Customer Reviews

100 Classic Hikes Southern California

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Southern California is not all freeways, suburbs, and smog. It features some of the most diverse and fantastic landscape in the country. When I first moved to Riverside in 1988, I was stunned at the sheer numbers of people; I had never been on a 6 lane freeway before, much less come to a stop on one, but I quickly discovered many great trails and mountains which have kept me here ever since. One of the great joys of reading '100 Classic Hikes in Southern California' was revisiting so many of these scenic locales. This may be my new favorite guidebook for hiking in this region.

One of the best features of this book are the numerous color pictures; one for virtually every trail described in the book, and many others as well. These are quality shots that allow even the armchair hikers among us to revel in the scenery. In addition this book features nice color topographical maps with the trail clearly delineated. The actual route descriptions are very thorough, and driving directions are for the most part adequate. In short, this book is almost perfect.

Almost, but not quite. I did notice a few mileage errors and several places where the maps were slightly misleading, usually by failing to show an alternative loop route. (For the record, described routes are mapped as thick red dashes and other routes or side trails are usually, where noted, delineated by a thin black dotted line.) One specific trail description, Ewoldsen trail and McWay Falls, illustrates both these points. The author lists total mileage for this combined route as 3 miles: following his description, however, actual mileage is at least 4.6. However, one can also make a loop of the interior hike, rather than just go out and back, and this adds only 1.3 miles, but the connecting route is not shown in this instance. As an aside, parking is no longer free at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State park, but no guidebook can keep up with California's changing fee structures.

These are fairly minor points however. Even where mileage is off a bit (and in most cases the author is spot on) or the map does not show connecting routes, you will not get lost on these trails if you use the book. And its many good features more than make up for a few flaws. Perhaps the hardest part of writing a '100 Classic Hikes' book is trying to pick the best, a very subjective process indeed. But having hiked almost 2/3 of the trails Reidell recommends here, and explored parts of many others, I must admit the author succeeded in this difficult task. This is an excellent book for hikers and anyone who wants to find out about some of the nicer parts of Southern California. Get it and enjoy.

I'll admit that I have already done quite a few of the hikes in this book before I bought it, but the TOC of hikes listed in Amazon showed quite a few that I have never tried before. I decided to give this book a shot.

I was pleasantly surprised by the author's selection of the "100 Classic Hikes" and I think he did an excellent job of describing the overall difficulty and length of the hikes. I also liked the fact that he mixed in more difficult hikes with easier hikes. With my two younger kids it is nice to take them on easier hikes like Cabrillo National Monument's Bayside Trail.

The author clearly knows the best areas to hike in Southern California and his knowledge is apparent. I liked the fact that he included some nice pictures which make me nostalgic for some of my favorite hikes (especially in the Malibu mountains).

For the most part, I found the driving directions to be quite accurate and manage to get you to the trail head. I know that this is often the most difficult part of writing such books, so I always give a little leeway in this area.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring the many great hikes in Southern California. You will discover many great locations that many Socal residents don't even know exist.

The good part about this book is the break down at the start telling you the basic facts about the hike. I especially like that it tells you about available water, something most other books don't tell you. I also like the information about the map location and the park system the hike is in. The bad part about the book has to do with the hikes in the book. I agree with the other reviewer about a large number of hikes being in the central California area. Also there are a number of hikes on the Channel Islands. I was looking for a book that had a lot more hikes in the southern California area.

My daughter wanted this book for a hiking club; everyone loves it and they are all purchasing their own copy!

This book has beautiful pictures and accurate descriptions of the hikes (from what I can tell of the ones I've done). However, fully a third of the hikes described are in Central California - Monterey, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, etc. There are plenty of guidebooks for those areas, so I was surprised and disappointed to see so much of this book devoted to them. As a SoCal resident, I'd wouldn't expect to see a book titled Southern California Hikes to include hikes that require a drive of 5 hours or more from SoCal. It's a lovely, useful book, but with a ton of wasted space for this hiker.