Southern California Hiking

This summer I am going to be in California for a while. I was wondering if anyone knew any good hiking spots anywhere in california. I was looking for a simple trail for me and my family in a somewhat tropical setting. Any idea???

[Mark Sedenquist]

I have hiked along hundreds of trails in California, but I am afraid it will be tough to find any that are tropical. Southern California is mostly desert (in a geographic sense).

Any other criteria that you are interested in? History, wildflowers? celebrities? etc?

California is a big place, you can find almost any type of hiking here, except for maybe tropical. When I think of tropical, I think hot, humid, and huge palm trees and giant bugs. Socal is mostly desert and mountains, but you can still find decent places to hike depending on how far you're willing to travel. Depending on where you're staying, there are good places to hike in the Angeles National Forest. just do a search on the web and there are a lot of websites out there. For a simple hike with a family, try looking for a few of the more popular waterfall hikes in the area, there Millard Canyon, Sturveyant, Fish Falls, and hundreds of tiny no name ones around. In the summer, I would recommend avoiding the inland mountains and staying near the coast, and to stay near a stream or river or in the valleys, because in the summer time it can get really hot on the ridges. That's not always true though, there's great hiking in Big Bear and Arrowhead, and in Mt. San Jacinto in Palm springs. They stay pretty cool all year round due to the high elevation. If you're willing to drive a little, there's always Sequoia/Kings Canyon (highly recommended), a little further is Yosemite (very busy) and Mammoth. Generally, the further north you go, the less dry it will become and the cooler it will be, that's why I like hiking in the bay area

[California Hiking]

Hello,
tropical setting in CA? Hard to find, I walked the Thousand-Mile Summer trail from Mexico to Oregon and a leaflet from the Tropicana across the NV border was as close as I could get to the tropics. Anyway, I'd recommend the Warner Mountains in early summer (late May/June). Many creeks everywhere and an amazing flowering season. And aeons away from the masses at Yosemite or other famous parks like the Redwoods, Kings Canyon. By the way, the Redwoods along the Coast have a touch of semi-tropics. Happy Trails, Andy