Arroyo Pescadero Park, Whittier, CA

Arroyo Pescadero Park and Deer Loop Trail

This trail located off of Colima Rd. just a bit north of Marvista Rd, started off with a paved fire road as the trail. About half a mile in the trail finally turns into dirt. We went along the trail heading south which loops around and then heads north and south again finally ending up at the deer loop trail (which is in the lower left half of the map below). Throughout the trip to the deer loop trail houses from the neighborhood to the south were visible. So this is literally right in some peoples back yard. The trail was wide and seemed easy to travel on for the kids. Once onto the Deer Loop Trail we came across a way to wonder off the path and take some pictures of some strange old debris piles and a 10 foot canyon filled with concrete debris. 

This area is just a bit to the east of the Turnbull Canyon hiking area. After researching the area further online I discovered that the land was gifted by an oil company to either the city or the county, and is now under scrutiny because further drilling is being requested and we did come across a section that was prohibited to enter by the public, there were oil rigs and miscellaneous equipment beyond that barrier.

This is the Deer loop trail looking south, off to the left was a field of dried grass and a ravine, and to the right a ton of brush. We spotted a few rabbits in this area and heard a lot of noise in the brush near the ravine to the right, it could have been anything but it sounded pretty large. We love to listen to our surroundings when we go hiking, always hoping for a deer or something special to cross our path in our beautful Whittier Hills.

And here is a picture looking north on the trail to where we came in from. We had walked through the dry grass on the right side of this photo below and they got prickly stuff in their shoes and had to take a break to de-prickle their socks!

Here is that ditch / small canyon filled with debris I mentioned earlier. Its off the trail so not really an eye sore if you plan to stay on the trail itself.

 Another angle of the debris filled ditch.

And another.

 One last one.

 There is a house across the way in the background there. Just included it for the heck of it :-)

There were additional trails further west on the deer loop trail that we did not explore yet, we seen many people coming from that direction all in workout clothes and running shoes. So from visual assumptions it appears to be a good area to jog. And once again watch for poo (or scat as my 11 year old calls it). Get out there and enjoy...

Murphy Ranch Park. Whittier, CA

Murphy Ranch Park Trail

Located just a few blocks east of La Serna High School at 16200 Las Cumbres Drive. Whittier, CA. Just a bit east of the Turnbull Canyon hiking area. The kids and I enjoyed this park, right from the start there are plenty of benches to picnic before your hike. And for some reason they are housing a whole flock of goats as shown in the photo below. Dogs and horses are welcome as well.

The kids got a kick out of the goats even though the goats did not share in the same amusement with my children, in fact the goats looked like they could not care less we were there. LOL

OK so moving on to the hike. We took the center wide trail which just looped around up into the hills at the end to the right and came back down to the beginning. The loop is an incline and has a slight zip-zag to it to reduce the rough incline. According to the trail map there are a few other trails off to the left from the beginning, that may be a better choice for a view of any sort? Not sure yet. 

We did venture off the main trail at one point to the left down into the dried up stream bed. The stream bed got narrower as we went along and we had to jump from side to side of the stream as it drops off at certain points with no where to walk. It was a bit difficult to find a way back up out of the stream, so unless you are ready to climb or turn back around I would just avoid the stream bed, its deep with high canyon walls on both sides for the most part. 

It appears that if you choose the other trail to the left (of the main trail) from the beginning, you may have a view of the stream bed from above. Ill check that one out next time. This may be especially nice to see during the winter after rain fall.

Overall this trail is great for a quick exercise through the park, but be careful people love to walk there dogs here and conveniently forget to pick up their poo! Besides that it was mostly gentle enough that I even seen some women with babies in strollers, so get out there and enjoy.

Trail Map:

I recommend you take a picture of this map on your phone at the entrance. I could not find a printable one online yet, if I do I will be sure to upload it. As always get out there and have fun. And please if you have any places you would like to know more about let me know so I can keep them in mind for future hikes. And I would love your feedback, please leave comments at the bottom of this post.

Sycamore Canyon, Whittier, California

Sycamore Canyon

Whittier, CA

The entrance to this trail is at 5040 Workman Mill Road, Whittier CA. Off of Workman Mill Road one half mile north of Beverly Boulevard. Rose Hills is just a few blocks further north on Workman Mill Rd. Also Turnbull Canyon trail, Whittier CA is a few minutes east on Beverly Boulevard. 

Beautiful view of the homes atop the canyon. This trail is very kid friendly only a few small hills here and there. Mostly a straight easy walk. Once you get about 1.3 miles in you come to a marker, the trail breaks off to the Sycamore Switchback Trail and the Dark Canyon trail. The switchback trail leads to the Rattlesnake Ridge Trail and another set of trails which I have previously posted pics and information on. 

If you proceed onto the Dark Canyon trail the path narrows and you will encounter a small creek which you will cross. When we visited, the stream was filled with green slimy algae, this was probably because it was hot and the area has not had much rain fall. However, we did spot several deer and rabbits in this area, and heard many frogs down there as well. The trail starts to incline very slightly so that the stream is on your left and is below you, this area is quite shady and a nice place to take a break. At the end of Dark Canyon is a fence and a sign declaring you have reached the end and need to turn around. 

