Touring *

From Interstate 405, take the Valley View Street/Bolsa Chica Road exit and go south to get onto Bolsa Chica Road. Four miles south, turn right at the "T" intersection on Warner Avenue. After 1.25 miles, Warner meets the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). Cross the highway and turn right on Pacific Avenue, then left at Second Street, and park in the tiny free lot. (Get there early, or you will have to drive south down the Pacific Coast Highway and pay $5 to park at one of the big lots next to the beach.) To park at Huntington Beach, exit Interstate 405 at Highway 39 (Beach Boulevard) and head south. Two and a half miles down at the Ellis/Main Street intersection, turn right onto Main Street, which takes you the remaining three miles down to the coast. Park at the beach near the Huntington Pier. Head north to skate the Bolsa Chica State Beach Trail. Map: Orange County Bikeway Map, available free by calling the County of Orange, EMA/Transportation Planning office at (714) 834-3111.

The Bolsa Chica State Beach Trail connects Huntington Harbor with the Huntington Pier, five miles down the coast. The uncrowded path borders the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve just across the coastal highway, where the sight of boundless acres of marshland and dunes create a slightly isolated atmosphere. A generous 17-foot-wide asphalt avenue is dedicated to bicyclists, skaters, and pedestrians. It is not unusual to see young families taking advantage of the trail for a healthy outing, with dad jogging, mom on in-lines pushing a baby stroller, and junior riding a mini mountain bike. From the Second Street parking lot, skate south to the cul-de-sac behind the Jack-In-The-Box, where the beach trail starts. With an early start on a foggy morn, you can enjoy the two miles of bikeway at your desired pace without having to navigate through crowds. Signs warn, "10 mph maximum, 5 mph when pedestrians present." The path extends down the edge of the parking lots, sheltered from blowing sand on the beach side by a low wall. Rest room facilities, showers, and snack bars are plentiful. Approaching the camping and RV area, the pavement gets noticeably rougher, and at the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, a quarter-mile stretch of six-foot-wide rough asphalt seems to go on forever where it crosses through low dunes just below the coastal highway. The Pacific Ocean surf crashes far across the sands of the wide beach, while surfers ride the waves and swells. The trail passes through a grassy knoll where split pedestrian and bicycle paths offer an improved skating surface, as well as overlook views of the ocean. Approaching popular Huntington Beach, activity begins to pick up, and the trail passes through a narrow, grassy park decorated with tall palm trees and positioned on a low cliff above the beach. Across the street, beachside buildings replace the ecological preserve, and on the horizon to the south, the Huntington Pier comes into your sight line. The trail soon drops down to beach level and embarks on a rough route to the pier, where a 20-foot-wide asphalt boardwalk awaits. The Huntington Beach scene attracts such high-density crowds that flashing yellow lights are turned on as a traffic control measure. The trip from here to the Santa Ana River is detailed in the South Huntington Beach listing, page 370.

• Orange County Bikeway Map - PDF Map

• Beach to Centennial Regional Park
• South Huntington Beach
• Balboa Peninsula Trail