Nicholas Flat Trail

The Nicholas Flat Trail climbs relentlessly from the Leo Carrillo beach campground to a remote chaparral plateau in the Santa Monica Mountains, gaining 1,800 feet through a landscape of coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and oak woodland that represents the wild backcountry behind the famous Malibu coast. The trail rewards persistence with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, Point Dume, and the Channel Islands visible on clear days, as well as access to Nicholas Flat itself, a broad seasonal meadow ringed by valley oaks and centered on a pond that attracts wildlife from miles around. California condors are occasionally spotted soaring over the ridge crest, taking advantage of thermal updrafts from the coast below, making this one of the better condor-watching hikes in the greater Los Angeles area. The chaparral communities along the trail include chamise, toyon, laurel sumac, and several species of ceanothus whose blue flower clusters perfume the hillsides in spring. Mule deer and coyotes are regularly encountered throughout the route, and mountain lions inhabit the range though encounters are exceedingly rare. The trail can be brutally hot in summer and fire risk is extreme in fall; the best hiking season runs from November through June when temperatures are moderate and wildflowers appear in late winter and spring. This is among the longest and most challenging hikes in the Los Angeles coastal state parks.