Hiking the trails of Sea Ranch is high on the list of most visitors--and the good news is the main bluff trail is steps off the deck of Vista Del Mar. This is a place to slow down and enjoy simpler pleasures. Here the focus is on nature; its land, sea and sky; hiking on bluffs and beaches; wildlife; fauna and flora. Sea Ranch is a pretty relaxed place as far as style goes. A comfy pair of pants is good if you want to get down and smell the flowers or investigate a tidepool. When you are out on the trails for any length of time, a small backpack might be useful to carry water, a light jacket and perhaps a snack.

​​Currently, there are four interpretive trails with brochures describing historic and natural features:

• The San Andreas Fault interpretive trail (pdf) is just above the Hot Spot on River Beach Road. It features four ridges with associated swales and hummocks (created by parallel faults), a sag pond, broken trees and displaced/recaptured drainage channels from 1906 and earlier earthquakes. The trail also has historical remnants from 1890s logging of original ancient redwoods to explore (such as springboard notches and skid trails), as well as forest ecology of unique over story, under story and ground cover, as well as stump islands colonized by redwood sorrel (oxalis). Park at the Hot Spot and walk up River Beach Road to explore the trailhead.

• The Monarch Glen interpretive trail (pdf) is on the west side of Highway 1 just north of milepost 56.06. Its trailhead is reached by walking along the cypress hedgerow northeast from One-Eyed Jacks. The trail brochure describes many plants (especially shrubs and trees) along with both branches of Monarch Creek, as well as birds and other wildlife. Several unusual examples of redwood growth are also featured, as well as old Ohlson ranch sheep sorting pens and a long and 18″deep trace of original ranch road leading to one of the old red gates.

• The Sag Pond interpretive guide (pdf) describes habitat, plants, and animals that might be found in the unique aquatic habitat of our eight sag ponds, and talks about the geologic processes that create the sag ponds. There are discussions of symbiotic relationships among plants that are found in only one place on The Sea Ranch. Five of the ponds are accessed by spur trails from other trails and from roads and feature the distinctive sag pond marker posts.

• The Seascape Guide (pdf) describes sights along a section of the Bluff Trail (from approximately trail marker 6 to trail marker 10) from just north of Galleons Reach to Navigators Reach. The guide explains many of the marine mammals and birds that may be seen along the shore, as well as geographical features. It describes the ecology of the coastal upwelling zone along our shore, and the California Coastal National Monument, which includes all the islands offshore California.