Taking a Hike...in Eaton Canyon

Early last summer,Patrick informed me that he and some of his friends from where he works wanted to go on a hike and wanted me to go with them since I was about the only one of them that had ever done any hiking. I told him to decided where they wanted to go and we would see about the hiking trails in that area.He took one of my hiking books to work so they could look through it and when he came home that afternoon, he informed me that they wanted to go somewhere where there was a water fall. A waterfall?? I told him I had no idea where there would be a water fall at that time of the year and the fact that we were in the midst of a severe drought would also make it tough to find a waterfall. Well Patrick is not one to be so easily distracted from what he wants, so a couple of days later he informed me there was a water fall in Eaton Canyon and that is where they decided they wanted to go.
He had even found out where Eaton Canyon was and how we were to get there, I was really impressed!!

So early one Saturday morning, we all met up at Joseph and Cherry's house to take off for our hike. I had not met his co-workers at this point but I had heard alot about them from Patrick. There were Joseph and Cherry, Emily and Dennis (who had only recently met) and Patrick and I. So we set off in 2 cars for Eaton Canyon.

Eaton Canyon is located right outside Pasadena in Altadena, which is in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is really a beautiful place and the nature preserve covers around 190 acres. Because of the heat, we started out on our hike at around 8:30 and we were so glad we did. The hike from the parking lot to the waterfall is just over a mile one way. We had so much fun and saw some really beautiful scenery and we even got to see a real live inhabitant of the canyon in one of the streams we had to cross, a small snake who was keeping himself cool in the water. It is a pretty easy hike, so if you like to hike or think you might want to try...this is the hike for you. I did not know it at the time but there was alot of area history thattook place in the canyon,and there is a really nice Nature Center there to explain the history of the canyon.

We took our time and made it to the falls. There were a few people who made it ahead of us and it was peaceful and calm. A lady and her daughter were swimming in he pool at the bottom of the falls and I just had to take off my shoes and put my feet in the cold water. It was so nice! We hung out at the falls for a little while taking pictures and such. We were really enjoying the peacefulness of the place but decided we had better head back before it got too hot. We stared back and stopped in some shade to have a snack and drink some water and as we were doing this, about 30 Boy Scouts came by us heading for the falls, the peacefulness of the falls was not going to be peaceful much longer! We were so glad we made it there when we did. We made it back to the parking lot around 11:30. We stopped by the Nature Center to use the rest rooms and to cool off(it is air conditioned!) and see the exhibits they have there. We ended our hiking that day at a Chinese Restruant where I got to have one of my favs....Black Pepper Gravy Pork Chops...after that meal, we all headed homes for naps!!!

It was such a beautiful place in the Summer, I plan on going back in the Spring when everything is in bloom.....wanna go with me? Just let me know!

later

p.s. I case your interested: www.enca.org






Joseph and Cherry
Jaymes and Patrick
Dennis and Emily