Explore the best rated trails in Santa Paula, CA, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Omer Rains Coastal Bike Trail and Fillmore Bike Path . With more than 29 trails covering 187 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
This short trail is a bit of an engineering marvel. Smooth pavement, beautiful scenery, and because it is within feet (separated by an impressive and artistic barrier) of Highway 101, very LOUD. Good luck if you're trying to have a conversation with a fellow rider.
Nice small capacity parking lot at the southern end. Very safe for a family outing, though a bit of caution will be needed in the one street crossing in La Conchita. At the northern end there is a beautiful park, suitable for picnics, and with nice ocean overlooks.
I ride about 20 miles/day, and found the trail a bit short, and a bit too noisy. One of my brothers, who doesn't ride at all on a regular basis, and who is less sensitive to noise than I am, found the trail "perfect". And there you have it!
My family and I came for the first time on a Sunday. Smooth ride and family friendly. Definitely obey the signs as stay on your lane. Would recommend this trail.
Easy bike ride and nice walk for families.
It was an awful trail path for walking or biking. Too many people taking up the whole path, too many unleashed dogs, and Fillmore residents loitering on path as well as off to the side of path creepily watching girls and woman while drinking beer. I felt extremely uncomfortable. Trash left all over and people don’t pick up after their dogs. I can tell you for sure that I will not take this oath trail again.
On 06NOV2022 I chose to attempt a 7(ish) mile run along the LA river starting at the trail's terminus in Long Beach. The run took me from Golden Shore up to about Willow. Nearly as soon as the trail turns north from the trailhead the nature of this trail becomes apparent - This is not a safe trail for pedestrians. There are multiple campers, addicts, feces (human and otherwise), and piles of garbage all along the trail. It is an absolute human rights atrocity. Some of the campers have built decent sites off of the trail but most have built castles of garbage and some have built literal fortresses out of the riprap that is used along the river wall. Some of the people along that route were friendly enough and said hello as I passed. Others were not welcoming and a couple were down right threatening including one that tried to block my path and stop my run. This brings up perhaps the most dangerous part - there is no way to escape the trail should trouble happen. There is a high chainlink fence that runs between trail access. If a person finds themselves being chased or assaulted they cannot get away. This portion of this trail needs to be avoided if on foot. There were a lot of cyclists and perhaps this is an option if you are moving quickly, but even then this should only be attempted if part of a large group.
This trail has the potential to be awesome, but the current issues make it downright intimidating and dangerous.
The views aren’t pretty when you leave out of the Culver City entrance to the trail, and it doesn’t particularly smell great either, but the views quickly get better, especially when you get closer to Playa De Rey beach. The beach itself is a sweet reward for a semi challenging, sometimes hilly ride. If you drive there, set your GPS to Syd Kronenthal Park for 4 hours of free parking. There’s also a rec center there with bathrooms and a fountain to refill your water bottle before your start. The entrance to the path is a steep slope, so save some energy for your exit back up it. Also, be mindful of what hour you head out as I encountered a large group of students on the path during school dismissal hours. The students were nice enough to clear a path (with some heavy bell ringing).
The trail itself is nice enough and the benches to the side are a major plus, but the little loose plant thorns on the trail made one of my tires flat. This path also had me crossing the street but there was no dedicated stop light for drivers and just had to wait for no cars to be around. Overall, won't be finding myself on this trail in the future.
I ride it quite often, by often I mean almost every sunday morning year round...
But I ride the north portion only and not all the way for a combination of reasons.
First reason is, because of the river and the freeway, the path is pretty much a wind tunnel, so you waste a lot of energy when you have crosswind or front wind just fighting the wind.
Second reason is the fact the only shades you have on most of the path are from the bridges you cross, otherwise prepare to be frying specially between June and August.
Third reason are the homeless, I never had problems with them, but probably because Sunday mornings are relatively busy so they stay put, some are not even there by the time, but I wonder if that's the same on different hours with less traffic.
So what do I do them? First I stay on Riverside and ride the Zoo Drive all the way to the Crystal Spring Dr. until I reach the Los Feliz Blvd. and that's where I join the path, yes you have to share the road with some cars trying to reach the I-5, but if you use the crossing paths on traffic light and pay attention it's all good.
From there I ride to the end of the Greentrail (Near the Dodger Stadium) and return... On my way back I always stop by the Spokes Cafe around Atwater Village area. It's a nice cafe/bike shop focused on cyclists, not the cheapest place to stop by, but the food is high quality and the environment and staff are really nice and is a great place to meet other cyclists (before the pandemic was even better to share experiences and talk about cycling and making friends).
People that drive to the path, can park by the Griffith Park or another suggestion I would give if you wanna add some miles to your ride (specially if you have a EV this tip is golden cause that's what I sometimes do when I have to charge my car), park at Burbank Town Center (so you can leave your car on one of the chargers or superchargers for tesla owners) and ride from there through the bike lanes on San Fernando Blvd. to Riverside Dr. bike lane and them join the Bike Path or do as I do going thru the Griffith Park on Zoo Dr.
I use this bike path quite often to "save legs" on my bicycle rides when heading to Santa Monica Mountains or the Valley Circle loop. Since it's mostly flat.
It's good but not perfect, for families with kids riding recreational it's great, for road cyclists not much, the asphalt have some big cracks on some areas specially near the beginning at Chandler all the way to Sepulveda Blvd area.
Some areas like the Burbank Blvd where there is the Valley Community College crossing can be annoying due to the really slow traffic lights (and traffic lights are a constant and take really long times to change).
Between Van Nuys Blvd and Lake Balboa you have some areas that I personally would avoid in less busy hours with many homeless on the surrounds and some really desert spots (it was worst in the middle of the pandemic, today is a bit better but still I would not ride too late or after sun is down around that area).
Not Water stations thru the path but many Gas Stations and Liquor Stores you can buy water on the way...
Tip: After Canoga the Bike Path goes up the Valley so if you plan to go West towards Calabasas, I recommend not going the Victory Blvd (specially on the Westfield area the asphalt is terrible, drivers don't respect and the sidewalk is completely destroyed, go South on Canoga to Ventura Blvd and use it's bike lane... Not ideal but much better and relatively safer.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Scan the QR code to get TrailLink on your phone
