Before summer officially comes to an end, I wanted to make sure to squeeze in more recaps from my summer travels. I don’t know why, but travel recaps always seem to take the longest.

I went to Los Angeles twice this summer to spend time with college friends that live out there and other college friends who decided to visit those college friends. I’m no LA expert, but I did go on this gorgeous hike in the Pacific Palisades and had to share.

Apparently it’s a pretty standard LA hike that everyone who lives there has done. But considering all of my hiking in the past year has been in the desert this past year, Temescal Canyon was very refreshing, fun and exciting for me! The views are fantastic the whole way so in the words of my friend Chelsea, it’s great because you can stop whenever you want. The 2.6 mile loop has some steep climbs that can be tough, but plenty of places to take a breather and get a good view.

We ascended on Viewpoint Trail (starting in Temescal Gateway Park, crossing into Topanga State Park then coming back into Temescal Gateway on the way back) which had all the beautiful ocean views and descended on Temescal Canyon Trail which was much more wooded. It was crazy how different the two sides of the loop were. One side was beachy and summery and the other side was like stepping into a fall forest. Such a unique experience!

I couldn’t get over how cool it was to see the ocean on a hike — yes, that is the Pacific Ocean in the background.  I had seen so many cool pictures of the coast from this hike, but we went on a somewhat smoggy day and I didn’t capture the separation of ocean and sky like I wanted to. But, if you follow the coastline you can see it curves around and that’s where the ocean is! This is definitely another “the pictures don’t do it justice” hike, and that’s okay with me.

The hike also offers several “off-loop” trails for optional extensions to the hike. Such as the one pictured above, a quick half-mile hike to “Skull Rock,” which apparently is supposed to look like a skull. We’re not sure we see it, but it looks like a good place to sit for a while!

It was a quick trip to LA, so other than the hike, we just did a lot of eating, went to a 4D movie (woah, I could probably write a whole post on just that if anyone wants to hear me rant) and spent an evening at Manhattan Beach, where the Instagrams above, were taken. If you want to see more like them, follow along here!

What’s your favorite type of summer trip — beach relaxation, foodie tour or adventurous exploration?