Once again we are back home in Southern California. It is here that I feel more like myself. The mountains and desert terrain is what I know best, and to start our adventures, we chose one of our favorite trails, Waterman Mountain.
Waterman Mountain was named after Liz Waterman, the wife of Bob Waterman who explored the area in 1889 along with Commodore Ferry Switzer. The mountain was originally named “Lady Waterman Mountain” after Liz. Later, when the U.S. Geological Survey mapped the mountain, they removed the “Lady” and the mountain is referred to as “Waterman Mountain”.
We took the trail from Buckhorn off the ACH climbing south through tall stands of Jeffrey Pine, Ponderosa Pine and Incense Cedars. This section took a hit from the Bobcat fire in 2020, and there are many charred trees, but the trail is still beautiful nonetheless. The vanilla smell of Jeffrey pines and dry sand along the trail was familiar and welcoming. I felt a sense of comfort. All worries and troubles from the past year were swept away on the fresh mountain air as we stepped onto the trail and began our climb. Once we reached the saddle on Waterman’s east ridge, we enjoyed the spectacular views down into Bear Canyon and out to Twin Peaks. Wildflowers were still blooming along the ridge. We took a short break before heading westward and up to the summit where we sat amongst the large rock formations and enjoyed our lunch. I reminisced how one year on New Year’s day we sipped champagne from the rocks and watched the stealth bomber fly over from the Pasadena Rose Parade. This mountain has always held special meaning to us and the San Gabriel High Country will always be one of my favorite sections of the Angeles.
Click “Read More” below to view more photos from this hike.
Today we headed back to one of our favorite trails in Wrightwood, the Blue Ridge Trail. I was so happy to be back again and seeing the gorgeous golden color of the black oaks in autumn. We hiked the trail up to the campground and from there traversed northwest along the PCT. We soaked in the spectacular views of Mt. Baden-Powell and listened to the winds blowing through the big pines. I was in my happy place! Along the way we met a group of happy PCT hikers. We shared trail stories and then parted ways to continue to our own destinations. The day was simply perfect and my heart was filled with joy. At about three miles in we turned around and made our way back. We had another destination to cover that day and it was to our favorite diner in Wrightwood, the Grizzly Cafe!
After we left Big Morongo Canyon Preserve and started heading back to Los Angeles, we decided to make a pit stop at Whitewater Preserve. I’ve been by this area many times on our way to and from Joshua Tree, but never made a point to stop even though I’ve always been curious. Today we decided to check it out. I’m so glad we did! It’s incredibly beautiful and the flowing river is amazing. You wouldn’t think there’s be water like this flowing in a desert. Whitewater Preserve is also part of the Sand to Snow National Monument and it is another wildlife corridor between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains. Another birding hot spot, its wetlands attract more then 216 bird species. The preserve also has a population of bear, bighorn sheep and deer. As we hiked along the trail towards the river access, I heard plenty of frogs too. The wind was really kicking up by this time of day and the passing storm clouds coming from the direction of Mt. San Jacinto was causing some light rain showers. You’ll notice the rain spots on my camera lens in the photos. While I didn’t have time to do a proper hike today, Whitewater Preserve is definitely on my list to return. I highly recommend exploring this incredibly unique area.
Big Morongo Canyon Preserve is a wildlife corridor and desert oasis linking the San Gorgonio Wilderness with the San Bernardino National Forest and Joshua Tree National Park. It’s part of the Sand to Snow National Monument and if you’re into bird watching, over 254 species have been observed within the preserves 31,000 acres. It is also an internationally recognized birding site. The marshland habitat is caused by the snowmelt from the surrounding mountain ranges and attracts many animals such as desert bighorn sheep, mule deer and bobcats to name a few. There’s also a trail system that can accommodate all levels of hikers. On this day, it was extremely windy. I did an easy walk around the Desert Willow and the Marsh Trail, but I’ve hiked the Yucca Ridge Trail in the past and the views of the surrounding mountains are wonderful. The trees were blowing around quite a bit, so it was hard to get many good bird photos. I was, however, able to photograph my first Phainopepla. Adding another bird to my life list always makes my day!
