I’m back from our big adventure hiking through the Southwest.  In 8 days we did 2 hikes in Zion, 2 in Bryce, hiked slot canyons in Utah and Arizona and took in 3 hikes in Sedona.  We had fabulous weather.  It’s hard to believe the variety and magnitude of the beautiful things that we saw. I’ve condensed down my hundreds of pictures into 2 “best of” galleries — one from Zion & Bryce and one from the slot canyons & Sedona.

 Zion & Bryce gallery. 

,p>Slot Canyons & Sedona gallery. 

I’m currently writing from Page, Arizona.  My friend Bobby Jo and I are on a 9 day hiking trip through the Southwest.  We’ve hiked at Zion National Park (Angel’s Landing and Observation Point) and Bryce Canyon (Navajo and Peekabo Loops and another trip from Sunrise Point around Queen’s Garden) and slot canyons near Escalante.Today we’ll be in Antelope Canyon and then move on to Sedonna for some hikes there.  The weather has been absolutely perfect and we’re having a great time.  I’ve been working on my trail photography so thanks to Bobby Jo for being such a good trail model (and traveling companion).

Here are  some photos from our hikes. 

ZION:  ANGEL’S LANDING http://www.mywalkinglife.net/photos/09-04-17_SLOT_Angels/ 

ZION:  OBSERVATION POINThttp://www.mywalkinglife.net/photos/09-04-18_SLOTObservPt/  target=”_blank”>

BRYCE CANYON PEEK-A-BOO LOOP http://www.mywalkinglife.net/photos/09-04-19_SLOT_BrycePeek/ 

I’ll post more after our trip.  

 Last fall I found a blog that had some gorgeous pictures of a place called “Tooth Rock” in Poway.  The pictures showed an abundant bloom of orange poppies.  The blogger was nice enough to email me directions to this “unofficial” hike.  The other day I noticed some poppies out on a drive to Fallbrook, so I thought it was time to go check out Tooth Rock. Bobby Jo and I explored several of the paths (and one in nearly complete darkness — oops).  There’s not a lot of distance to be hiked in this area, but the trip straight up to Tooth Rock is about 3 miles round trip and has at least 800′ gain, so it’s a good little workout.  And, yes, there are poppies (not as many on Mar 5th and there will likely be this week).  And the view from Tooth Rock is worth the climb.  Check out my photo gallery from Tooth Rock.   

  On Thursday, Mar 5, we had a large group with our Footsore Fiends meetup.com hiking group.  We met at Rancho Carillo in Carlsbad.  There’s a pleasant 3 mile walk there on pedestrian paths through a little green belt canyon.  The best part of the walk is at the end when you can visit Rancho Carillo.  This is a historic old property that’s been preserved, and thank god.  It was owned by Leo Carillo, a Hollywood actor.  It was a gorgeous day and the property and walk were especially divine.   Here’s a photo gallery from Rancho Carillo. 

 This past weekend, a few of us Footsore Fiends went scouting out a wildflower hike at Anza-Borrego State Park.  Kevin will be leading this outing since I have a family function to attend.  But it would be a shame for anyone else to miss it because it’s so beautiful there. The drive was about 1.5 hours from Oceanside, which wasn’t too bad.  And it sure feels like you are in a different world.   I haven’t spent a lot of time in the desert previously, but I’m already counting the days until I can get back there for more hiking and picture taking. Here’s my gallery of photos from our exploratory trip.  

I had a wonderful time this past weekend with the Footsore Fiends and some old friends from Seattle.  I organized a “Hollywood History” walking weekend with walks in the Hollywood Flats and Hollywood Hills on Saturday (13 miles total) and in Bel Air and Griffith Park on Sunday (up to 13 miles total again). 

We had great weather and the areas we walked through were just beautiful.  Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Hollywood History Gallery

Griffith Park Gallery

I’ve been super busy with work lately, but I wanted to post about our Lake Poway “Dam to Dam” hike last weekend.  I haven’t had time to edit all the pictures, but above are two which can give you a feel for the area.

The trails around Lake Poway in Poway, CA are wide open and offer fabulous views.  Not coincidentally, they can be very hot in the summer months.  So this is the time of year to enjoy them.  Lake Poway itself has a dam and then you can hike up to a higher like, Lake Ramona, which also has a dam.  As you can see from the pictures, there are views the whole way and a nice riparian section in the valley between the two dams.  Part of this hike goes into the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve. 

The route we took is exactly 6 miles and probably has about 1500′ gain, but the gain is spread out into one longer climb and one shorter climb.  It’s a great work out hike and one I would do again and again (weather permitting).

As you can see from the photos, the weather was stormy here last weekend.  We moved the group hike from Sat to Sun and were blessed with a rain-free hike Sunday morning.  Despite threatening clouds, we didn’t get a drop on the 2.5 hour hike.  What we did get was super moody skies and fantastic soft light.  It was gorgeous!  Sometimes I think hiking under stormy skies is much preferrable to hiking under full on sun — as long as you don’t get drowned.

This walk is a modification of a walk offered by the San Diego Rockhoppers at the CVA convention in 2007.  I hope they will offer it as a sanctioned AVA walk again.

UPDATE:  I put up a few more pictures on our meetup page:

http://hiking.meetup.com/567/photos/538276/#7266127

On January 24th the Footsore Fiends meetup group hiked at Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve.  This is a wonderful place to hike — a section of land marked off for a resevoir and conservation that has thankfully been developed into an open land hiking reserve.  The parking lot is at the bottom of a valley and the first thing you have to do to go anywhere in the reserve is trek up the “Way Up Trail” — 1.5 miles and about 800′ gain.  Once at the top, you can view the Olivenhain Reservoir, a man made ‘lake’ that’s closed to all boating/fishing and is very serene.  From here there are various trail options to explore the land on top of the hills.  We took the Lake Hodges Overlook trail (the picture above is the view of Lake Hodges from the overlook).  I’d like to go back again and explore the trails closer to the dam.

Rain threatened, but we didn’t have more than a drop or two on our hike.  We also had the unique opportunity to have a ranger hike with us part way and explain some of the reserve’s history and plants.  Fun times!

Here’s a gallery with more pohtos of this hike (including some from my scouting trip earlier that week):

Elfin Forest Gallery

On January 11th, we had a meetup of the Footsore Fiends at a 10K walk in Corona del Mar.  The walk was sponsoreb by the Laguna Surf N Turf Walkers volkssport club.  It was an absolutely stunning day to be on the coast.  The route went through some gorgeous neighborhoods and along the coastline.   At the end of the walk we went through the lovely Sherman Gardens.

We’ll be back in the area for our Newport Beach walk on Jan 31st which will have a very similar vibe.

Enjoy the photo gallery