Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills, CA

Rolling Hills is a gated city of horse trails and white ranch houses on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, with no shops or restaurants inside it at all. Homes are mostly single-story California ranch houses and Spanish-style haciendas on lots of an acre or more, set far apart with long views across the canyons. Many properties have stalls or corrals, and remodels go through architectural review with the Rolling Hills Community Association. The bridle trail network is the main outdoor draw, about 26 miles of paths that the association keeps up along roads and property lines. Just outside the gates, Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills Estates has a public equestrian facility, and the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve in Rancho Palos Verdes adds coastal canyon hiking a short drive south. Everything commercial is a drive. The Peninsula Shopping Center in Rolling Hills Estates has a Pavilions for groceries plus everyday stores, and the Promenade on the Peninsula nearby has a Regal cinema, an ice rink and a changing lineup of restaurants for a night out. Daily life runs on the car. There are no traffic lights in town, and trips to the rest of the South Bay start on Hawthorne Boulevard or Palos Verdes Drive North. PV Transit, the peninsula's small bus service, keeps an office on Crest Road. The tradeoff is the land itself. The southern edge of the city sits above the Portuguese Bend landslide area, and ground movement is a real part of owning on this side of the peninsula. Riding the Rolling Hills trails takes an equestrian badge, and a ride can start from a backyard corral.