Great Escape: Take A Hike!

For a combination of both scenic and social reasons, hiking is a wonderful way to experience nature and spend time with friends. It’s also a great way to get some space from the kids and decompress from all of those mom duties waiting for you at home. Simply being out in nature changes us -- usually for the better. Add in physical activity with a close friend or two, and within a few hours you’re feeling like a new person again.

Like walking, hiking’s proven benefits include weight loss, enhanced muscle tone, better joint flexibility and decreased risk of coronary artery disease, hypertension, colon cancer and diabetes. A Harvard study shows that women who walk briskly three times a week for a total of three hours reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke by 30 to 40 percent. More than any other form of exercise, it also strengthens bones and is vital for preventing osteoporosis.

Plus, hiking has the advantage of being an activity you can do with others, which helps women stick with it as a form of regular exercise.

Here are six must-hike trails from Pacifica to Pescadero:

1) San Pedro Valley Park Trails

A vast area embracing the middle and south forks of San Pedro Creek, which are Steelhead spawning grounds, this park is nestled amongst the Santa Cruz Mountain range and the foothills of Pacifica. San Pedro Valley Park contains seven trails offering a variety of habitats, lengths and levels of difficulty. One of the most scenic, Montara Mountain Trail (2.1 miles) offers views of Pacific Ocean, the Farallon Islands and the exterior of Pacifica. The Brooks Creek Trail (1.0 mile) offers views of Brooks Falls as it drops 175 feet in three tiers during the rainy months of winter and spring. The other park trails are the Weiler Ranch Road Trail (1 mile), the Plaskon Nature Trail (.1 mile), the Hazelnut Trail (3.7 miles), the Valley View Trail (1.4 miles) and the Old Trout Farm Trail (.5 mile).

Getting there: Off Highway 1 in Pacifica, turn east onto Linda Mar Boulevard. Follow Linda Mar Boulevard unit it ends at Oddstad Boulevard. Turn right on Oddstad Boulevard. Proceed on Oddstad Boulevard one block to the park entrance.

2) Butano State Park, Mill Ox, Goat Hill, Año Nuevo Trails

This 2,800-acre park is tucked between Santa Cruz Mountain ridges and has a remote feeling. The trail follows the north slope of the canyon cut by Little Butano Creek, and junctions with Mill Ox Trail. The route soon junctions with Goat Hill Trail, which you follow into a mixed forest of oak and madrone. A short connector path takes you to Olmo Fire Trail, which leads to a junction with Año Nuevo Trail. At the viewpoint, on clear days, you can look south to Año Nuevo Island. From the viewpoint, the trail descends lot of switchbacks, back to the park entrance.

Getting there: From Highway 1, turn inland on Pescadero Road, and drive 2.5 miles to Cloverdale Road. Drive south three miles to Butano State Park Road and turn left into the park. Park near the entry kiosk. The hike: Signed Jackson Flats Trail begins just across from the park entry kiosk. The path starts out in meadowland, but soon enters redwoods.

3) Pillar Point Marsh and Shoreline in Princeton-by-the-Sea

This is an easy 1-mile hike, roundtrip. Pillar Point Marsh is where bird watchers have sighted nearly twenty percent of all North American bird species, from great blue herons, snowy egrets and red-winged blackbirds.

Getting there: From Highway One, take Capistrano Road to Pillar Point Harbor. Continue past the harbor entrance to Prospect Way and turn left. Turn right on Broadway, then immediately left on Harvard. Continue to the end of Harvard. Turn right on West Point Ave. Go 0.5 mile to the Pillar Point Marsh parking lot.

4) McNee Ranch State Park

Gray Whale Cover Trail is a moderate hike (1.0 mile, one way) that’s flat once you climb the gentle slope from the parking lot. The trail winds above the Pacific Ocean with views of San Pedro Mountain and Montara Mountain. There’s also an eight-mile partial loop that starts with a killer climb to the top of Montara Mountain, but the return is all-downhill.

Getting there: Park at Gray Whale Cove State Beach on the inland side of Highway One, 1.4 miles north of Montara State Beach.

5) Sequoia Audubon Trail in Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve

The hike (1 mile, one way) begins in the middle Pescadero State Beach parking lot, just south of the Highway 1 bridge crossing Pescadero Creek. A new bridge reconnects the trail around the marsh’s North Pond with the Sequoia Audubon trail to the south, spanning the channel between ponds that had separated the trails. The trail leads you along an old dike between marshlands. Pescadero Marsh is one of the most important remaining wetlands on the California coast.

Getting there: Take Highway One south of Half Moon Bay for 16 miles. Park at the marked parking lot (south end of Pescadero Creek Bridge).

6) Mills Creek Ranch Road in Burleigh Murray State Park

This creekside trail through Burleigh Murray State Park is an easy quiet hike. At the end of Mills Creek Ranch Road is a barn, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and built into the side of a hill. Past the barn, Mills Creek Ranch Road becomes the trail, which continues for about one mile.

Getting there: Take Highway One south of Half Moon Bay for about 1 mile. Turn left (east) on Higgins Purisima Road. Continue for 1.6 miles to the marked parking on the left side of the road.