Pages Tagged “Palos Verdes Peninsula”

Reviews
Blog Posts

Reviews

Astra Lumina ★★★★★ Nighttime walk through botanical gardens and a series of immersive light-and-music shows that you can take at your own pace. Definitely worth it!
Del Cerro Park ★★★★★ Incredible views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. Also easy to get to and park. I haven’t tried any of the hiking trails in the area yet, but I keep meaning to.
Forrestal Reserve ★★★★☆ Coastal hillsides, landslides ancient and modern, and an abandoned quarry. (Let’s call it a geologically interesting area!) Trails range from nearly flat to infuriatingly steep. Lots of chapparal, not much shade.
George F Canyon ★★★★★ A quiet hike along a seasonal streambed. Shady for the first part, then opens up. Beware of poison oak. City view at the summit. Birds, rabbits, butterflies.
Ladera Linda Community Park ★★★★☆ Nice park with a view of the ocean and Catalina Island, open grassy areas, playground, basketball and tennis courts, lots of parking and clean, new restrooms. Near the Forrestal Reserve trailheads making it a good post-hike restroom stop or picnic spot.
Linden H. Chandler Preserve ★★★☆☆ Hilly, with not much shade except in the lightly wooded areas along the intermittent streambeds. Higher areas have clear views of the LA Basin and the golf course next door.
Malaga Canyon Reserve Gorgeous views from the trailhead that I found (which was closed). I need to see if the other trailheads are open.
Malaga Creek ★★★★★ Malaga Creek carves a canyon through the coastal bluffs down to a narrow pebbly beach. The canyon is too choked with trees to follow in most places, but an informal trail runs around the top of the canyon, climbing down to the creek in a few spots, and a service road winds down to the cove.
Point Vicente ★★★★★ Easy trails run through scrub brush along the tops of the coastal bluffs, the lighthouse almost always in view. Shade only in the picnic shelters, but plenty of ocean breezes. On a clear day you can see from Catalina Island to Malibu.
Prickly Pear Trail ★★★★☆ Short loop with some steep sections. Lots of cactus. (Keep your balance!) Nice views of the ocean and Point Vicente Lighthouse.
South Coast Botanic Garden ★★★★★ Big enough to feel like you could get lost (but not big enough to get lost), packed with trails that feel like walking through nature, surrounded by more structured gardens. Great for events, families or just getting out for a walk.
Valmonte Trail and Frog Creek Loop ★★★★★ A nice, easy loop trail. Hilly, with plenty of shade in the wooded areas along the stream beds. Lots of side trails.
White Point Nature Preserve ★★★★☆ Mostly flat, with hills along the inland edge. Views of the ocean and Catalina. Not much shade except for one stand of trees at the foot of the hills, the garden around the visitor center, and the bunkers remaining from a military site decommissioned in the 1970s.

↑Top

Blog Posts

Remembering Marineland (Or Not)
Marineland was an ocean park/aquarium (like Sea World) near Los Angeles that closed in 1987. I don’t remember much about the one time I visited, but apparently the park’s decline was rather sordid.
(Apr 2017)
Spring! Sundogs! Silhouettes!
For once it wasn’t the ocean view, but the *sky* that was the most impressive sight from Del Cerro Park up in the Palos Verdes hills.
(Mar 2016)
Coastal View: Before and After the First Sunset of the Year
Del Cerro Park sits atop a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean and, in the distance, Catalina Island off the coast of California. Suburbs surround it on the inland side, but the hills rolling down to the sea remain mostly open space (though to be fair that’s in part because the land isn’t stable enough to […]
(Jan 2016)
Top of the Hill
Del Cerro Park, at the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, on a super windy evening. I saw two tumbleweeds roll by, and kept worrying I’d drop my phone while taking pictures. I need to get out here (and other scenic spots) more often. Even though it’s not that far (one of the great things […]
(Jun 2015)
Layers by the Sea
The Palos Verdes peninsula sits at the southwest corner of Los Angeles. Parts of it are built up in old, grid-style suburbs. Other parts are of the more modern, winding type. And still other parts remain open space, due in part to the unstable geology of the area. Parts of Portuguese Bend are sliding toward […]
(Nov 2013)
To the Lighthouse
Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro, California, at the southern tip of Los Angeles. The Victorian lighthouse is surrounded by a city park, and the park is lined with a walkway along the top of the cliffs by the sea. Off to one end is the infamous sunken city, a suburban development that was abandoned […]
(Jun 2013)
Photos: Comet Watch LA
An evening watching the sun set above the clouds, a crescent moon pop into existence, Jupiter through a telescope, a red moonset, and of course a comet!
(Mar 2013)
Photos: Solar Eclipse from Los Angeles (May 2012)
I went up into the hills to view the eclipse and ran into dozens of other people with the same idea…and got to look through their telescopes, welding helmets and more.
(May 2012)
Ocean Sunsets: Beach and Bluffs
A twilight photo of a lifeguard tower on a deserted beach, and a trip to the top of Palos Verdes to watch the sun set over the ocean below.
(Oct 2011)