Hiking the Panorama Loop from Black Rock Campground. This hike starts in the far northwest section of Joshua Tree National Park. You can park at the Black Rock Canyon Campground where there’s a visitors center and bathrooms. From there, look for campsite #30 and you’ll find the trailhead. You’ll see a water tank and a dirt road which you will follow southeast for a short distance until you are on a dirt trail. You’ll reach a sign for the Panorama Loop and Warren Peak via Black Rock Canyon Trail. Much of the trail is hiking through a sandy wash with a moderate incline. You’ll be winding through canyon walls here and as you continue, you’ll notice the lush greenery beginning to present itself. This area is abundant with pinyon pine, juniper and oak. You’ll also discover a spring. But keep your eyes peeled because it’s easy to miss. When we were here in February it was just a trickle. However, there is plenty of wildlife to be seen in this area such as insects, birds, rabbits, and ground squirrels. It’s a very unique section of the park. At about 1.7 miles in you’ll find the signage for the start of the loop to Panorama Peak. If you hike it clockwise, you’ll have a steeper climb up, but it will save your knees on the way down the other side. As you do the work to ascend, you’ll be rewarded with views of snow capped Mt. San Gorgonio. Continue upward on the steep switchbacks for incredible panoramic views of Mt. San Jacinto, Yucca Valley, Mt. San Gorgonio and the Coachella Valley. You can even catch a glimpse of the Salton Sea. When you’re ready to return, follow the ridge and descend down into a wash where you’ll continue to enjoy the lush terrain along with majestic Joshua Trees. Eventually, you’ll be back at the start of the loop and return the way you came. It was a beautiful hike. Much different then the typical terrain I’m used to seeing in the desert.
Today we headed up the ACH with our maps, but no solid commitment to a particular trail. I really just wanted to bird watch. We ended up stopping at Cloudburst Summit and hiking down into Cooper Canyon. This is a beautiful section of Angeles National Forest. We’d hike this last year on the PCT in the summer. This time there was a lot of snow. The weather was perfect. It was cool, but the sun was warming. We took a break at Cooper Canyon Trail camp and both of us dozed off lying on top of a log. We saw lots of ladybugs near the stream and there were a lot of butterflies on the trail which was surprising since there was still so much snow on the ground. I was able to get a few photos of the butterflies and I believe they were California Tortoiseshells. My bird sighting list for today included plenty of Mountain Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, Common Ravens and a new one to add to my list, a Clark’s Nutcracker. It was a perfectly beautiful day.
Ahhhh! Another amazing trip to Joshua Tree! Have I mentioned how much I love it here??? We visit several times a year, but we always go in January because the weather couldn't be more perfect for hiking. On our trip in November we hiked the Boy Scout Trail from Indian Cove. It's a 7.7 mile hike one way and on that day we did about 3 miles. This time we got an earlier start and we hiked it from the opposite end from the trailhead at Keys View West. The trail starts off pleasantly flat from this direction but eventually starts to descend gradually until it finally makes a bee line for the canyon floor. But the really fun part is climbing back up on the way back! We saw very few people on our hike today which was surprising since the Boy Scout Trail is pretty popular with backpackers and people who do it as a shuttle hike. But we did see a lot of desert critters including a HUGE Jack rabbit. We hiked the trail just past the point where we had turned around last time and ended up with about an 11 mile day. This was a lovely trail filled with beautiful pinyon pines and juniper. The climbing section provided a moderate challenge which was just enough to make us not feel guilty about the delicious dinner we had later at the Twenty-nine Palms Inn. After dinner, we settled in back at our cottage at Campbell House. I stepped outside to watch the moon rise and listen to their resident owls. We heard them during the night too. It was so peaceful. It slept so good. I always feel very at peace in the desert. It was a great day and a restful night. I woke up feeling relaxed and recharged.
