Bag an Eighter!

You know about fourteeners, but let’s talk about “eighters”—peaks over 8,000 feet high where you don’t have to battle oxygen deprivation to savor a satisfying summit view. You’ll get a challenging hike, of course, on any of these three favorites. You just won’t need supplemental O2!

Week: 07.11.2019
Regions: Southern CA

Kicking Butler

Hiking Butler Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains

When you reach the fire lookout tower that crowns 8,535-foot Butler Peak, you reach a 360-degree panoramic view that captures the grandeur of SoCal’s most epic mountain ranges—the towering ridges of the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the daunting peaks of the San Gabrie
Read the full story

Swimming Holes and Natural Waterslides!

Redding Swimming Holes and Natural Waterslides

Little Backbone Creek Little Backbone Creek is known as nature’s waterpark for good reason. It’s a 20-minute hike up a creek in a canyon, passing boulders and ponds before arriving to the marquee attraction: a smooth rock waterfall that plunges you into the creek. Potem Falls Pot
Visit Redding

Cowabunga, Cucamonga!

Hiking Cucamonga Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains

Cucamonga Peak Trail Hike
You’ll get your heart pounding and your muscles burning with the challenging adventure that is Cucamonga Peak. The summit is one of the tallest peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, and the 12.1-mile trek pulls no punches.
Read the full story

Give It the Islip

Hiking Mount Islip in the San Gabriel Mountains

With a name that could suggest slipping and falling off a cliff, Mount Islip (pronounced “eye-slip”) may sound like a peak to stay away from. But the hike to the 8,251-foot summit in the San Gabriels is a breezy, if challenging, 7-mile round-trip that is friendly to the ankles. T
Read the full story

Trending Stories NorCal

View all Stories
  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.

    View
  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!

    View
  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

    View
  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.

    View

Trending Stories SoCal

View all Stories
  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.

    View
  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.

    View
  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.  

    View
  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...

    View