Category Archives: santa monica mountains

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Not So Busy Sandstone Peak

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Boney Mountain area peaks from the top of Sandstone Peak.
Boney Mountain area peaks from the top of Sandstone Peak.

With the closure of Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland National Forests until Thursday, I did not expect to find the summit of the highest peak in the Santa Monica Mountains empty. Even if it was by happenstance, I’ve rarely found the summit of Sandstone unoccupied on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Like last weekend’s run, this morning’s trail run started at the Wendy Drive Trailhead on Potrero Road in Newbury Park. But today’s route had a lot more elevation gain, and some steep scrambling up the rocks of Boney Mountain’s Western Ridge. It’s an adventurous way to do Boney Mountain, Tri Peaks, and Sandstone Peak, and get in some excellent running on a very scenic stretch of the Backbone Trail.

Overall, the route was in the best shape I’ve seen since the 2018 Woolsey Fire. The path that works up the north side of Tri Peaks and around the east side of its summit blocks was relatively clear. Following trailwork by the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council, the Chamberlain Trail segment of the Backbone Trail was once again an enjoyable downhill run.

Here’s an interactive, 3D terrain view of a GPS trace of my usual route (yellow) to Sandstone Peak from Wendy Drive via Boney Mountain’s Western Ridge, and return via Big Sycamore Canyon. A GPS track of the Cabin trail is also shown. Variations of the route include doing the Mishe Mokwa loop after climbing Sandstone Peak; and returning to Sycamore Canyon via Serrano Valley/Canyon instead of Blue Canyon.

Some related posts: Sandstone Peak from Wendy Drive, Over Boney Mountain to Sandstone Peak and Serrano Valley, An End of Year Boney Mountain Adventure, Too Many Flowers on the Chamberlain Trail

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Fogbow Near the Top of Hell Hill in Pt. Mugu State Park

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Fogbow Near the Top of Hell Hill in Pt. Mugu State Park

Fogbows form opposite the sun in a manner similar to rainbows, except the water droplets that create a fogbow are much smaller than raindrops. Because a fog droplet is so small, the physics of the interaction is different. The result is often a diffuse, primarily white bow.

The photograph of the fogbow was taken Sunday morning on an out and back run from Wendy Drive to Mugu Peak. The sun was about 14 degrees above the horizon. More about fogbows and other atmospheric phenomena can be found on Les Cowley’s Atmospheric Optics website.

Some related posts: Rainbow Colors in Cirrus Clouds Over Los Angeles, Out and Back Trail Run to Mugu Peak

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Hidden Pond – Old Boney Loop, Pt. Mugu State Park

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Boney Mountain From the Hidden Pond Trail, Pt. Mugu State Park
Morning on the Hidden Pond Trail, Boney Mountain in the distance.

The Hidden Pond – Old Boney Loop is a variation of the XTERRA Boney Mountain Trail Run 21K course. The route is about a half-mile longer and has a couple hundred feet more of elevation gain, but all the key trails are the same. It starts/ends at the Wendy Drive & Potrero Road Trailhead.

Here is an interactive 3D terrain view of the Hidden Pond – Old Boney Loop and a few photos taken along the way.

Related post: Boney Mountain Half Marathon

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Exploring the Lake Vista Trail and Ridge

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Malibu Creek, Goat Buttes and Century Lake from Lake Vista Butte

This morning’s running plan morphed from doing a loop I’ve done many times, to exploring a trail I hadn’t done, and hiking along a ridge to the top of a butte with a sweeping view of Malibu Creek State Park.

Lake Vista Ridge and Butte in Malibu Creek State Park
Lake Vista Ridge and Butte in Malibu Creek State Park

My run started at the Cistern Trailhead on Mulholland Highway. After descending the Cistern Trail, I picked up the Lookout Trail and headed west to the top of the Cage Creek Trail and the start of the Yearling Trail. Continuing on the Yearling Trail, I turned left (south) up the Deer Leg Trail, and continued west on the enjoyable, up-and-down single track.

I usually run the Deer Leg trail in the opposite direction and was a little surprised when I happened upon the Lake Vista Trail. How had I managed to run past this trail junction so many times and not notice it? Any trail with “Vista” in the name is worth exploring, so there was little choice but to turn onto the trail and see where it led.

