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Running trails in Imperial Beach, CA
Imperial Beach has 5 trails in the directory — 1 open 24 hours. 3 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 895 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
4.5 ★★★★★ 581 reviews
Coastal preserve with a beach, marshes & wildlife, plus a visitor center with trail maps.
Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge
4.6 ★★★★★ 257 reviews
Wetland at the confluence of the Tijuana River and the sea, with walking trails, a visitor center, and a beach.
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Imperial Beach
- Match the surface to your legs. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one.
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 1 trail in Imperial Beach is open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 3 of the 5 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm.
- The small things that decide it. 2 that runners describe as quiet and 2 dog-friendly. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Imperial Beach trails by type
Running trails near Imperial Beach
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.