Need to wear out your dog? Take 'em up Montara Mountain.

View of Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean from Montara Mountain.

Montara Mountain has it all: sweeping views of water and mountains, plenty of wildflowers and a side trail that leads down to a clothing-optional beach.

What I loved the most, though, is that gave me a great workout and wore out my nearly exhaustible dog.
Definitely don't try this one unless both you and your dog are in great shape. It's about 3.5 miles to the 1,898-foot summit, so the trail is at least 7 miles round-trip.
The Mountain is located between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay on Highway 1, with a super small parking lot that is easy to miss.

If you do miss it, or it’s full, you can park at a larger lot to the south, although it’s across the highway from the trailhead.

The main trail is actually a former fire road, so it’s wide and easy to walk, but it’s also quite dry and hot with little shade. Bring lots of water for you and your dog.

I also recommend taking a side jaunt along Old San Pedro Mountain Road. It has great views and great flowers, but is also a very narrow strip of crumbling asphalt carved into a cliff that can easily give you vertigo, and where you will likely encounter many bicyclists.

Pluses:

• It’s often foggy, so it can be a great escape if you live somewhere hot. (However, if the fog rolls in while you’re still heading to the top, it will seriously diminish the panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay and all the other bodies of water that you could see from the top of the mountain.)

• I saw flowers I hadn’t seen before, such as the striking cobweb thistle.

• Perhaps the best plus is the dog-friendly state beach right across the highway where you both can cool down.

Relaxing on Montara State Beach.

A fine, but not fancy, place to stay nearby is the Zaballa House Bed & Breakfast.

Find more about this hike and other great ones in “The Best Dog Hikes of Northern California,” a very helpful book.