Mission Trail Nature Preserve

The Mission Trail Nature Preserve is a 34-acre park that has 3 miles of hiking trails and a native plant garden. Here you’ll find a Monterey pine forest, coast live oak woodland, wetland, willow riparian corridor and a coastal prairie.

The trailhead is the place to start for a 4+ mile loop that starts in the forest. Keep going into Carmel to Ocean Avenue and then down to Carmel beach, which is one of the few places where dogs can play off-leash as long as they are under voice command control.

From there (on leash), you can hike around Carmel point and the lagoon, and then head back up Mission Trail.