Dry brush YIKES

I wasn't in charge of the camera on this particular trip (kids fault! LOL). We got kind of carried away listening to nature and didn't snap too many pics after about the 1st half mile. So most of these pics are from the beginning of the trail. I will be visiting again and definitely post more pictures soon, so check back! Still a beautiful hike, plenty of shady spots to stop and rest. 

Love the way this tree is growing on the side of the hill.

We did not take the Sycamore switchback trail as it appeared to be a very steep climb on a hillside. Later I discovered this is the connection up to Rattlesnake Ridge which we have hiked and discuss further in another post. And the little ones were with me as always so it was best we didn't venture up that path, but search youtube I found a couple of videos showing that trail. 

One thing to note here, at the entrance it was very sad to see drilling rigs and equipment being used off to the right of the main trail. Our hills are being infested with drilling rigs. 

Once again you can find a really good trail map of this trail and many others in the area at:

http://www.habitatauthority.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/map-Sycamore_Hellman-2012.pdf

Skyline Fire Rd. Hacienda Heights, CA

Skyline Fire Road

Hacienda Heights, CA

As noted below I have marked all fire roads with red boxes. These are approximate locations and should only be hiked or biked, no vehicles are allowed in, except for of course fire dept./police officials.

Do not block fire roads with your vehicle, park elsewhere and walk in. I am surprised I could not find a map with hiking trails on the net. (Update finally found one! See below paragraph for link). So here you go, I hope you appreciate it and use it with caution. I don't advise going in after dark, as per the rules posted as well entrance is only permitted from sunrise to sunset. And avoid all trails up to 48 hours after rain, as mountains sides can slip very easily! A lot of the trails I have experienced so far have a straight drop into the canyon, so once again I must stress the use of caution hiking and especially biking! You can save this to your computer and then increase the size to view it better, and compare it to a regular map of the area so you can associate it with something a bit more tangible than this poor excuse of a map I prepared here!

Hiking Map for turnball canyon:
http://www.habitatauthority.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/map-Turnbull-Canyon-2012.pdf

There are many warnings and rules posted at each entrance, YOU NEED TO READ EVERY SIGN YOU COME ACROSS!!! Certain areas contain more dangers than others. I never advise hiking alone, and always carry plenty of water. I usually don't take food in, because of wild animals! But if you must make sure they are sealed tightly, animals have a great sense of smell as you all should know. Mountain Lions have been spotted.

On my 1st hike Saturday March 17th 2007. (I have hiked the area several times since but have been so busy with school that I haven't had a chance to bring more info) But if you have questions feel free to ask.

We parked the car at the fire road entrance at the end of Skyline Drive (see red box on map, heading into the canyon from the Beverly Blvd entrance you will proceed through Turnbull Canyon Road to Skyline Drive and make a left. This portion of Skyline Drive will end and you must go either right or left at the end, you must go left, I didn't notice a street sign posted for Skyline, it only reads Edgeridge Drive on the right hand side curb. But trust me Skyline continues off to the left, you will pass Descending Road (which has a cool creepy old gate down about half way on the left hand side known as Hell's Gate) and continue up the road, You will see a sign that says Road Closed in big red writing, but its not! Its wide open once through you will see the fire road metal gate ahead and a boarded up house on the right hand side) once we made it up to the fire road gate we noticed 2 other cars pulled off to the left of the gate clearing the entrance. So we took their lead and decided to park behind them, we had just enough space! Once we got out of the car we noticed they were government plates! This was strange, they were unmarked vehicles 1 was a Chevy Malibu, just like the one we were driving.

Strange already and not even there 10 minutes. The four of us started our trek, walking about 2 minutes into the trail we spotted a path to the left with a partial wooden gate, and a mail box encased in brick working, we traveled that path on the way out and at the top it looks like there used to be a home sitting there.

So we continued down the road and seen that once about 20 minutes in we were walking right into a Commercial area so we took a trail of to the right of there fencing. This takes you along their property which once in far enough we realized was a Strawberry field, off in the distance above the 1st patch was a coyote, clear as day (see photo below, well photo isn't too clear sorry).

And slightly past that there is a steep trail off on the right, at the bottom of this trail there is an extreme warning sign or two, once again please read all signs you encounter. At the top of this trail you can see off to the West/Left there is the Puente Hills Landfill.

This is about as far as we went on Skyline Drive Fire Road as there was another metal gate and this trail pretty much sucked! 

We headed back to check out another trail we had seen on our way in on the right hand side, there were several but this one went around in a 180 and looked down on a very narrow trail before the larger trail named Ahwingna Trail. We hiked only a few minutes and noticed a lot of large animal droppings, thinking this trail might be home to large animals (i.e. coyotes) we decided to turn back and wait to explore when we could go back with more people or a bigger stick!

This hike was not out of the ordinary, we found it wasn't the greatest trail to pick, but that's how we learn right! Besides the coyote nothing else interesting was noticed, the boarded up house across the way from where we parked, is said to be home to a hermit, even though all the windows are boarded up (except for a few on the 2nd floor)and no electrical service is on (per the meter outside) there is food inside and it looks like someone is occupying the home! Kinda scary if you plan to hike in the area alone or at night, so don't!