Bluff Cove Trailhead

On our list of the best activities in Los Angeles.

A fifth-of-a-mile trail off Paseo del Mar drops down to Bluff Cove, an emerald-colored inlet ringed by a multicolored cliff wall streaked gray where blasting powder scarred the rock cutting the coast road through in 1923. Tide pools and a small rock arch sit exposed at low tide, and a kelp forest just offshore draws scuba divers and spearfishers past the pebble beach. The path continues south past the cove into the Palos Verdes Estate Shoreline Preserve, where a rusting shipwreck sits on the sand along what locals call the Shipwreck Hiking Trail. No restrooms or other services sit along the route.