Malibou Lake and Sugarloaf from Lake Vista Ridge
Malibou Lake and Sugarloaf from Lake Vista Ridge

As it climbed toward an obvious ridgeline, the enjoyable single-track trail wound in and out of several small canyons. About 0.7 mile from the Deer Leg Trail junction, the Lake Vista Trail topped out at a very pretty overlook of Malibou Lake (not a typo). My watch showed the mileage to the overlook from the Cistern Trailhead was about 2 miles.

From the overlook an unofficial “use” trail worked back east along a broad ridge to the top of a prominent butte that has an unique exceptional of Malibu Creek, Century Lake and Goat Buttes. Because of the area’s volcanic origins, the use trail is rough and rocky in places, and the trail is not always obvious. It’s a little under a half-mile from the overlook to the summit of the butte. Even though it was Winter, I kept a wary eye and ear out for rattlesnakes.

Once back at the overlook, I made a loop of it by descending the Lake Vista Trail to the Reagan Ranch parking area, and then working back east on the Yearling and Lookout Trails to the Cistern Trail. Here’s an interactive, 3D terrain view of my GPS track of the run and hike.

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Chasing a Sunrise, Taking a Moonshot, Los Padres Snow, and a Dark Line in the Sky

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Colorful sunrise in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains

I was running up Calabasas Peak Mtwy fire road trying to get a better view of the eastern sky, but the view in that direction was blocked by a steep hillside. The road turned to the northeast up ahead, and I hoped the best moments of a rapidly-evolving sunrise would not be lost.

A couple of breathless minutes later, I rounded a corner and was rewarded with an unobstructed view of a vivid, pink-red-orange mackerel sky. Focusing on the ridgeline near Topanga tower, I shot several sets of bracketed photos.

Handheld snapshot of the Moon, using a Lumix ZS100
Handheld snapshot of the Moon. Click for larger image and more info.

Excited by the sunrise, I continued up the fire road, scanning my surroundings for another photo. My eye settled on the gibbous moon. High in the sky, it’s bright face was subdued by a thin veil of pinkish-gray cloud. I’d previously experimented with handheld shots of the Moon using my running camera — a Lumix ZS100. Zooming to an equivalent focal length of about 250mm, I held my breath, steadied the camera the best I could, and took a few shots. Here’s one of the images — cropped and sharpened — with enough detail to see craters, maria, and some other lunar features.

At the bottom of Topanga Lookout Ridge there were several bigberry manzanita bushes covered with flowers. A hummingbird was up before sunrise, buzzing about the blossoms, busily drinking the precious nectar. Although it had rained a couple days before, this rain year there had been little rainfall, and a corresponding scarcity of early season wildflowers.

As I climbed higher on the ridge, the mountains northwest of Los Angeles came into view, white with snow from the recent storm. The snow-covered peaks are south of Mt. Pinos and Frazier Mountain, in the area of San Raphael Peak, McDonald Peak, Sewart Mountain and Snowy Peak.

Contrail shadow near Los Angeles
Contrail shadow.

Like snow on a mountain, there is a purity in the form and appearance of clouds. When a long, dark streak appeared across a layer of high clouds, it was hard to miss. In this case, the dark line appears to be the shadow of a contrail of a jet flying above the clouds. At the time LAX was reporting scattered clouds at 19,000′ and 23,000′, with a broken layer of clouds at 28,000′. Given the height of the clouds and orientation of the contrail, it may have been from a flight from San Diego to San Francisco.

Topping out on the ridge, I smiled when I saw the masked couple dancing on the Lookout, and continued west toward Saddle Peak.

Some related photos: An Early Morning Dance at Topanga Lookout, Fallstreak Hole, Rainbow Colors in Cirrus Clouds Over Los Angeles

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Pandemic Cool: An Early Morning Dance at Topanga Lookout

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With the San Fernando Valley as a backdrop, a couple dances at Topanga Lookout, during the pandemic

As I neared the top of Topanga Lookout Ridge, I could hear music coming from the Lookout. It looked like there were people on top, but from my vantage point down on the ridge, it was hard to tell what was going on.

When I reached the isolated platform, I was surprised to find a couple dancing! Wearing masks, and with much of the San Fernando Valley as a backdrop, they had found a unique way to deal with the complications of the pandemic.

Some related posts: Topanga Lookout Ridge Loop; Malibu Canyon to Saddle Peak, Topanga Lookout, Calabasas Peak, and the Secret Trail