Home › California › Pacific Grove
Running trails in Pacific Grove, CA
Pacific Grove has 9 trails in the directory — 1 paved and 4 on crushed gravel or dirt, 1 boardwalk, 2 shaded, and 3 open 24 hours. 7 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 7,739 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.
Asilomar State Beach
4.8 ★★★★★ 3,166 reviews
Tranquil place featuring a 1-mi. stretch of sandy beach & rocky coves, along with a walking trail.
Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary
4.5 ★★★★★ 1,894 reviews
Preserve with pine, cypress & eucalyptus trees sheltering thousands of monarch butterflies Oct–Mar.
Berwick Park
4.7 ★★★★★ 1,331 reviews
1-acre park boasting ocean vistas, picnic spots & a grassy lawn, plus hiking & biking trails.
Asilomar Beach View
4.8 ★★★★★ 734 reviews
Beach known for tide pools and wildlife sightings, including otters and seals.
Asilomar Trail
4.9 ★★★★★ 261 reviews
Tidal pools, beach trail featuring rock formations, tide pools and views of the Pacific Ocean, plus walking and running trails.
Rip Van Winkle Open Space
4.6 ★★★★★ 180 reviews
A narrow strip of forested terrain popular with hikers, joggers, bikers & off-leash dog walkers.
George Washington Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 142 reviews
Recreational green space offering a playground, ball field, walking trails, and picnic areas.
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Pacific Grove
- Match the surface to your legs. Pacific Grove gives you a choice: 4 natural surface, 1 paved, and 1 boardwalk. 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. More natural surface trails →
- 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. 3 trails in Pacific Grove are open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 7 of the 9 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm. 1 is lit, which is what you want for winter evenings.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 7 have trailhead parking and 2 have restrooms in Pacific Grove. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 2 shaded, 3 that runners describe as quiet, 5 dog-friendly, and 1 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. 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 Pacific Grove trails by type
Running trails near Pacific Grove
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.