Digital Guide to 30 Local Hikes

30 Best Hikes in the South Bay and Peninsula

You like to hike? You like discovering trails you didn’t know about? Then you’ve gotta download this amazing new guide to 30 of the Bay Area’s best hiking trails in the South Bay and Peninsula. (It’s free.) Discover trails you didn’t know existed and learn more about your favorites. Ascend to incredible views of the coastline on the Spine Ridge Trail.

Go long—11.7-miles!—and savor second-growth redwoods on the Canyon Rim Route. Take the short and sweet Waterfall Hike in Coal Creek Open Space Preserve. Thank the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) for this complimentary digital hiking guide. Their conservation work protects some of the Bay Area’s most precious open space, farms, and parkland.

The guide is easy to read, visually beautiful, and contains all the beta you need for each of the 30 hikes, with short and easy descriptions, including mileage, highlights, and best season to do it, so you can decide which ones to do this weekend, and every weekend! Ready, set, hike!

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  1. Waterfalls and Wine Pours

    Cooler temps, green hills, and the return of our magnificent waterfalls! This family-friendly 2-mile hike at Uvas Canyon County Park in Morgan Hill is a great way to get the most out of a short hike post-rain.

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  2. Woman hiker is climbing up the ladder in the Steep Ravine section of the Dipsea Loop Trail on Mount Tam

    Misty on Mount Tam

    Mount Tam’s 3.9-mile round-trip Steep Ravine and Dipsea Trail Loop weathers the wets and wilds with some confidence, sheltered in parts by redwoods, and wowing with a waterfall.

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  3. Mile-Long Cataract Club

    In winter after heavy rains, the north flank of Mount Tam glows with flows. The nearly mile-long series of waterfalls—Cataract Falls—transforms into a supercharged spectacle. Starting at Alpine Dam, a 1.6 mile (one-way) narrow trails threads through redwoods and ferns along Cataract Creek.

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  4. Hidden Long Ridge

    After heavy rains, the rolling headwaters of Peters Creek in Long Ridge Open Space Preserve pulsate along the forest floor via a series of small waterfalls that cut grooves in sandstone boulders. See it on a 4.5-mile loop hike starting from the Grizzly Flat parking lot.

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    Three Sisters

    Good things come in threes at this hike to a lovely trio-tiered waterfall in Cleveland National Forest. The 4.25-mile out-and-back hike rambles among rolling hills, with rocky mountain views as switchbacks take you down to a lush canyon and the falls.

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