Happy Trails for Most Everyone

Sunset casts a dusty rose hue across the giant rocks and sparse landscape. The cholla cactus is cloaked in a fiery aura as its dense spines reflect the sinking sun. Joshua trees, the park’s namesake, turn from green to black and then vanish in the fading light.

Night brings Sirius, the Dog Star, flickering so brightly with tiny bursts of color that it looks, at first glance, like an airplane. That frothy, glowing band meandering across the sky is the Milky Way Galaxy. Constellations--invisible in the city--stand out so vividly it’s easy to see how ancient astronomers sketched them in the night sky. There is actual starlight here.

In this light one thing is clear: We’ve been cooped up in the city way too long.

Now is the perfect time to escape. All over Southern California, waterfalls are fat with winter rain and snowmelt, while wildflowers are popping in the mountains and deserts. Best of all, spring break in schools gives families a jump on weekend crowds, promising more solitude on hiking trails and first pick of the choice campsites.

“It’s the best time to get out. We’re in the prime zone,” said Philip Ferranti, author of “100 Great Hikes in and Near Palm Springs” (Westcliffe Publishing, $17). “It’s not too hot and not too cold. Things are starting to pop and grow.”

We tracked down some of the area’s top outdoors experts and had them pinpoint the region’s best family-friendly hiking and camping. The rules: All destinations should be easy to find and not a far drive away. Trails must be easy to follow (no lost hikers, please) and suitable for all ages and skill levels.

“I have a 4-year-old and a 9-year-old, and these are the places I take them,” said John McKinney, a Los Angeles Times hiking writer and author of “Day Hiker’s Guide to Southern California” (Olympus Press, $14.95). “They’re trail-tested by my children who have no choice but to go with their dad.”

Park fees at these places are minimal, less than the cost of a couple of movie tickets and far more entertaining. The only real investment is a good day pack (and a tent if camping), a decent set of hiking boots and a guidebook. A good guidebook can be a family’s best friend, if only because clear directions cut “Are we there yet?” to a minimum. Here’s a look covering six counties:

Civilized Camping at the Ocean’s Edge

At El Capitan and Refugio state beaches in Ventura County, crashing surf lulls campers to sleep.

Snuggled between the rugged Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the parks boast spectacular views of the Channel Islands and the picturesque, rocky coastlines that launched a thousand car commercials.

As camping goes, it’s pretty civilized. There are developed campsites, restrooms, showers (indoor and outdoor), picnic areas and established nature trails. Some have electricity, which is technically cheating on a camp-out.

The campsites at Refugio are closer to the beach, but those who like a little space should opt for the oak- and sycamore-shaded bluff at El Capitan. Choosing one doesn’t exclude the other; the parks are connected by a 2.5-mile bike trail. There are intriguing tide pools and crannies to explore on both beaches. And Refugio’s famous seaside palms make for great beach loafing.

The parks would be idyllic, except for a man-made flaw--trains. George and Rhonda Ostertag, authors of “California State Parks: A Complete Recreation Guide” (Mountaineers Books, $17.95), a blunt, indispensable guidebook, said early-morning train whistles frequently shatter the parks’ solitude. The Santa Ynez Mountains are a bit rough for rookie trekkers. Ann Marie Brown, author of “Easy Hiking in Southern California” (Foghorn Press, $12.95), suggests hikers drive a few miles up the coast to Gaviota State Park, where a short, but steep 1-mile hike leads to a warm soak in natural hot springs. The pools (2 feet deep, bathwater-warm and safe for supervised children) are least crowded early weekday mornings. Gaviota’s campgrounds are currently closed.

Just up the road near the town of Gaviota, another easy half-mile hike ends at Nojoqui (pronounced no-HO-wee) Falls, an 80-foot tumble of water over fern-covered sandstone cliffs. The falls are at the end of an easy 20-minute walk through oak and laurel trees in Nojoqui Falls County Park. Signs point the way from U.S. 101.

Another easy waterfall trip is just off the Ventura Freeway in Thousand Oaks. Few people have discovered Wildwood Falls, tucked in the back of Wildwood Park on Avenida de los Arboles. The hike to the 70-foot waterfall is a 2-mile round trip. “It’s got a ton of water in it so it looks good even in dry years,” Brown said. “There are all kinds of neat rock outcroppings and a tremendous amount of wildlife for a city park.”

