Using Costanoa as a base camp, you have a variety of hiking trails. You can hike into the hills behind Costanoa, or, you can hike down to the side of the ocean and walk along the coastal bluffs. A relatively short but strenuous hike takes you up “The Chalks” to Chalk Mountain Lookout. You climb 550 metres in five kilometres, but when you get there, you have a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean on your West side and Big Basin Redwood Forest to the East.

Other activities in the Costanoa and Año Nuevo area include biking and horseback riding. You can go board-sailing or kite-surfing at Waddell Creek Beach. Waddell Creek is also the ocean end of the Skyline To The Sea Trail, which goes from Skyline Boulevard all the way through Big Basin Redwoods Park. The ocean end of this trail is where you start your hike into Big Basin to Berry Creek Falls.

The cliffs above Waddell Creek Beach are used by hang-gliders. At Año Nuevo State Reserve you can hike all around the reserve, visit Año Nuevo Beach, and, at the right times of the year, you can go all the way out to the South and North Points of Año Nuevo to view the Elephant Seals. Last but not least, you have very nice beaches at Gazos Creek and Franklin Point.