The Memorial Day weekend actually worked out fantastically for fun close to home activities. We hiked the Gardenland Trail to the overlook at San Vicente Mountain Park, which was a great variation to our usual Sullivan Canyon routine. The Garden Land Trail is a lot steeper than the fire road, so I was very happy in my last minute decision to change out of flip flops and into hiking shoes. I was also quite happy to be hiking it rather than biking it on my first visit. The climb is quite a workout! The Gardenland Trail isn’t as popular as the fire road so it gets a lot less traffic, which is great if you want to feel like your outside of the city for a few moments.

Here’s some more info for hiking in the Santa Monica area:

• Trail Map from Canyon Back Alliance
• Info from the Mandeville Canyon Association