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| El Capitan, Yosemite National Park. |
Among the best ways to see Channel Islands National Park’s major sights is via a day hike. Though the park covers several islands, four short trails allow visitors to enjoy the park’s major highlights – migrating blue whales, fascinating tide pools, impressive wildflower displays, and the rare Torrey pine tree.
Prime Desert Woodland Preserve Nature Trail
Prime Desert Woodland Preserve
If concerned about the safety of hiking with young children in remote country, don’t fret. There’s probably a quality park or preserve right in your city limits. For those lucky enough to live in Palmdale-Lancaster, Calif., there’s just such a site, the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve. The pristine natural area sits smack dab in the middle of a metro area of nearly 350,000 residents.
Big Trees Trail
Sequoia National Park
Families can hike among the planet’s largest trees – a survivor from the age of dinosaurs – on the Big Trees Trail at Sequoia National Park. The 1.2-mile loop includes a museum about the giant sequoias, which can grow 26 stories high and live more than 18 centuries.
El Capitan
Yosemite National Park
Among Yosemite National Park’s many iconic sights is El Capitan. A granite monolith towering over Yosemite Valley’s northwest side, El Capitan peaks out at 7569 feet. Formed about 100 million years ago when molten rock underground cooled and hardened, uplift and erosion since has exposed the giant rock, which is now a favorite challenge of climbers.
Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks series.
