The Great Urban Outdoors!

Who said getting into the great outdoors meant getting out of the city? Get your nature fix in city limits by hiking a secret stairway in Oakland or exploring a couple of handsome parks in San Francisco.

Week: 04.06.2017
Regions: Northern CA

Secret Stairway Hike

Secret Stairway Hike in Oakland

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
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Full Moon Adventureland

Redding Area Full Moon Adventures

Located forty minutes from Redding in Northern California, iconic Lassen Volcanic National Park is home to famous Lassen Peak, the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range. The 2.5-mile (one-way) hike to its summit (once the snow has cleared!) is utterly spectacular as a
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Rove the Cove

Wander or Bike San Francisco's Warm Water Cove

Today’s San Francisco still has a few places where bits of interesting grit exist. Warm Water Cove is an urban waterfront blending serene bay views and relics of days past when this rugged alcove hosted impromptu punk shows. Located off the beaten track in the Dogpatch neighborho
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The Original SF Giants

Hiking the redwood grove and wildflower displays at the San Francisco Botanical Garden

Before the baseball team, came the original San Francisco Giants: coast redwoods, the tallest living things on earth! And Golden Gate Park’s Botanical Garden is home to the century-old Redwood Grove, splendored with these fog-loving beauties.
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Trending Stories NorCal

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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. This Is Paradise

    Granite mountain-scape, superb sunset views, crystal lakes, and shoreline campsites … the trip to Paradise Lake in Tahoe National Forest lives up to its idyllic name.

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  3. 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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  4. 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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Trending Stories SoCal

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  1. Hot As (Bumpass) Hell

    So you like going to all the hot spots when you visit places? Well, in Lassen Volcanic National Park there’s a place so hot it gets downright steamy. Bumpass Hell is the largest hydrothermal area in the park, with sputtering mud pots, sulfur vents, and boiling pools. It’s California’s Yellowstone. But it only opens in summer through fall.

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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. 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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  4. 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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