Solstice Canyon Hike in Malibu

One of the places I have always wanted to visit and to hike was the epic trails of Malibu. They have sprawling green hills, amazing views of the coast line and even plenty of waterfalls. For some reason I had never found myself out there, but I corrected that this last weekend by spending all of Saturday conquering three of the area’s best trails with four other members of the team. The first of these trails that we went to was Solstice Canyon.

Solstice Canyon is one of the area’s most popular hikes and has many different trails, making your time there as long or as short as you would like. For us we went on the Solstice Canyon Trail that takes you to the old burned down house and the waterfall then returned on the rising sun trail which gains a fair amount of elevation before dropping you back at the start.

When we went on a weekend and got there around 9AM, both the parking lot and the overflow lots were full. We ended up being able to park on a small turn out about a quarter of a mile above the overflow, so while this added about a half mile to our journey it was nice that they had so many different parking options, being that it is right off of PCH. Plus, you can’t beat the view from where we parked our car.

This hike is really beautiful and if you do not add the rising sun trail it is easy enough for almost any member of the family. There is a nice little creek that your follow most of the way, lots of shade from the trees that line the road and a different pieces of urban decay that you can see. About a mile into the hike you reach the old burned down house that was built in the fifties and was burned down in the 80s.

It must have been a real mansion when it was in its heyday as the grounds of the house seem very large and are fun to walk around and explore.  There are all sorts of things to see ranging from the fireplace to a bathtub and even what resembles an old dam. It is a really cool place to explore.

From there you can proceed up to the waterfall which isn’t more than 100 yards from the old house. It is a really nice waterfall, about 30 feet tall with a fair amount of water in it when we went. This is a great place to have lunch before heading back, you can see the full group in the below shot.

From there we went up the rising sun trail which is a good amount of elevation in the first half mile. It will take you up over the old house and you can see the ruins from above as you continue to wind up about 700 feet of elevation.

When you plateau you will have a good view of the ocean and surrounding area, there are some extravagant houses here, before heading back to the parking lot. Make sure you realize that this portion of the trail has absolutely no shade. If you go during the summer months you will have a really hard time getting out of the sun if you need to, so just add that into your preparations.

Solstice Canyon is a hike that should be on everyone’s list. It has enough things to see that it is even a great choice for families to take their kids too. Check out the rest of the pictures and get directions below.

Duration: 2 hours and 22 minutes
Length: 4.6 miles
Total Elevation Gain: 982 ft
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate depending on trails
Trail map: Click Here

Get Directions