Hike: Sycamore Canyon

On Saturday, after a long time without hitting the trail, David and I headed to Sycamore Canyon. Our original idea was to go to Santa Anita Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, but the chance of lingering rain in the San Gabriels persuaded us to switch to a location where we had a better chance of favorable weather. Many areas of southern California received light rain and/or snow in the pre-dawn hours, but as it turned out, where we went hiking, not a drop fell.

Which is unfortunate, really. The land is bone-dry after several years of below-normal rainfall. Brown grass and hills are normal for southern California in the dry season (which, technically, should have ended by now), but when brown turns to grey, you know things are really dry.

Our hike took us through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Point Mugu State Park. We began at Sierra Vista/Satwiwa, and started down Sycamore Canyon before taking a trail to the east that passes by "Hidden Pond" (which was dried up). Then the trail followed a ridge from which we could see the Pacific Ocean and Santa Cruz Island.

Eventually we followed Coyote Trail back down to the canyon, through which we returned to the trailhead. The grass here was brown, and the trees were colorful.