Trips from April, 2008
Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve
Today I went to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, CA. The whole park is basically fields full of California Poppies. The park is currently at the peak of this season and it's apparently one of the better seasons in recent years.
Although small, there's around 7 miles of trails - I did one of the bigger loops that covered around 3.5 miles. the park itself is situated in buttes that are in the middle of a large plain (surrounded by mountains chains) All in all, it was a beautiful area and the poppies made it doubly so. The poppies are supposed to last until mid-May but "quality" of the view will begin declining from now on. I liked too many of my photographs to just post all of them on this entry, so take a look at the Antelope Valley Album.
San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park
Since my parents, sister, and niece were all visiting this week, we decided to take a day trip down to the Wild Animal Park today. Unlike most zoos, a lot of the animals here are not kept in cages but in large enclosures that house more than one species (though, as was pointed out to us, predators and prey are kept separate).
Along with the usual large number of species, we saw two critically endangered species - one California Condor and two Northern White Rhinos. I have pictures of both, along with many of the other animals, in the Wild Animal Park Gallery.
Eaton Canyon and Santa Anita Canyon Wildfire
Eaton Canyon is a small canyon about 10 minutes from Caltech which about a 1.5 mile trail that ends at a waterfall. I went out there today partially to try out my new hiking boots. With the high temperatures today a wildfire started a few canyons over (Santa Anita Canyon), so a few of these pictures show the smoke rising from there. I didn't make it all the way down to the end of the trail because I got there a bit late, but I have been there and it is quite nice.
Hollywood Sign Hike
After yesterday's short hike in Eaton Canyon, the next step to breaking in/testing my boots was to join a Meetup.com group on a hike up to the Hollywood Sign. It's not a hard hike (6 miles r/t, 1100 elevation gain) but the problem was the high temperatures. It was in the 80's around 9 AM when we left and by the time we got back down it was in the 90's. Not to mention the lack of shade on the trail. A few photos below plus more at the Hollywood Sign Hike Gallery.
