[singlepic id=94 w=320 h=240 float=left]Looking for the color of fall, we started drive to Mammoth mountains on thursday afternoon. It was rainy in LA when we left. After passing Palmdale, we saw huge, dark clouds sitting on the hills we just came from. A few rainbows later showed up on the way as well.
According to the precipitation it would rain/snow in Mammoth on that specific afternoon when we planned to drive up to there. We left LA as early as possible to avoid situations being trapped in bad weather. Fortunately it was not raining or snowing in Mammoth.

[singlepic id=72 w=320 h=240 float=left]Friday morning was sunny. We decided to go to Convict Canyon trail which go up into the canyon above the Convict lake. The first 1 mile of the trail was very easy. The lake was decorated with trees with golden colored leaves, which made it difficult to go fast without taking pictures. After the “John muir wildness” sign, the trail start getting steep. Finally it came to a river which we are supposed to cross. The water was rushing down fast and it could be dangerous if anyone fall into the river while trying to cross it. So we had to go back a little bit to find a easier spot to cross the river. On the other side of the river, it was hard to find the used path mentioned in the book. We tried to climb higher to be away from the narrow canyon and the river. The used trail appeared and we followed it for a mile. It leaded to the first later after the river crossing.
Even there’re more lakes that we wanted to see, it was 2pm in the afternoon. Looking at the black clouds gathering at the top of the snow covered mountain that not far from the lake, we headed back.
The hiking turned out to be 10 miles and 4000 feet escalation.

[singlepic id=71 w=320 h=240 float=left]Drove to the Topanga State park then follow the sign, we walked on a fire road to Eagle rock.
It was a fogy morning. The woods and mounts were all covered by white fogy air. We were lucky to see a pretty big mail dear close to the trail head and then a little bit later and gray squarrel with a bushy tail greeted us with some strange noises.

Eagle Rock is a huge nice shape rock, reminding me some western movies with native american riding a horse standing on the top.

On the way back we saw a beautiful california wild rose. They are relative rare. We so far saw them only twice on a hiking trail.

[singlepic id=69 w=320 h=240 float=left]It was like a summer day with 80F in Santa Monica, but you can feel it’s the autumn from the cooler morning. We drove to a farm in Thousand Oaks, called underwood farm for their October harvest festival.

The festival area was not so huge and I felt it’s more for the kids. We walked around and saw some animals, such as goats, Turkey and even Alpacas. Several wagon cars loaded many children and adults going circles in the crowded farm. The pumpkin field and sunflowers decorated the place nicely.

Since it’s a festival we had some burgers and roasted corns, also tacos at the food stands at the festival area. At last, we went through the big pumpkin filed and finally chose 4 of them out of thousands. One huge orange pumpkin costed only $10. And 3 smaller ones with pale color and flat shaped were around $5 each. We went back with a great satisfaction.

Chumash trail is at the far end of Malibu, next to La Jolla Valley. This trail is said one of the oldest trail, which was used by native americans, the Chumash, from 7000 years ago.

We soon found out that it was a very steep trail. It has 1000ft escalation within 1 mile. Imaging that the Chumash people were climbing here up and down everyday between their little village and the ocean, and sometimes had to carry the food they found, we had to agree that they must be good hikers.

The downhill was not so easy for our tired legs. It was a short but great work out.

This is a famous hiking trail for summer season, because of the river is still full of water in the heated days, with 100F+ temperature. The parking lot was full before we got there. we have to walk longer in the hot sun.
As soon as we came to the trail head, we found out we needed to cross the river already. Walking through the river was fun, and something very different with other hiking. We tried to count how many times we had to cross the river but somehow forgot about it when we got lost from the trail. Some spot where to cross the river were obvious but some are hidden.
Even it was not comfortable to walk almost 10 miles with wet shoes, it was a great hike . We turned around before half mile to the “bridge to nowhere” since I got a headache in the heat. But I will see it next summer.