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PHOTOGRAPH BY ED CALLAERT, ALAMY
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By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor
When I was a kid, I imagined that every hiking trail meandered along some ancient route plotted by wolves and woolly mammoths. Part of what made walking in the woods so exciting to me was the idea that I might follow a trail into a misty vale and be taken in by a troop of well-dressed foxes.
But most hiking trails are made by people—and most people would be lost without them. It’s a human paradox that in order to run wild we need a path to guide us. Still, thank goodness for trailmakers.
California’s Condor Trail is something of an upstart—a continuous thread of trails and roads that has become a 400-mile thru-hiking route (above in Monterey County). Unlike the well-established John Muir or Pacific Crest Trails, it lacks proper signage and maintenance. But it’s loaded with sights as it winds through seven wilderness areas, past colonies of elephant seals, and across the ancestral lands of the Chumash, Salinan, Esselen, Tataviam, and Costanoan peoples.
Writer Miles Griffis tracks the trail’s origins and development. The dream of its wayfinders was to form a route that showcased the highlights of Los Padres National Forest (north of Los Angeles), from the towering peaks of the Sespe Wilderness to the dense redwood stands of Big Sur—all home to the state’s iconic endangered species, the California condor. Now the trail has a guidebook.
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