Top 10 Adventures of 2017

No need to travel to New Zealand to visit Middle Earth. San Francisco’s Mount Sutro Open Space is practically Hobbiton—a hidden “shire” in the middle of the city. Okay, maybe not quite as magical, but still an incredible place to take a hike in city limits.

New Year’s Resolution: Hike locally! How to make it happen? Download the complimentary Peninsula Open Space Trust 2018 Hiking Calendar! The calendar gives you a seasonal guide to the best hiking trails in the Bay Area, including the optimal time to visit. You’ll know when and whe

Roosevelt elk, canyons draped in ferns and dripping with small waterfalls, oh … and the tallest trees on the entire planet! Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has all the fixings for world-class hiking.

Ahh … Sunol in the spring could make John Steinbeck wax poetic about the land of milk and honey. This East Bay Regional Park is a rolling green open space of giant oak trees, wildflowers, hidden canyons, seasonal streams, and winding hiking trails. While most visitors head to Lit

Secret passageways aren’t just found in the movies. The East Bay has over 400 of them winding unseen through the hillsides. Explore Oakland’s hidden passages on a 6-mile urban loop hike using shortcuts originally built to help an influx of residents reach streetcars post-1906 ear

We had you at hike-in swimming hole? For a taste of the glacial and volcanic splendors of Desolation Wilderness without an all-day commitment, Grass Lake is the perfect hike. Pack a lunch and your bathing suit, and you’re all set for this easy 5-mile round-trip. Start at the Glen

Clocking in at 3,486 feet, Mount Umunhum is one of the highest peaks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and has long been a South Bay landmark with the mysterious radar tower sitting atop, all of it inaccessible—until just a few months ago, when the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Dist

Mount Tam’s Cataract Falls is the bobsled course of waterfalls: over a mile of twisting, turning, tumbling water—gushing, rushing, and making a splash! The real joy is hiking right beside Cataract Creek as it’s chugging on all cylinders, where the exclamations are 20- and 30-foot

People talk about location, location, location for real estate. And the same is true for camping, er “glamping.” Newly opened in 2016, Terra Glamping on the Sonoma Coast has a location to make Big Sur drool. Set high up on a hill overlooking the rugged coast and the Pacific, 10 b

For an easy bike ride with enormous coastal views, head a few miles south of Half Moon Bay. The Cowell-Purisima Trail stretches for 3 sea-breezy miles along high coastal bluffs.