Tracing the Los Angeles/Orange County Border
Coyote Creek joins the San Gabriel about six miles from the ocean, in the northeast corner of Long Beach. Tho’ the view from the bike path is mostly concrete, it’s still a pleasant ride; keep heading north, even tho’ it looks as though the path is ending – it goes a lot further than you think. When it finally does terminate, you’ll be in a dismal industrial area – but you’re only a few blocks from the City of La Mirada, and its friendly bikepath, to the northeast.
At the southern end of Coyote Creek, the path, like the creek, joins the San Gabriel. See the Mid San Gabriel Trail page on this web site. Thomas Guide, pages 737, 767, 796.
Nearest current weather conditions (click for full weather report):
Very few cyclists ever send in comments about this path — it’s surprising, too, because it’s one of the most traveled routes listed on this web site (at least it always has a lot of riders whenever I visit it). Maybe we want to keep it to ourselves!
The Coyote Creek Path seems to be the choice of serious riders — anyway, it has lots of groups with matching shirts and lots of colorful gear. Plus long, straight stretches with few distractions.
Coyote Creek bike trail has allowed me to commute from Brea to CAl State Long Beach. I take Imperial Hwy West, South on Beach Blvd, West on Rosecrans and South on the river trail. This makes for a nice 22 mile ride to and from work. For a long loop, i have taken the same path and then South on PCH to the Santa Ana River Trail North back to Brea with the help of a couple side streets and a grueling climb over State College and Bastanchuery. This ends up being about a 58 mile loop. Watch out for the cars on Imperial. Kevin
The path does offer some extremes — parts are peaceful and serene, near the northern end it gets pretty ugly (i.e., industrial), and in between runs the gamut from well-kept backyards to green spaces to light commercial areas.
Like its neighbor, the San Gabriel River, Coyote Creek has a number of parks lining its banks. On the right is a nice one: Cerritos Regional Sports Park.
I live near Bolsa Chica and Hail in Huntington Beach and work in Cerritos near the Civic Center. I ride this path twice a week, sometimes three times. Although it is a few miles longer then street surface and I have head winds riding home, it is far better then fighting traffic and traffic lights. One of my favorite sections is looking over at the “605 Parking Lot” in the morning riding to work and in the evening riding home…I love riding my bike.
Coyote Creek – not a bad ride at all. I enjoyed the section above Cerritos Park. Fine pavement, sweeping curves, a Brutalist flood control channel, few distractions – aside from a stiff headwind coming donw.
For the most recent and correct trail info, check out the corrected map, my review and photo set at:
The upper trail end is on Foster St. in SFS. It’s about 5 miles down and another 5 miles up from Cerritos Park.
Hook the upper end to the Whittier Greenway, and that to the SGRT and you have a large loop ride.
TrailBear 11.7.2010
where?
I ride the San Gabriel river trail two to three times a week and one of the disgusting parts of this trail is the morons who are riding the motorbikes, motor scooters etc. on the trail, I am working with some of the local officials to get rid of these clowns, one of the reasons I ride the river trails is to get away from all the vehicle pollution, any help any of the bicycle riders can give would be appreciated, we need to keep bicycle trails for bicycles, thanks Jim
I live in the Whittier/La Habra area. This trail is something that we dreamed about when I was a kid- a bike path all the way to the beach with no cars. My wife and I have ridden the Coyote Creek trail several times. The trip from Foster Road in La Mirada to Seal Beach takes right around two hours for us, a couple of *ahem* mature riders on comfort bikes. What makes it sweeter, is that the trail ends right at that little restaurant by the Seal Beach jetty. It’s a perfect Sunday trip- down to the beach, lunch at the cafe, and home with tons of time left in the day.
JWM
I rode this path today from La palma ave to Seal Beach and back. Its a little rough at first but then it gets better. I especially like the part down by 7th street in long beach. Here the cement bottom of the river stops and the rest looks like a real river. In fact there are lots of birds likes ducks and cranes.. Some birds diving for fish. So many birds you have to stop and look.
Trail head is very near Frontier Park in La Mirada (Foster Road & Marquardt) and near Biola University Campus and La Mirada Creek Trail.
I ride Coyote Creek and the SGRT regularly. I live near the entrance to CC on Orangethorpe. It’s 20 miles round-trip to Seal Beach and back. I have noticed an increase in the number of homeless pitching camp on the CC trail. I’ve been riding it for 10 years and have never had a problem with safety.
Walk from Katella to the 91two three times a week, great walk except for the homless/bumms throwing all of their empty bottles and trash all over. Otherwise great on a nice summer day..