JAUNTS : Outdoors Enthusiasts Expected to ‘Head for the Hills’ : Gathering will fill Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area with events emphasizing nature, education and sports.

On a typical Sunday, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a quiet place where people go to get away from other people. This Sunday will be different: As many as 7,000 will gather at Paramount Ranch inside the park for the sixth annual Head for the Hills day. The ranch, best known as a site for films, will be overrun with a maze of events and presentations--everything from raptors and reptiles to horses and helicopters.

The emphasis is on nature education and outdoor sports, said Peter Huemann of the Santa Monica Mountains Parklands Assn., one of the sponsoring organizations.

Children will get a chance to cuddle a king snake and learn about the birds of prey brought there by Raptor Rehabilitation and Release, a Simi Valley animal rescue and education group.

The event is part of the nationwide March for Parks, a public awareness program. People will be gathering at 500 sites operated by the National Park Service. Head for the Hills is the largest such event, organizers said.

“Our goal is to raise awareness and also to raise money for outdoor education,” Huemann said.

Several programs benefited from the $13,000 raised last year, including projects that provide nature walks for children and take inner-city kids on mountain bike rides. Among the high-profile, money-raising events are celebrity-led horseback and mountain bike rides. Joe Spano, who played Henry Goldblume on “Hill Street Blues,” Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and professional mountain bike racers (Earthquake) Jake Watson and Dave Cullinan will lead bike rides.

Check-in for both the bike and horseback rides is 8:30 a.m. The rides last until 11 a.m. The cost is $25. You must bring your own bike or horse to participate.

You don’t need to bring anything but your body for the high-adventure ropes course put on the Wilderness Institute. Instructors will buckle would-be alpinists into safety harnesses and boost them up a ladder to negotiate a rope obstacle course 35 feet in the air.

“There are cables and hand ropes that participants walk along,” said Brad Childs, executive director of the Wilderness Institute. The decisive part is the trapeze leap where the bravest (still tied into the safety rope) leap out and grab a trapeze bar.

“The challenge is to see how far out you can position the trapeze and still lunge for it,” Childs said.

Not all the offerings are for the get-up-and-go type of person. Music, beer, food and sweets will be abundant, but the emphasis is still clearly on fitness.

“We have body-fat testing,” Huemann said. “We put it right next to the Ben & Jerry’s booth.”

Details

* WHAT: Head for the Hills.

* WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

* WHERE: Paramount Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

* HOW MUCH: $5 adults, $2 youths.

* CALL: (818) 597-9192.