hikespeak

For pleasant hiking along creeks in canyons shaded by coast redwoods, you can't do much better than Limekiln State Park in Big Sur. A trio of short trails in the park provide variety and great scenery on a 2.65-mile round trip hike with 250 feet of elevation gain. Hare Creek Trail is a supremely peaceful creekside stroll, as is Limekiln Trail, which heads to historic lime kilns that the... Read more.

Most of Big Sur's beautify is obvious – tall green mountains, a ragged coastline, and lots of ocean blue, but some attractive features are practically hidden, and Pfeiffer Beach is one such gem. Pfeiffer Beach has great sand and iconic rock formations, but you won't see this beach from Highway One (or its begging-to-be-photographed wave-tunneled rocks). Once you make it to the parking... Read more.

Big Sur has a dramatic rocky coastline that's stunning to look at, but can be challenging to access. Where do you go when you want to take a good walk on the beach? To dip your toes in Big Sur's sand, there may be nowhere better to visit than Sand Dollar Beach. This half-mile long beach (or longer if the tide is out) is a crescent-shaped arc of pale sand between the blue water of the... Read more.

Cape Woolamai is a 308-hectar (760-acre) reserve established in 1968. The preserve protects the southeast end of Phillip Island and also the highest point on the island, a 112-meters-above-sea-level crest on the bluffs at the top of Cape Woolamai. The summit isn't much of a climb, so sandy beaches and stunning granite cliffs are the real draw for hikers. Thanks to a small network of... Read more.

In the morning and early afternoon, Summerlands Beach is a low-key place to visit, with a surf break and lots of sand for building castles or having a picnic. In the evening, the beach transforms as visitors gather to watch the Penguin Parade, a nightly return of thousands of little penguins that commute up the beach to burrows in the surrounding bluffs. While you would need to reserve a... Read more.

Watkin Powell Track offers a short walk to a secluded beach near Otamure Bay Campground in Northland, New Zealand, and it is 1/3 of a kilometer round trip. This is an over-the-top hike that you'll walk up, over, and down a small ridge to reach the beach at Tauwhara Bay. Once there, you can snorkel and swim to your heart's content, or continue walking along a crescent-shaped cove that faces... Read more.

The Northland region of New Zealand has a remote, sparsely developed coastline with oceanfront environments that are pure heaven for campers. Otamure Bay Campground is located on the east coast of Northland near the town of Whananaki North, about 40 kilometers from Whangarei or 200 kilometers from Auckland. The Department of Conservation Campground has a hundred campsites on grassy plots... Read more.