Point Mugu State Park south of Oxnard and Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu are prime destinations for longer hikes and some of the best coastal camping. The parks both have gorgeous chunks of coastline--it’s possible to camp right on the beach--and the rolling hills and pastures of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area.

Most of the campsites are developed with access to running water, showers and restrooms. Giant sycamores shade some sites. Brown said Big Sycamore Canyon in Point Mugu is a great place to see wildflowers on a 5-mile, roughly 2 1/2-hour, trek through the Santa Monicas.

“It has some really lovely flowers, coastal poppies, lupine and a whole variety,” she said. “You can either hike in from Newbury Park or come in from the beach.”

“The Santa Monicas are just perfect in wildflower season,” agreed McKinney, who suggests a similar hike at Leo Carrillo State Beach just north of Malibu.

“It’s a cool place,” he said. “You can hike from the coast back to Nicholas Pond. There are so many different kinds of flowering plants, too many to mention. And all the creeks have water in them.”

This hike is roughly 7 miles round-trip, with a “moderate” elevation gain that may tax toddlers. Be prepared to do a little carrying, and don’t be shy about turning back. The visitor center has trail maps and information on nature walks and campfire programs.

Far to the north near Lancaster and Edwards Air Force Base, the annual bloom of California poppies and other wildflowers covers the high desert hills of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve with a bright, fragrant blanket. The poppies, California’s state flower, are an incredible sight, but it can be one of the trickier natural spectacles to catch. Peak season is usually mid-April, but the poppies can bloom any time between February and May. Check the “poppy hotline” at (661) 724-1180 or the reserve’s Web site at https://www.calparksmojave.com/poppy/ for the latest information.

“It’s really only like a two-week window when it blooms,” Brown said. “You should check first, because if you show up too early or a day too late there is nothing to see. But if you hit it right, it’s gorgeous. And it’s a great family hike.” The best of the park’s 7 miles of trails is the South and North Loop, roughly 2.5 miles over easy, rolling terrain. The hike should take about an hour and a half.

For Urban Wilderness, There’s Griffith Park

For Angelenos who can’t spare the time or effort to get out of town, there’s always Griffith Park. The park features more than 53 miles of trails that wind around the observatory to the summit of Mt. Hollywood (elevation: 1,625 feet), more than 1,000 feet above the city.

“You can take the Charlie Turner trail head, which is right in the parking lot of the observatory, and within 20 or 30 minutes you’re at the top of Mt. Hollywood,” said Louis Alvarado, honorary mayor of Griffith Park. “There you have a beautiful 360-degree view of the city below. You can see the Hollywood sign and just about any place you want.”

Trail maps are available at the observatory and the Ranger Station, 4730 Crystal Spring Drive. The park closes at sunset, but on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the Sierra Club leads two-hour night hikes. Guides divide hikers by skill level, so no one gets left behind. Children are welcome as long as they’re with an adult.

Expect to see deer, coyotes and plenty of skunks. “The thing about hiking at night is that if you’re very quiet you can almost hear nature as it grows,” said Alvarado, a Glendale resident who has hiked the park for 20 years. “It’s a good place to forget about all your troubles.”

The fewest hikers show up on Wednesday nights. The groups meet in Upper Merry Go Round parking (Lot No. 2) between 6:30 and 6:50 p.m. The hike begins promptly at 7 p.m. For information, call the Sierra Club at (213) 387-4287.

The 2.5-mile hike to Holy Jim Falls in the Cleveland National Forest in eastern Orange County is nothing compared to the bumpy ride to the falls on a dirt road. Fortunately, the road is in pretty good shape and suitable for most cars. Get on Trabuco Creek Road across from O’Neill Regional Park and follow it for about 5 miles.

The road to Holy Jim Falls is marked. The trail meanders up a lush canyon along Holy Jim Creek. The falls are only 20 feet high, but few visitors complain as they sit in the cool, fern-covered grotto. Brown said it’s one of the best family hikes she’s come across. “It’s really flat, really easy and very pretty,” she said. “It’s shaded the whole way, and there are tons of wildflowers along the way.”

Turn the Holy Jim hike into an expedition with a camp-out at O’Neill Regional Park. Developed campsites are nestled in an oak- and sycamore-shaded glen along the rocky bed of Trabuco Creek and up on a mesa. Again, amenities like running water, flush toilets and hot showers make it hard to call this roughing it. There are several established nature trails in the 3,100-acre wilderness, a stark contrast to nearby housing developments.

