On May 12, 2007 I went with a whole group of people (a dozen or so) on a hike up and around Zuma Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains NRA. The trip was 8 mi or so, and 1700′ of gain, give or take.
seahorse looking flower. nice.
one of the lovelies hiding amidst the grasses
My friend Deepak called this trip over email, because his sister was in town. So a whole mess of us (11+1dog) took a drive out to Malibu, and headed up a little ways into the Santa Monica Mountains. The trail beginning is very clearly marked, and we headed on down it. You can see houses and the ocean as you head along, and it’s generally very pleasant. One car of people was a bit behind us, so we stopped at a trail junction just a little way in to wait for them to catch up. We thought this might be the best idea, since we had given them the wrong trail instructions to follow,
and we figured actually spending time with our friends might be nice. Anyway.
We sat down a bit to wait for them. The wildflowers around us were lovely, and I played around taking pictures. Eventually, the other people showed up, and we continued along the sandy trail that meandered its way along the canyon bottom. After a mile or a mile and a half of this stuff, the trail ends, but you just keep walking up the canyon. We bank jumped and boulder hopped and just kept going up and up. At one point I was surrounded by a fantastic smell of mint, and I thought someone had busted out
some gum, but I quickly realized I was just walking over lots of mint plants. Deliciously fresh!
I always think the water walker shadows look awesome
As we continued heading upstream, the rocks were getting larger and larger, and heading up this particular stream was taking a fair bit more effort. However, it was still fun, and it was very attractive and pleasant in some points. Then the rocks started turning into huge boulders, and we actually had to climb up one or two of them, and then finally scrabbled up this steep slope to get to the fireroad that we would then follow for the rest of the way out. This fireroad was also lucky for Ted, who had brought his dog with him under the misleading notation in the guidebook that this trail was good for dogs. After letting Jazz (the dog) play in the river all day, he had to help carry the dog up and over all the rocks to get to the top. I am sure that 70lbs of wet dog is super fun. Eit!
overview of the route
Here at the fireroad, we went and found some shade, and then sat down for some real lunch (unlike a couple quick breaks we’d had before). After that, we more or less just continued on the fire road. It was pretty hot, and generally less interesting, though there were a few nice views. And the uphill was making me sad, which was not surprising, but it did hit me more than usual. And on top of that, my feet really started hurting, perhaps because of all the rocks we had been going over for the first part?
Anyway, I wasn’t really having any muscular problems, just man, my feet were really sore, and I was pretty tired (I think from the heat). The views were nice, but it was pretty clear that we had made a small narrow loop. At least it wasn’t the same out and back hike I normally do around here, though of course those have their charm though. All in all, a fairly pleasant outing, though I would have to give the first part an A and the latter part a C.
