Finding new adventures for your young one can be a challenge and looking to our own backyard for a bike tour of UCLA checks off a lot of boxes.

With CiclaValley Jr. now confident enough to enjoy riding most places, a college campus provides a big variety of open spaces, vistas, greenery and architecture that just fuels discovery.

Having been on the campus for seventeen years and with my wife doing two academic stints there, it’s fair to say the CiclaValley family is very familiar with UCLA.

One of the great cornerstones about this campus is how a specific type of brick is to be used in buildings (although there’s many examples of skirting that rule in recent history).

It’s not a material that jibes well with our earthquakes, but definitely has some aesthetic flare you don’t see in Southern California.

Most parents might discount UCLA being a place to bring their early cyclist as from afar the terrain might look difficult with the university perched above the rolling hills of Westwood.

In reality, there are two main ridges that transverse the campus north-south with a few ramp options making the east side more palatable.

The other great part is finding a number of spaces your kids will want to take a break and play around, like the Sculpture Garden or the Inverted Fountain.

Riding around definitely makes you realize what a dearth of available open space Los Angeles lacks.

Another motivation for heading here during a weekday is riding around an emptier than normal campus due the coronavirus.

There was still a fair amount of people there, but if you’re looking to take your child there I’d normally suggest the weekend or when school is on holiday.

With cycling in a boom, it’s good to look outside the box and find new places to explore and a bike tour of UCLA is a good start.