Take a Hike with Bay Nature's New Trailfinder

BayNature's new Trailfinder is an easy-to-use online guide to Bay Area parks and trails, from the people who publish Bay Nature magazine. Designed to be a "one-stop shop" for information about hikes and outings in the Bay Area, the BayNature Trailfinder will help people find hikes that suit their interests and needs, whether they're looking for trails with waterfalls, wildflowers, or birds; or for kid-friendly, bike-friendly, and disabled-accessible outings throughout the ten-county Bay Area.

The Bay Nature Trailfinder is found on BayNature.org and features hundreds of Bay Area trails, parks, and open-space areas, with over a thousand trailheads in 425 parks from Sonoma to Santa Cruz, from San Francisco to Solano County. Find your way to more than 50 East Bay regional parks, or to every trail at Point Reyes National Seashore, or to the best waterfall hikes.

The Bay Nature "Trailblazers" — a team of local trails experts such as naturalist Jules Evens and family hiking guru Laure Latham — will add new hikes to the Trailfinder throughout the year. Site visitors can save favorite hikes for future use, comment on them, and share them with friends and the Trailfinder community.

The Bay Nature Trailfinder also: includes driving and transit directions to trailheads; features recent wildlife sightings; provides information on upcoming guided walks, classes and volunteer opportunities from Bay Nature's regional nature-related events calendar; highlights local organizations that are working to protect parks and trails.

The Bay Nature Trailfinder is an innovative collaboration between Bay Nature Institute, Transit & Trails (a project of the Bay Area Open Space Council), local startup iNaturalist, and mapmakers GreenInfo Network (utilizing enhanced mapping from the group's newly-upgraded ParkInfo web portal). Working together, these local nonprofit groups have created a comprehensive trail guide that's immediately useful to anyone who wants to get outdoors. It also serves the local conservation community by giving casual hikers the information they need to become park stewards and advocates.

The Bay Nature Trailfinder is funded by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and sponsored by the Regional Parks Foundation, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and ClifBar & Company. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available.

Launched in January 2001, Bay Nature is a full-color quarterly magazine dedicated to the informed and joyful exploration of the natural world of the Bay Area. It is available by subscription and at bookstores, newsstands and park visitor centers throughout the Bay Area. For more information, please contact Beth Slatkin at beth@baynature.org or 510-528-8550 x207.