While when most people hear Paramount, California, they usually automatically think of the beach, shopping or spending the day looking for celebrities in nearby Hollywood, there is much more to the area. In fact, there are many great nature parks with some really amazing hiking trails that offer some of the best views of the Southern California area.
Of course, one of the most well-known landmarks in the Los Angeles area is the famous Hollywood sign. To get an up-close look at the sign you can take the hike through Griffith Park. This amazingly large park offers hikers, both experienced and not, access to 53 miles of trails. Aside from the up-close experience with the Hollywood sign, you can also expect to see various native rodents, wild quail, foxes, rattlesnakes, coyotes and deer. Once you reach the top of Mount Hollywood, which is the highest peak in Griffith Park, you will be rewarded with stunning views of the Los Angeles Basin.
South of Paramount in Rancho Palos Verdes there is a 4.4 mile nature trail called the Ocean Scenic Trail at Trump Golf Clubhouse. This trail is suitable for beginners to experts and allows visitors to take lots of photos of the beautiful views of Catalina Island, the Palos Verdes cliffs and the Pacific Ocean. Part of this trail also meanders along the shoreline, which has lots of tide pools teaming with marine life like starfish and sea urchins. As an added bonus, dogs are also allowed on these trails and part of the beach.
Located just 30 minutes east of Paramount are two of the best hiking trails in the Southern California area, the Fullerton East Coyote Hills Trail and the Fullerton Panorama Trail. The Fullerton East Coyote Hills Trail can be found on Brea Boulevard in Fullerton, CA, which is just about 25 minutes directly east of Paramount, just north of Anaheim. This three mile hiking trail is also used as an equestrian trail and meanders up and down gentle slopes, so it is suitable for both children and adults. The trail meets up with the Fullerton Panorama Trail at Vista Park. The Fullerton Panorama Trail is a 2.8 mile trail that provides amazing views of the surrounding city and its vicinity from various vistas along the trail.
While it is a 40 minute drive northwest, a trip to the Los Liones Trail in Pacific Palisades is well worth the drive. This scenic moderate difficulty trail meanders through lush canyons all the way to Parker Mesa where you can make the 1525 feet high hike up to the top to be rewarded with some really beautiful views of the towns below as well as the Santa Monica Bay, the San Bernadino Mountains and the Santa Monica Mountains. The entire Los Liones Trail is 7.28 miles long and takes the average hiker 3-4 hours to complete.
If making the trip up to the Los Liones Trail, you will more than likely also want to plan on visiting Topanga State Park. In fact you can even make a day out of hiking the area as the Los Liones Trail meets up with some of the fire roads of the Topanga State Park, which has over 36 miles of hiking trails available for hiking, walking or horseback riding. While hiking, you will probably get a close up look at volcanic intrusions, earthquake faults, marine fossils and lots of different sedimentary formations. This park and most of its trails are located amongst the Santa Monica Mountains in Pacific Palasaides.
A 35 minute drive southwest of Paramount will bring you to Palos Verdes where you can explore the well-known Shipwreck Trail. This shore line trail extends four miles and takes about two and a half hours to complete. The highlight of this trail is seeing the Greek freighter ship the Dominator, which washed up on shore in the early 1960s. Be aware that this trail meanders over lots of rocks and the trail tends to get wet during high tides.
Closer to Paramount, in Long Beach you can explore the 105 acre El Dorado Nature Center and Trail System. There are two miles of wilderness trails on the grounds to explore as well as an educational center that offers guided hikes. Ozark Trail Customer Service