Wildwood Park & Paradise Falls

Paradise Falls Wildwood Park, Wildwood Canyon Trail

Wildwood Park is located in the City of Thousands Oaks, managed by the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency.  This park is dog friendly and includes multi-use trails for hiking, mountain biking and equestrian use; however some trails are hiking only (shown on trail map).  Trails pass through a number of habitats from grasslands to coastal scrub, chaparral to riparian and oak woodlands--to name just a few.  The park was the former filming site for movies and some TV shows including "Wagon Train", "The Riffleman" and "Gunsmoke".  Parking lot is on the corner of Big Sky Drive & W. Avenida de los Arboles--you should find printed trail maps at the kiosk, same trail map is included in a link at the end of this page.  Click any picture on this page below to enlarge.

Below, beautiful picnic area along the creek.  This is only minutes from Paradise Falls.  Good to bring mosquito repellant (as in all riparian or stream side habitats).   

Streamside picnic area on Wildwood Canyon Trail between Tepee Trail and Paradise Falls

Creek view from picnic bench

Stream alongside Wildwood Canyon Trail

A few pics from the trails near the waterfall below and one from Mesa Trail showing the difference in habitats to the falls.  We hiked from the main entrance parking lot to Mesa Trail, N Tepee Trail, to Tepee Trail turning right on Wildwood Canyon Trail to the waterfalls.  On the return trip we took Wildwood Canyon Trail passing the junctions with Lynnmere Trail, Indian Cave Trail, Moonridge Trail, passing thru a second parking lot located in the middle of the park designated as "Parking Lot 1" on the signs, the public access raod (which is the entrance to "parking lot 1") to Mesa Trail and then back to the parking lot at the Main Entrance (Big Sky Dr & W Avenida de los Arboles). 

In hindsight it would have been better to park in "Parking Lot 1" (the lot 1 access road is thru an iron gate at the Main Entrance parking) and then doing the hike in the exact reverse (or just hiking Wildwood Canyon Trail from parking lot 1 to the falls and then back the same way). 

Parking lot 1 is very close to the Indian Caves and a Nature Center--this section of the hike is more woodlands, streamside, riparian than Mesa Trail route which is more thru the scrub and grasslands areas of the park.  However the Mesa Trail route does have some sweeping open space views, interesting geology and I've read the wildflowers are great closer to the Spring months (I'm guessing if weather conditions are right). 

Cut-across from Tepee Trail to Wildwood Canyon Trail & staircase to Paradise Falls

Staircase descending from Wildwood Canyon Trail to Paradise Falls

Mount Clef Ridge, view from Mesa Trail near parking lot at Big Sky Dr & Avenida De Los Arboles

More Waterfall Hikes on CaOpenspace:   Solstice Canyon Falls   La Jolla Canyon Falls   Sturtevant Falls   Holy Jim Falls External Links (to other sites) on Wildwood Park:   http://www.cosf.org/website/html/wildwood.html   Printable trail Mail on cospf.org      Hiking Blog Pages on Wildwood Park:       Nobody Hikes in LA

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More Wildwood Park Trail Pictures:

On Mesa Trail, view of parking lot at the main entrance	"Parking Lot 1", use the dirt road thru the iron gates in main entrance parking lot to get here	Hiking down the trail on the switchbacks from "lot 1", view of the Nature Center
Not far from Lot #1, Indian Cave Trail (cave you can walk thru)	On N Tepe Trail near Mesa Trail	N Tepe Trail at Stagecoach Bluff Trail junction
Moonridge Trail (at junction with N Tepee Trail)	Tepee Rest area at the junction of N Tepee Trail & Tepee Trail	Tepee Trail view (right of the Tepee), signs point this way to Paradise Falls
Sign on Tepee Trail to the left of the Tepee, not stated but this route also goes to the waterfall	Left at the Tepee, heading down Tepee Trail to the junction of Tepee, Lynnmere & Wildwood Cyn Trails	Lynnmere Trail at Wildwood Cyn Tr (take Wildwood past picnic area to falls-pics at top of this page)