Moving toward the coast, the 2,500-acre Crystal Cove State Park provides spectacular vistas of what the Southern California coastline looked like before development. The park features beach and mountain hiking, and it has 32 primitive back-country campsites (campers must pack everything they need). Back-country camping is recommended only for advanced hikers.

One of the best hikes for novices is El Moro Canyon Trail, a 5-mile trek through a rolling Eden of lush ferns, oaks, sycamores and willows.

Cool off after the hike with a dip in the Pacific, an easy walk down on one of the three beach trails.

Temperatures are already cracking the 90s in Southern California deserts, but there’s still time to visit a beautiful waterfall in a palm-shrouded oasis at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County. Again, it’s an easy hike, roughly 3 miles round-trip. Borrego Palm Canyon has more than 800 mature palm trees, the largest of 25 groves in the park.

“Even if it’s hot, this hike is good because it’s through a shady palm canyon,” Brown said. “It’s really worth seeing.” Several campgrounds in the 600,000-acre park offer both developed and primitive camping. Primitive sites offer only a patch of land, a fire pit and, in some cases, non-flush toilets, also known as “nice outhouses.” Joanie Cahill, one of the park’s interpretive specialists, said the park is unique because it also has “open camping,” which means visitors can pitch a tent almost anywhere they want.

Campfires are only allowed in metal containers or approved fire pits. This is Sonoran desert, straight out of a western:. “It does start to get over 100 degrees in mid-April,” Cahill warned. Be prepared for a shortage of shade, and bring lots of water.

Mild temperatures, dense pine forests and easy access to spectacular vistas make the trails and campgrounds around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino National Forest a perfect spring destination.

Lakefront camping with all the amenities is available at the Serrano Campground on the lake’s north shore. Campsites are shaded by pines and most have a great view of the lake. Fees range from $18 to $36 a night. It’s first come, first served at many sites, though it’s possible to make reservations. Great hiking abounds. Visit the rangers at the Big Bear Discovery Center on the lake’s north shore for maps, helpful advice and directions. The center has a gift shop and a short nature trail. Recently, rangers had several telescopes trained on bald eagle nests.

On the lake’s south shore, a 5-mile drive up Mill Creek Road and a right turn off forest road 2N11 points to the head of the trail to the Champion Lodgepole Pine, a 400-year-old tree that stands 112 feet tall and measures 20 feet in diameter. From the parking area, it’s an easy walk to the pine, the largest of its kind in the world.

A more challenging hike awaits at Boulder Bay, named for the cluster of giant rocks in the middle of the inlet. The Castle Rock trail, which begins on the south side of Highway 18 right across from the bay, ascends 700 feet in only a mile, which makes it a tough hike for young climbers. Brown said a 10-year-old can make the climb easily, but younger children may need to be carried and watched carefully on the granite outcroppings at the end of the trail. The rock ledges are roughly 600 feet above the deep blue lake. The view is as breathtaking as the hike.

High Season Camping: First Come, First Served

Back in Joshua Tree National Park, which straddles Riverside and San Bernardino counties, things are starting to heat up.

Campgrounds and major attractions such as Keys View (where visitors see all the way to Mexico on a clear day) can get crowded as people try to squeeze in a visit before summer heat clears out all but the hardiest of humans. Midweek visitors should still be able to grab one of the better campsites, most of which can be claimed simply by putting up a tent. At minimum, be prepared to arrive at the park early Friday morning, or end up at the Motel 6 in Twentynine Palms, which is pleasant but lacks marshmallow-roasting facilities and the park’s cosmic vibe.

Joshua Tree campgrounds are mostly primitive. There are no showers or flush toilets (there are “nice outhouses” and portable toilets) and no running water. There are picnic tables and campfire pits with barbecue grates. Bring wood. The rough campsites add to the sense of getting away from it all. Many sites cozy right up against huge tumbles of rocks, many of them bigger than houses. The landscape is so vast, exotic and alien, it can feel like Mars.

The 794,000-acre park is crisscrossed with hiking trails and roadside stops where hikers can leave their car and wander through a forest of Joshua trees or explore clusters of giant rocks.

