Well, as close as you can get an hours drive from downtown L.A. Not much is better than spending a Sunday hiking up to the tallest peak in the San Gabriel Range- 10,064' Mount San Antonio- with your fourteen year old son. We started at the Ski Lifts base, which is about 6,400' above sea level, so that gets you about 3,600' elevation gain to make the summit, this in only about 5 miles. This weekend the weather was cool, the June marine layer pushing inland all the way through the Cajon Pass into the high desert, and up the slopes of the San Gabriel Range at about 30 miles per hour. Once you got above tree line, it was invigorating. The Devil's Backbone trail has some pretty amazing vistas and geologic formations, looking on a day like today in spots like places straight out of the Misty Mountains. This is part of why it's so hard to leave California. Ah, well, a weekend well spent.
(couple more pics below the fold)
The dog makes the essay.
ReplyDeleteThat's Ginger, she'll be 10 in July. She enjoyed flushing out chipmunks. I'm pretty sure I was in violation of some law by letting her off leash in a National Monument.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I love it when you can look down on the clouds like that.
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