125 of the best trails throughout the Los Angeles metro area - Easy-to-use, well-organized guide to hiking in the greater Los Angeles area - Hikes feature ocean views, waterfalls, coastal canyons, native grasslands, rocky peaks, desert wildflowers, and more - 1 percent of sales benefit Western National Parks Association In Southern California, the city of Los Angeles alone covers more than 500 square miles. Yet beyond the freeways and suburbia, there is a surprising amount of hikeable green space and wilderness. This new guide details trails in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the world’s largest urban national park stretching from the Pacific Coast right into Hollywood itself; the Santa Susana Mountains in Los Padres National Forest; Angeles National Forest, including the San Gabriels and Mount San Antonio, the highest point in Los Angeles County; the striking desert landscape of Antelope Valley; the Santa Ana Mountains; portions of the San Bernardino Mountains; Chino Hills State Park; and slivers of green space and city parks such as famed Griffith Park. **Mountaineers Books designates 1 percent of the sales of select guidebooks in our Day Hiking series toward conservation and trail maintenance. For this book, our 1 percent of sales is going to Western National Parks Association . "I've been to L.A. twice in my life and have gone through this book as if Tolkien wrote it as a companion to "The Hobbit"; it's captivating. Seriously." - Nick LeFort, Gear Institute The founder of website Modern Hiker and author of Day Hiking: Los Angeles, (Schreiner) may have been raised in Connecticut and educated in Boston, but he can pinpoint the region's seasonal shifts better than some California lifers could. He speaks of the sage scrub fragrance that fills the foothills during winter, the wildflowers that bloom in spring and the clouds that settle over mountaintops as a prelude to gruesome summers. He also knows a secret of summer nature that's kept in the higher altitudes of the San Gabriel Mountains: shade-providing pine trees and hills that aren't "ugly brown." - L.A. Weekly Casey Schreiner is the founder and editor in chief of ModernHiker.com, the most-read hiking blog on the West Coast, where he encourages city-dwellers to explore the parks, open spaces, and wilderness areas that are often right in their backyards. He is also the author of Day Hiking: Los Angeles (Mountaineers Books, 2016), focused on 125 hikes around one of the country’s largest cities. Casey has been featured in national media for his reporting work uncovering outdoor vandals via social media, and he also works as an award-winning television writer, producer, and on-air personality. He lives in Los Angeles. Visit him online at ModernHiker.com and on Instagram and Facebook @modernhiker.