The park encompasses two types of desert. The Colorado Desert below 3,000 feet is arid and hot, perfect for cactuses and creosote bush. The higher Mojave Desert gets more moisture and has slightly cooler temperatures in which Joshua trees thrive. One of the easier hikes is the Lost Palms Oasis trail in the southern end of the park. It’s an 8-mile round trip, so it will take several hours to go all the way, but Ferranti said there are plenty of wildflowers and blooming cactuses only a mile or so down the trail. Again, bring plenty of water and plan to head out in the morning.

“Joshua Tree is northern high desert, so the heat is easier to deal with,” Ferranti said. “I suggest an early-morning hike. When you’re contending with 90-degree temperatures, things can get uncomfortable very quickly.”

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Where to Hike

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1. Gaviota State Park

33 miles northwest of Santa Barbara on Highway 101.

(805) 968-1033

$2 per car, campground closed.

cal-parks.ca.gov/south/channel/gsp542.htm

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2. Nojoqui Falls County Park

1 1/2 miles east of Highway 101 near Gaviota Pass. From Highway 101, take the Old Coast Road to Alisal Road; from Solvang, follow Alisal Road south to the park.

(805) 934-6123

No admission charge.

www.sbparks.org/Scripts/Parks.idc?ParkID=14

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3. Refugio State Beach

20 miles northwest of Santa Barbara on Highway 101 at Refugio Road.

(805) 968-1033

$2 per car, $12 per campsite.

cal-parks.ca.gov/south/channel/rsb527.htm

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4. El Capitan State Beach

17 miles northwest of Santa Barbara on Highway 101.

(805) 968-1033 or (805) 899-1400

$2 per car, $12 per campsite.

cal-parks.ca.gov/parkpages/park_page.asp?lvl_id=240

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5. Point Mugu State Park

15 miles south of Oxnard on Pacific Coast Highway.

(818) 880-0350 or (805) 488-5223

$3 per car, $7-$12 per campsite.

cal-parks.ca.gov/south/angeles/pmsp573.htm

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6. Leo Carrillo State Beach

35000 W. Pacific Coast Highway, just north of Malibu.

(818) 880-0350 or (805) 488-5223

$3 per car, $12 per campsite.

cal-parks.ca.gov/south/angeles/lcsb540.htm

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7. Wildwood Park

Lynn Road and Avenida de los Arboles, Thousand Oaks.

Call Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Chamber of Commerce;

(805) 370-0035.

No admission charge; no Web site.

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8. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve

Visitor center on Lancaster Road, 15 miles west of Highway 14 near Lancaster.

(661) 724-1180 (for poppies) or (661) 942-0662

$2 per car.

www.calparksmojave.com/poppy/

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9. Griffith Park

Los Angeles just west of the Golden State (I-5) Freeway, roughly between Los Feliz Boulevard on the south and the Ventura (134) Freeway on the north.

(213) 913-4688

No admission charge

www.cityofla.org/RAP/grifmet/gp/index.htm

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10. Crystal Cove State Park

8471 Pacific Coast Highway, south of Newport Beach.

(949) 494-3539

$2-$3 per car

cal-parks.ca.gov/parkpages/park_page.asp?lvl_id=284

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11. O’Neill Regional Park

30892 Trabuco Canyon Road, Trabuco Canyon.

(949) 858-9365

$2 weekdays; $4 weekends. Camping $12 per vehicle.

www.canyonlife.com/O’NeillPark.folder/KERRYWEB/ oneill.htm

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12. Holy Jim Falls

Cleveland National Forest Trabuco Ranger District.

Trabuco Creek Road splits off Trabuco Canyon Road at O’Neill Regional Park and follows the creek five miles to marked parking area for Holy Jim Falls.

(909) 736-1811

National Forest Adventure Pass: $5 daily, $30 annual.

www.ocnow.com/recreation/guides/hike/holyjim.html

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13. Big Bear Lake

Discovery Center, 41397 North Shore Drive, Fawnskin.

(949) 866-3437, (877) 444-6777 for camp reservations.

National Forest Adventure Pass required, $5 daily, $30 annual, and $18-$36 for campsites.

www.sbnfa.org/big_bear_discovery_center.htm

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14. Joshua Tree National Park

74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms.

(760) 367-5500

$10, receipt good for seven days.

www.nps.gov/jotr/home.html

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15. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

200 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs.

(760) 767-5311

No admission charge to enter; $7-$16 for campsites.

cal-parks.ca.gov/parkpages/park_page.asp?lvl_id=278