The hook
The largest saltwater marsh on the California coast survives right across the highway from the Huntington Beach surf, alive with hundreds of kinds of birds.
01Why it's worth it
Bolsa Chica is fourteen hundred acres of tidal marsh and open water, the biggest coastal saltwater wetland left in the state, and its survival is a small miracle: this was fifty-year-old oil fields until a decades-long fight by local conservation groups against developers ended in a major restoration, and in 2006 they cut a new tidal inlet and let the ocean back in. Now it's one of Southern California's great birding spots, more than two hundred and thirty species passing through on the Pacific Flyway, with endangered least terns, snowy plovers, and Ridgway's rails nesting in summer. Flat trails and a footbridge loop the water, and the whole thing sits improbably between the coast highway and the suburbs, herons and egrets working the shallows a stone's throw from the beach crowds.
02How to experience it
It's on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, about seven hours from the Bay, with a free lot across from the beach. The loop trails are flat and easy. Come early for calm water and active birds, and in winter or spring for the migration. Bring binoculars. It pairs with a Huntington Beach day.