On the way back from Johsua Tree we stopped at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. We’d been here once before, but at the time, I wasn’t into birding. I’d read that this was a birding hot spot, so I was super excited to go again. We didn’t do a big hike on this day. I mostly meandered about the short Marsh Trail in awe of all the different kinds of birds I was seeing and trying to get photos of them. This place is such a gem and I can’t wait to go back again for more birding!
Today we headed up to my favorite go-to place for snowshoeing, Waterman Mountain. We started out on the fire road which had been plowed. When we reached the junction to the Waterman Trail, we hopped on it and began the climb up. The beginning of the trail had been broken by other snowshoers, but it was deep and difficult to maneuver. Eventually, the trail disappeared and there were no more tracks. We were on our own at this point to break trail. It was a nice challenge and we were having fun. Boy was it a workout! We were postholing a lot and it was hard work getting through the deep, heavy snow. It was definitely not the powder we all prefer. After we’d had enough of a challenge, we decided to head back to the fire road and take it easy. Coming back on the trail was just as difficult going down as it was going up. We returned to the fire road, hiked until we were satisfied and then headed home. It was beautiful winter day!
It had been raining the past few days, but we got out for a bit on Thanksgiving to do rain hike in Griffith Park. But what I’d really been waiting for was to get up into the forest. The snow levels came down to about 3,000’! We headed up Angeles Crest around 8:30 am and started seeing snow just past Clear Creek Station. We went as far the 6,000’ Day Use Area (just before Winston Peak and Cloudburst Summit) which is where they had the snow gates closed. The road was clear until that point with just little patches of snow/ice here and there, and although we carried chains we didn’t need to use them. We parked the car, geared up in our snowshoes and got to climbing up the hill. There was no trail so we broke our own. We snowshoed up to a high point near John Henge rocks. Our elevation top out was 6,600’. It was a steep, but short climb and enough to give us a good work out. The snow was super deep. We were both in awe of seeing the forest covered in snow at such low elevations. We took in all in and thoroughly enjoyed this gift of an amazingly beautiful early snowfall. I hope this is a precursor of what’s to come this winter!
This weekend we did a hike up Pacifico Mountain. I love this hike. It’s a nice, long 13 mile day from Mill Creek, and in the summer the trail is full of wildflowers. I also enjoy this hike because I always see lots of ravens. They are such fascinating and intelligent birds. I love to watch them twisting and twirling as they play in the wind. On this day we got started a little late. We didn’t have time to cover all 13 miles, so we didn’t go all the way to the campground. When we first arrived the wind was gusting pretty hard, but it subsided as we got to hiking. As we climbed higher, we started to see snow on the trail left over from the rains we had the previous week. I imagine this will be the last time we hike this trail until the snow melts. Because this is a north facing mountain, the snow will hold for a long time. There’s another storm coming later in the week, and this one is supposed to bring a lot of snow down to the lower elevations. There is another route to the top on a fire road that you can take, but I’ve never tried hiking it. This could be an option for a future winter hike rather than the icy trail. As always, we had another fantastic day in the mountains!
