Jade Chang

While Angelenos are blessed with a gorgeous web of hikes with a view, we all too often find ourselves baked by the sun, with the ocean in sight and yet tantalizingly out of reach. So how do you get a little refresher while you’re in the middle of a mountainous trek or camping excursion? With some mist from a waterfall. Here are five hiking trails in L.A. that’ll keep you cool by journey’s end with some of the area’s most impressive waterfalls. L.A. hikes with waterfalls? We can’t think of more perfect things to do to take advantage of the all-too-brief rainy season (they’re technically still visible in the summer, but you’ll find a considerably more meager flow). Just a word of caution: Waterfalls are strongest when winter snow up in the mountains melts in the spring, or after it rains. That’s also when they’re at their most dangerous; we wouldn’t recommend tackling these trails immediately after it’s rained—wait just a couple of days to be safe, particularly if you’re a novice hiker.