All "Hikes" Stories in Northern CA

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  Sea You at the Ranch

  Rough-and-tumble coastline, twisting Highway 1, open grasslands, hidden beaches, bluff trails, and a rustic lodge for storm watching from indoors —we’re not talking about Big Sur.

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  Island Tree Topper

  The Christmas light atop Angel Island State Park’s Mount Livermore has long been a cheerful twinkle visible from many cities throughout the Bay Area on holiday season nights. Get i

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  Nisene Quiet

  The sublime Forest of Nisene Marks State Park is popular for good reason, but head to its far reaches and you’ll be awestruck by the solitude beneath the looming redwoods. The Loma

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  Oh, Henry!

  Hike through a verdant redwood forest less traveled and get a glimpse into Santa Cruz of old, when oxen, wagons, and miners populated the hills. The Fall Creek Unit in Henry Cowell

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  Hike to New Lights

  For an enlightening late day hike, catch the San Francisco skyline at sunset from high atop Ring Mountain. The Ring Mountain Open Space Preserve in Tiburon is pretty compact but oc

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  Drake Awakening

  Part salt water, part fresh water, Drake’s Estero is smack in the middle of Point Reyes, and one of only two marine wilderness areas in the entire nation. Yeah, it’s worth a look. Get the extended version by hiking right alongside it.

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  Merry Colorful State Park

  Red, green, and blue are just a few of the holiday hues. Get your Christmas colors and some solitude on a 5-mile (round-trip) hike in Butano State Park on the San Mateo Coast. The

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  Peak Pondering

  Some magical hikes begin like a magic trick: The start is filled with lots of people, and then, within minutes, it's quiet. All you have to do is find the entrance to Narnia—or, in this case, Laurel Canyon Trailhead in the East Bay’s Tilden Regional Park.

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  Headlands Happiness

  One of the many reasons people love the Bay Area is that getting outdoors for a coastal adventure is always an option. And there’s probably no better example than hiking the Marin

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  Three Falling

  Three waterfalls, and fewer people. McCloud Falls might be the best waterfall hike in Northern California. There are bigger waterfalls in the state, but it’s the whole package that makes this 4-mile (round-trip) hike truly memorable.

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  A Shot of Whiskey

  Whiskeytown Falls is a relative newcomer. While a few locals knew of its existence, it wasn’t largely shared, and there wasn’t a trail—until 2004. That’s when park biologist Russ W

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  Burney Man!

  Upon first seeing Burney Falls, President Theodore Roosevelt called it one of the wonders of the world: a 129-foot waterfall gushing 100 million gallons every single day. This baby

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  Alabama Backdrop

  Despite being named for a Confederate warship, the CSS Alabama, there’s nothing Southern about the Alabama Hills. This range of rocky hills between the eastern slopes of the Sierra

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  Golden Guadalupe

  You’re in the South Bay, you have time for only a short hike, and early fall colors are a bonus. Oak-ey dokey! Head to Guadalupe Oak Grove Park and circle it in a mile-long hike wi

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  Lone Oasis

  Every summer, thousands travel to Whitney Portal in the Eastern Sierra to summit Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States. But thousands more are denied the

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  First of Its Kind

  First place, first to market, first in line. Firsts are good! And that includes hiking in Santa Clara County's first park: Stevens Creek County Park. It’s an ideal choice for a Sou

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  Quest for Quicksilver

  The new gold rush meets the old gold rush at Almaden Quicksilver County Park, named for the once-booming industry of mining mercury, which was essential for extracting gold. Today,

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  Old and Gnarly

  Few places will magnify your sense of time and space quite like the rugged White Mountains. A part of Inyo National Forest, this remote, seldom-visited range along the upper Owens

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  Full Moonshiner!

  It started out as a way to romance his dates. But today John Benus invites everyone to his fantastic full-moon hikes to Moonlight Hill on Mount Tam. He usually hosts the hikes on w

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  Date Night with the Bay

  We’re lucky to live beside one of the most beautiful natural bays in the world. Yet finding a place to have it all to yourself? That can be a challenge. Unless you take a sunset an

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