Wonder-Fall Hikes & Bike Rides

Autumn’s hues are beginning to deepen. And we’d like to help put the wonder in your fall, from redwoods to rolling golden hills and leaves crisp for foot-crunching. Here are some hikes and bike rides that make for a wonder-fall afternoon.

Week: 11.14.2019
Regions: Northern CA

Sunol Salutations

Hike to Big Views in Sunol Regional Wilderness

New Year, new points of view … lots of views, thanks to a less-hiked trail in the East Bay. Well-known Sunol Regional Wilderness has 6,800 acres of bountiful terrain, yet few hikers actually experience the best views the park offers. Those are found along this 4-mile loop in Suno
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Millerton Time

Hike Millerton Point in Point Reyes

Point Reyes National Seashore seems to be on everyone’s “favorite things” list, and for good reason. It’s a bounty of beauty from land to sea. So, how do you find a little peace and quiet here? Make it a Millerton afternoon!
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Picnic and a Pedal

Bike Ride the Cross Marin Trail in West Marin North Bay Area

West Marin has all the right stuff for an afternoon getaway: bike paths, babbling brooks, canopy forests, and secluded picnic spots. Combine a picnic and a pedal at Samuel P. Taylor State Park by biking the easygoing Cross Marin Trail.
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Fall Escape to Yosemite's Tenaya Lodge

Fall Escape to Yosemite's Tenaya Lodge

Everybody loves national parks. But the lodging, well, that often leaves plenty to be desired. Unless you stay at Yosemite’s only four-diamond resort: Tenaya Lodge. All of Tenaya’s lodge rooms are newly renovated, with deluxe baths, cozy beds, and flat-screen TVs. Just 2 miles fr
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Make Time for Tolay

Hike Tolay Lake Regional Park near Petaluma

Hidden in the hills south of Petaluma, Tolay Lake Regional Park is 3,400 acres of wide-open space, with a fantastic network of hiking and biking trails, wildflower walks in spring, grazing cattle, and sweet farm animals.
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Purisima Charisma

Hike Purisima Creek Redwoods on the San Mateo Coast

Hike Purisima Creek Open Space Preserve
Hundred-foot redwoods, a shaded canyon, and views overlooking Half Moon Bay. This 10-mile loop hike in Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is a roller-coaster of uphill and downhill along with easygoing stretches through some of the Bay Area’s most beautiful landscape.
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Trending Stories NorCal

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  1. Aloha from California

    Say Aloha without leaving California with a 7-mile out-and-back hiking adventure to Lake Aloha in El Dorado National Forest. You can also camp here, a premier place for stargazing.

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  2. Sequoia Re-opens Crystal Cave

    Step inside Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park's hidden world by visiting the newly re-opened Crystal Cave—the only cave in the parks open to the public. Closed for four years, this rare marble karst cavern is welcoming visitors once again, but only through the summer season!

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  3. Easiest Best Hike in the World

    Choose the easiest and most view-rewarding hike in Yosemite. Okay, we’ll go first: the combination of hiking to Sentinel Dome and Taft Point. Both of these lookouts are within a couple miles of each other on Glacier Point Road

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  4. Hiker in the forest at Mount Sutro in San Francisco

    San Francisco's Middle Earth

    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.

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Trending Stories SoCal

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  1. Can't Top This

    San Francisco’s Presidio was already a fantastic place to hang out for the afternoon, a beautiful site within the largest urban national park in the United States (the Golden Gate National Recreation Area). And Presidio Tunnel Tops is like a cherry on top. Make that two cherries on top, with the newly opened (July 2025) Outpost Meadow, a 1.5-acre green space located at Old Mason Street across from the Crissy Field Marsh in the Presidio.

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  2. Underground Garden

    Looking to escape the summer heat? Head to Fresno and discover its cool secret: the Forestiere Underground Gardens–an enchanting garden and architecture oasis like no other.

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  3. Volcanic Activity

    Northern California is home to one of the most unique ecosystems in the country: Lassen Volcanic National Park. The region features geothermal areas, including the largest dome volcano in the world, Lassen Peak. Hike to the top of this active volcano on a 5-mile out-and-back.  

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  4. Oh Ryan

    Sure, it’s those whimsical trees that give Joshua Tree National Park its marquee billing; but this beautiful landscape also has surrounding mountains and its night sky—one of the darkest in Southern California and designated an International Dark Sky Park. Joshua Tree has four allowable stargazing parking lots, and a newly opened haven for spending the night nearby...

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