The Sands and Hills of Carrillo

Leo Carrillo State Beach has always been a popular surfing spot. Surfers tackle the well-shaped south swell while battling the submerged rocks and kelp beds. In recent years, the state added a large chunk of Santa Monica Mountains parkland to the state beach, and now Leo Carrillo is a pleasing place to take a hike.

Leo Carrillo’s relatively remote location on the Los Angeles-Ventura county line gives the park a mellow feeling that is lacking at other Southern California beaches. The park’s shoreline is popular with movie makers, who roll some palm trees onto the strand and-- voila!-- Leo Carrillo doubles for a Caribbean island.

Sequit Point bisects the beach, forming a bay to the south. Beach hikers will enjoy exploring the point’s caves and coves, plus beachcombing a mile up the coast to the county line.

Named for Actor, Activist

The state beach is named after Angeleno Leo Carrillo, famous for his TV role as Pancho, the Cisco Kid’s sidekick. Carrillo, the son of Santa Monica’s first mayor, was also active in recreation and civic affairs.

Nicholas Flat Trail departs from Pacific Coast Highway and climbs inland up steep, scrub-covered slopes to a wide meadow and a small pond. From its high points, the trail offers good views of the Malibu coast.

Nicholas Flat Trail can also be savored for one more reason: In Southern California, very few trails connect the mountains with the sea. About 85% of all Californians live within 30 miles of the coast (1988 California Coastal Resource Guide); in the Southland, most of the extensive coastal trail system that existed 100 years ago has been covered with pavement or suburbs. Nowadays, to find a lot of trails that lead from Pacific Coast Highway into the mountains, you’d have to travel to the Big Sur region or the parklands north of San Francisco.

Get an early start on the Nicholas Flat Trail. Until you arrive at oak-dotted Nicholas Flat, there’s not much shade en route. The trail crosses slopes that were scorched by a 1985 fire. Usually, a couple of good wildflower-watching years follow a burn, but this year’s display is only so-so. Along the trail, you might spot such fast-fading spring blooms as monkey flowers, coyote brush, golden yarrow, bush sunflowers, hummingbird sage and a lot of lupine.

Directions to trailhead: From the west end of the Santa Monica Freeway in Santa Monica, head up-coast on Pacific Coast Highway about 25 miles to Leo Carrillo State Beach. There’s free parking along Pacific Coast Highway and fee parking in the park’s day-use area. The signed Nicholas Flat trailhead is a short distance past the park entry kiosk, opposite the day-use parking area.

The hike: If the state park hasn’t mowed its “lawn” lately, the first 50 yards of Nicholas Flat Trail will be a bit indistinct. Immediately after its tentative beginning, the trail junctions. The right branch circles the hill, climbs above Willow Creek and after a mile, rejoins the main Nicholas Flat Trail. Enjoy this interesting option on your return from Nicholas Flat.

Take the left branch, which immediately begins a moderate-to-steep ascent of the grassy slopes above the park campground. The trail switches back through a coastal scrub community up to a saddle on the ridgeline. Here you will meet the alternate branch of Nicholas Flat Trail. From the saddle, a short side trail leads south to a hilltop, where there’s a fine coastal view. From the viewpoint, you can see Point Dume and the Malibu coastline. During the winter, it’s a good place to bring your binoculars and scout the Pacific horizon for migrating whales.

Following the ridgeline, Nicholas Flat Trail climbs inland over chaparral-covered slopes. Keep glancing over your right shoulder at the increasingly grand coastal views, and over your left at the open slopes browsed by the park’s nimble deer. The fast-fading wildflower population is dominated by that scrambling vine with the white trumpet-shaped flowers--morning glory.

After a good deal of climbing, the trail levels atop the ridgeline and you get your first glimpse of grassy, inviting Nicholas Flat. The trail descends past a line of fire-blackened, but unbowed, old oaks and joins an old ranch road that skirts the Nicholas Flat meadows. Picnickers may unpack lunch beneath the shady oaks or out in the sunny meadow.

The trail angles southeast across the meadow to a small pond. The man-made pond, used by cattle during the region’s ranching days, is backed by some handsome boulders.

Return the way you came until you reach the junction three-fourths of a mile from the trailhead. Bear left at the fork and enjoy this alternate trail as it descends into the canyon cut by Willow Creek, contours around an ocean-facing slope and returns you to the trailhead.

Trail Days--Santa Monica Mountains Trails Days will be held Friday and next Saturday at Leo Carrillo State Beach. Volunteers, in cooperation with the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council, the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force of the Sierra Club and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, will be grooming and repairing park trails.

“Volunteers are absolutely essential in order to maintain a high-quality trail system,” said Bud Getty, district superintendent of the state’s Santa Monica Mountains parks. “We (state parks) have very little money for trail maintenance, so a couple dozen volunteers out there with shovels and pruning shears really make a difference.”

Statewide ‘Trails Day’

Next weekend’s effort in the Santa Monica Mountains is part of a statewide California Trails Day program, which will dispatch thousands of trail workers to state park and national forest locales. It’s hard but satisfying work, and volunteers report that they usually have a good time associating with fellow trails enthusiasts.

Getty views trail work as nothing less than an investment in the future of Southern California. “It’s a commitment to ensuring that the next generation has the opportunity to walk to the same places that we now enjoy.”

To volunteer to work on a trail, call the California State Parks Santa Monica Mountains District office: (818) 706-1310.

Nicholas Flat Trail

Leo Carrillo State Beach to Nicholas Flat: 7 miles round trip; 1,600-foot elevation gain .