Side street in Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach houses
More Hermosa Beach houses
This was perhaps the most interesting segment of this wonderful path. We parked the car on a street about a block above the beach and rode in a bike lane on that street until we came to a flat side street leading to the beach area. I am not really sure whether we were in south Manhattan Beach or north Hermosa Beach. It is a crowded area, but it was perfectly possible to comfortably ride our bike through the pedestrians. However, one must walk the bike at the Hermosa Beach Pier where there are signal lights at intervals indicating whether one may ride or must walk. And we only saw one or two cyclists disobeying this ordinance.
There are houses built right up against the path here with patios where people may sit close to the passing scene. I am not sure if these are summer homes or if people live in them year round. Most of these houses are pretty and the designs vary greatly. Near the pier there are lots of restaurants and other businesses.
A bit past the pier, following the signs we were led out to a bike lane on a city street. But before long a bike path appeared routed around some buildings and through a parking garage eventually coming out on the beach. A short way down the beach we reached the end of the path.
Route through parking garage
Red light requiring walking bicycle
Sometimes the return trip over the same route is a bit boring. But the people and the scenery were so interesting that we did not find it so in this case. We felt that we had accomplished something in doing almost the entire path, even though we split it up, and since we have not spent a lot of time in southern California, we found this area an interesting slice of southern California culture from the many beach volleyball sites to the splendid views of the Pacific Ocean. Please click here to see a video of this trip on YouTube.
The end of the trail
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