We spent another relaxing weekend in Joshua Tree. Before we left, I researched a few different hikes, but I wasn’t really tied to any one plan. We didn’t get up super early, so by the time we got to Joshua Tree it was around 11:30 am. There was a sign on the 62 diverting people to enter the park at the north entrance. That’s when I knew it would be a long line of traffic to get into the park. This is the price you pay when you don’t get up early. Rather than wasting more time, I remembered the Boy Scout Trail. You can gain access to the trailhead at Indian Cove Road. So that’s what we did and it ended up being a lovely day void of any crowds. The hike on the Boy Scout Trail starts out fairly flat and then slowly begins to ascend gradually. We were taken through beautiful winding canyons surrounded by huge walls of rocks. The scenery was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed this pleasant, leisurely hike through the backcountry. When we reached our turnaround time, we headed back. With the days being much shorter, we’d soon be running out of daylight. The Boy Scout Trail is a little over 7 miles one way. If you begin on the Indian Cove side, it hikes you into the park. You can also start from the trailhead off Park Boulevard and hike all the way to Indian Cove. Some people like to do a car shuttle so then you only have to hike the 7 miles one way. After the hike we checked in at my absolute favorite place to stay in Twentynine Palms, The Campbell House. Then we had dinner and drinks at The Twentynine Palms Inn. Afterwards, we came back to the room, put on our fluffy robes and watched old movies on TV. I get so relaxed when I come here! The next morning we had breakfast in the main dining room and then headed out. We drove to Juniper Flats and hopped on the California Riding and Hiking Trail until we reached the junction for the Stubbe Springs Loop. From there we decided to loop it back on Juniper Flats road. It was an unseasonably warm day for November. Hopefully, when we come back in January, it will be cooler. At any rate, we had a wonderful time just as we always do any time we visit this magical desert.
It was a great day to take in some Fall color. We headed up to Wrightwood to hike along the Blue Ridge Trail where I knew the black oaks would be showing off some of their Autumn foliage. It was crisp and cool up in the mountains today, while back in Burbank it was almost 100 degrees!
This weekend we did a late afternoon/early evening hike up to San Gabriel Peak. It was a full moon and I wanted to watch the sunset from the forest and see the moon come up over the San Gabriels. We started the hike from Eaton Saddle and through the Mueller Tunnel. When we reached Markham Saddle, we took the trail towards San Gabriel Peak. I’d forgotten how steep and rugged it is. The views along the way were wonderful. We took a short break at the top, enjoyed the views and then started back down. The sun was beginning to set and it would soon be dark. When we arrived back at Eaton Saddle, we saw a HUGE harvest moon coming up over Mt. Baldy. It was such a beautiful site! It was a short, but sweet evening.
We had a nice hike on Mt. Hillyer this past Sunday. The weather was a bit on the warm side, and we started a little later than usual, but it was a lovely day. The last time we hiked this was on New Year’s Day and there was a cold wind chill. The ACH is still closed from the slide that happened in February. Now they’re saying it will be open at the end of October. It adds so much extra drive time to get up into the middle and high country of Angeles NF. Since it was a warmer day, the gnats were extra pesky. We had to wear our bug nets. One of the highlights of this hike in addition to the incredible boulder formations are the Coulter Pines on top of Mt. Hillyer. Their pine cones are about the size of my head! I brought along my tree identification book today and made use of it as we hiked. We put in a little over six miles today. It felt great to get back to the mountains after a few weeks away.
Decided to do something relaxing after our trip to the Eastern Sierra. It was a warm day. We hiked to Sheep Camp and back. Beautiful trails up here in the Los Padres National Forest!
We didn’t really have a plan for our second day in the Eastern Sierra, but I did some quick research after we got back from Big Pine Lakes and decided upon the Cottonwood Pass Trail out of Horseshoe Meadow. Horseshoe Meadow is only about a 30 minute drive from Lone Pine where we were staying. Our plan was to hike up to the pass and then over to Chicken Spring Lake, but when we got started my husband was a lot more tired than usual. I think he may have been feeling the altitude (over 10,000’) and also a little lack of sleep the night before. The hike started out fairly flat winding in and out of tall pine trees until we got to the rocky switchbacks where we started to climb up and up. We passed through incredible alpine meadows covered with wildflowers and under the shade of towering foxtail and lodgepole pines. We were just short of the pass when my husband decided it was time to turn around. It’s really odd for him to be affected by altitude because he’s usually fine, but it just goes to show you altitude does not discriminate. It can happen to anyone on any given day without warning and when that happens, the best thing to do is descend. I would have loved to continue on, but we are a team and so I had no problems turning back and doing the hike again on another day when we could both enjoy it.
