailand? Armenia? Yes!
Talk about a melting pot! Try this delicious medley composed of Thai Town, Little Armenia, and Barnsdall Art Park—all three and more on a tasty 2.75-mile East Hollywood walking loop.
ViewWhere the Murals Are
Is the Arts District the best spot to see art in LA? Duh! We’re talking the brand-new Institute of Contemporary Art, edgy murals, murals in progress, and surprises around every cor
ViewIf Jack Sparrow Had a Lagoon
Nothing goes together better than bird-watching and buried treasure, right? Never connected the two? Consider 610-acre Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad—perhaps the most bird-friendly
ViewWhole Lotta Ballona!
It’s a thrill to see a pterodactyl patrolling a prehistoric pond, even if you know it’s really “just” a great blue heron stalking the Ballona Freshwater Marsh. Less camouflaged are
ViewCabin on the Coast
So you’d like to camp on the wild Mendocino coast … except for—you know—that whole pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground thing? A-OK! Actually, it’s KOA! Yes, Manchester Beach
ViewSwim Hole, Say No More!
People flock to Kirkwood’s Silver Lake, a quiet beauty set against the backdrop of the Sierras. But few know about the easy 2-mile out-and-back (round-trip) hike that follows one o
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The 2025 Hiking Calendar Is Here!
Ready to make hiking part of your New Year’s wellness plan? Get the all-new 2025 Hiking Calendar courtesy of Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).
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