Another weekend and another chance to bag a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near our home in Pasadena. This is one of the more popular hikes in Los Angeles, as it turns out. San Gabriel Peak was once thought the highest in the area close to Pasadena at 1878 m (6,161 ft) but is […]

With an afternoon to spend near Thousand Oaks, California, we decided to take one of the several trails we found on the National Park Service sites in the Santa Monica Mountains. We chose Cheseboro Canyon over Paramount Ranch based on a recommendation from the Visitors Center. While Paramount Ranch would have been interesting for its […]

We love to find new hikes in Los Angeles, and this time we made a late decision to hike Mount Lowe, a 1,708 m (5,603) peak just north of the more-famous Mount Wilson and stepped onto the Sunset Ridge Trail at 2pm. The sky was ominous but the forecast called for clouds and not rain, […]

This is one of our favorite hikes in Los Angeles and is also just blocks away from where we live. The Eaton Canyon Nature Center and the first part of the Eaton Canyon Trail are part of Los Angeles County and are well maintained but also very, very popular on weekends and holidays. If you […]

Quite unexpectedly, we were able to take a short, local flight this morning from the El Monte Airport, about a half hour from our home in Pasadena . For an hour or so, we flew in and around the mountains that we love to hike. To have such a bird’s eye perspective and to pass […]

On July 19, 2010, the message was posted on the Baldy for the Blind website, “Mt. Baldy was a success!!” The dream of reaching the summit of Mt Baldy, the 3248 m (10,068 ft) peak that dominates the the horizon to the southeast of the City of Los Angeles had been realized for a group […]

Undoubtedly one of the best peak climbs in Southern California. Mt Baden Powell is a very prominent, pyramid-shaped peak that can be approached from several points. We chose to hike from the Vincent Gap trailhead, which is found a few miles north of the Grassy Hollow Visitors Center on the Angeles Crest Highway (Route 2). […]

Not the steepest trail, but a great distance hike that starts on the eastern side of the Arroyo Seco, overlooking Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For the first 2.5 km (1.5 miles), you’ll wonder if you’re actually on a nature hike as the trail starts off on pavement and stays within sight of houses. Once you […]

The trail was hot and dusty when we started walking at 2:30 in the afternoon. We made sure the dogs had plenty of water before starting, but even so, they started panting and looking miserable within a few minutes of getting on the trail. Our solution was a trick we saw in brittany field trials…we […]

We often talked about buying a GPS as we wondered how far we hike and what elevation gain and loss we experience. After seeing several great websites that cover hikes in GPS detail, we decided to make the investment and purchased a Garmin 62s. This model is meant for hiking and could once and for all […]