Hiking in Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Los Angeles County (Santa Monica Mountains)

Hillcrest Open Space Loop:

Hillcrest Open Space Loop
Moderate 5 mile loop through a costal sage environment with a total elevation gain/loss of about 1400 feet. This hike has lots of up and down sections, some fairly steep, especially in the first half.
We hiked on this hike in June 2007. It is really pretty and the work out is just excellent. When we selected this hike, we weren't sure about the toughness, scenary in this hike but we all were plesantly surprised by doing it.

How to get there: The trailhead is on the north side of Hillcrest Drive, about 1/3 of a mile west of Westlake Blvd. Parking is not permitted on this section of Hillcrest, but is allowed on nearby residential streets.

Arial Image of the Hillcrest Open Space trailhead:

hillcrest westlake hiking

Here is a Flash of 150 degree view of Westlake and Thousand Oaks.
Macromedia Flash is really wonderful. Can you imagine the size of the following view/object? It is 55k!!!

Here is a picture-slideshow in Flash. I hope you have Flash player.