Another day, another hike. Well, I wish that were really true, but, I guess it is more like, another day, occasionally another hike! We all do what we can. This was a lovely November day, and I am not even quite sure who initially came up with the idea, but I ended up heading out to the Santa Monica Mountains with Joe, Jeff, and Nicole. We did a 9 mile, 1200′ or so gain, round trip hike, with a quick side detour to get to the summit of Mugu Peak. This was, quite honestly, some of the most unexpected terrain I’ve seen hiking in Southern California, and perhaps by virtue of being unusual, struck me as some of the most beautiful.
So, we decided we should go hiking. Since we had to head out westerly-wise to pick up Jeff anyway, it seemed pretty reasonable to head out to the coast to fine a hike. This was fine by me, as I haven’t had the opportunity to do anywhere near as many of the hikes out there as I would liked to have done.
The parking lot was pretty crowded, as there was a trail race occurring there that day. There were also lots of ominous signs about them locking the parking lot at sunset, so we took due notice.
these here “falls” done had no water. nicole views.
We set off on the trail, up La Jolla Canyon, through some brushy areas, then switching up past a dry waterfall (well. er. where we imagine a waterfall had been, but with no water at the time…see above). We proceeded to get confused at a couple of trail junctions, but generally moved out, before coming out onto the great open beautiful grassland of La Jolla Valley. We were all pretty surprised; I don’t think any of us had ever seen anything like that in Southern California. It was really beautiful, and of course decidedly photogenic.
I got to borrow a DSLR for this hike, and played with a couple of lenses, leading some of these pictures to perhaps be of finer quality than they would have otherwise. Or I can just keep imagining that. Anyway, I took some photos, and we took a wide loop through the grassy area. The trail cuts a wide, gentle swathe through this part, one part on fire road, then turning left in the loop, back towards the coast.
dried out
nice day for it
joe through the field
As you go back towards the ocean, we rose up out of the grasses, and the trail starts to cut back up a bit again. As we approached a saddle area, Joe decided he wanted to try deploying his new small tent (which I ended up using in a solo backpacking trip the following year, so, yay), so we had some fun on the trail. “Fun”. There is also some sort of installation you can see from that point of the trail. This is a Navy radar facility attached to the nearby Navy complex, I believe, even though it is on park land proper.
be prepared
looks all technical
Anyway, after that point, the trail breaks out to where there is finally a view of the ocean again. We looped on the trail across the front face of the peak proper (Mugu Peak) and one can (as we did!) take a spur trail up the summit of the mountain. We took a few photos, and mosied along. Coming back down, we more or less followed contour lines, slowly edging our way back down the side of the mountain, dropping some elevation. We passed a neat abandoned water tank, and just looped back around until we met up with the trail we had started on, which we took back to the beginning, not too far away. From there it was a brief walk out, and a pleasant drive home.
glimmers of light