Our hike to Big Pine Lakes in the Eastern Sierra was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on. There are seven lakes total and on this day, we hiked to the first three via the North Fork Trail. Since we weren’t backpacking, I had much less weight to carry then when we were in the Eastern Sierra last month backpacking the Mt. Whitney Trail. Most of the Big Pine Lakes hike follows along Big Pine Creek. We were next to the beautiful rushing waters most of the day. Early in the morning when we first got on the trail, we saw two doe and a fawn crossing the creek. There were plenty of wildflowers and butterflies to enjoy throughout the day as well. I took my time on this hike and spent a lot of time taking photos of it all. When we reached lake one we saw Temple Crag (popular with alpine rock climbers) towering over the incredible turquoise waters. The turquoise color comes from the glacial powder of Palisade Glacier. I also saw some trout swimming in the lake. This was a wonderful hike. We had to do some work climbing up in elevation to get to the lakes, but it was well worth the effort because the scenery was spectacular.
Today we made the drive to Wrightwood to hike the Blue Ridge Trail. We’ve been slacking the past couple of weeks since we got back from Mt. Whitney. The Blue Ridge Trail is a nice, mellow climb up to Blue Ridge in the welcoming shad of Oak and Pine. When we got to the ridge we decided to go a little bit further to enjoy the views. We hiked southeast along the PCT towards Guffy Campground and Wright Mountain for just a short while. It was a lovely day and much cooler than at the lower elevations. There are still plenty of wildflowers in bloom and the bees were buzzing all around them. Afterwards, we headed over to my favorite place to eat in Wrightwood, The Grizzly Cafe. It was a nice way to end the weekend.
We had a another relaxing camping trip to Table Mountain in Wrightwood this weekend. We set up camp in the afternoon, took a nap and then did a short evening hike up the Blue Ridge Trail through the majestic Black Oaks and up to the top of Blue Ridge. I love this trail. It was very peaceful on a Saturday night, since most of the day hikers were gone. Before heading back to camp, we stopped off in Wrightwood and picked up a pizza and a bottle of wine. We spent the rest of the evening enjoy food by the fire. When we turned in for the night, the forest was extremely quiet. It’s usually windy up on this mountain, but on this night it was very still. In the morning we woke up early and did a quick hike on the Table Mountain hiking trail. It’s about 2.5 miles and goes around the perimeter of the campground. It has great views of Mt. Baden-Powel and all the way out to Palmdale. It was another great weekend spent in the mountains!
Every Sunday I wake up at the crack of dawn to hike. This past Sunday when my alarm went off at 5 am, my husband persuaded me to stay in bed. It was nice sleeping in for a change. Once we got up, we went out for breakfast then came home and relaxed until the afternoon. Around 2ish we headed up the ACH and into the Angeles National Forest to hike Waterman Mountain. We had our backpacking gear, and this time I was trying out a new Gregory backpack. My Osprey Kyte was bothering my shoulders, so I thought I should check into another pack. The Gregory seems to be a much better fit on my back. I was carrying around 27 lbs. We did approximately 7 miles taking the Waterman Trail up to the summit at 8,038’ feet and then heading back down on the fire road past the ski lifts to make a loop. We passed by the seasonal pond just below the summit. I’d never seen water in it before, but we’ve had so much snow this year that it looks like the pond may be around for a little while longer. Just as we were approaching the pond we saw a Search and Rescue chopper circling low. This was followed by a vehicle coming up the mountain with a team of rescuers. They showed us a photo and description of a hiker who’d gone missing on Saturday. They asked if we’d seen him, but unfortunately, we had not. We then continued our descent. The forest was quiet and the light was much different then I’m used to seeing it in the early morning. It felt very peaceful. The weekend crowd had cleared out and when we got back to the parking turnout, our car was the only one there. It was so nice I really didn’t want to leave! We got to see the sunset as we drove back on the ACH. It was a really nice afternoon. I think we need to do more late afternoon hikes in the future. It’s a nice change from waking up so early.
