One day a few weeks ago, I tried to make it to the nearest beach I could in time for sunset. I missed…but while on the mostly-deserted beach I caught some nice views of pink underlit clouds over the Santa Monica Mountains, and this view of a closed lifeguard tower at El Segundo Beach.

Then there was the clear afternoon when I went exploring the Palos Verdes area, looking for public parks where I could see the LA basin. Not much luck on that count, but as sunset approached, I decided to see if I could make it up to Del Cerro Park (more photos from this spot taken during daylight) up at the top of the bluffs. I did, and because the park is actually higher than the next hill over, I got to watch the sun set over the ocean and behind a hill at the same time.

I stayed up there for a good 20 minutes after sunset, watching the sky darken through twilight. It was incredibly windy that evening, and even from a thousand feet up with no direct sunlight, I could still watch the waves between the mainland and Catalina Island, moving slowly through the strait like tiny ripples in the direction of the wind.

Several trails run from the entrance around the edge of the park, and one goes inward to an area that’s currently closed off. Because…well…take a look:

I couldn’t help but take a picture. It went so perfectly with this sign I found in Hawaii near the active lava flows:

Actually, the afternoon reminded me of that evening as well in that I went hiking without really being prepared for it. So in this case, I only spent about 30 minutes in the park, but it was a perfect de-stress and mental recharge.

Keep in mind that this is Southern California. Winter is when the wilderness (such as it is) turns green, and while temperatures are often in the fifties, it’s not uncommon for them to climb into the seventies or higher.

Who knew this was just minutes away from suburbia?

Actually, the park is nearly surrounded by suburbs. It’s a long finger (running along the canyon) with hills full of expensive houses to the west, newer suburbs to the south and east, and a little more wilderness to the north. Somewhere in the suburbs to the south, there used to be a Boy Scout campground called Camp Myford. When I was in scouts during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was one of the counselors at the very last Cub Scout day camp held there, the week before the bulldozers came in to build new suburbs. If I have my bearings right, the gate is still there, not far from the intersection where I occasionally stop to take photos of Saddleback and the nearby hills.

I hiked along the Eucalyptus Trail, through that grove of trees up a hill to a viewpoint and the intersection with the East Ridge Trail. The first part was great. The second? No shade, no switchbacks, and a very steep trail full of ruts that I suspect is a converted firebreak. Lots of people were walking, jogging, or even biking (I’m not sure how they managed that part), but after only a few minutes of going up and down those hills, I decided it was time to head back.

Nice view, though!

In a couple of spots I saw posts that had been damaged by fire. I’m not sure when they were damaged, but if it was in the Santiago Fire back in 2007, that means it got a lot closer to homes in that area than I thought.

I have a few more pictures in a photoset on Flickr.
At some point I’ll have to go back when I’m actually prepared to hike!

After the Santiago Fire, I waited for another clear day (which took several weeks), and set out to do it again and see just how far north the fire had reached. I managed to get a great pair of before and after photos from the intersection of Foothill and Lemon Heights.

October 6, 2007. Click for a larger version

November 24, 2007. Click for a larger version

While the orchards seem to have been spared, you can see the field in the foreground looks scorched, and most of the trees making up firebreaks seem to have died. More dramatic are the hillsides. Before the fire, you can see expansive dark patches of scrub, wide expanses of lighter dried grass, and occasional dark green bushes. Now it’s all dirt, except for the blackened remnants of the bushes. There are several gullies whose sides were hidden and softened by the ground cover, but are now starkly visible. And after this week’s rain, they’re probably eroded even more.

A few notes: The air was somewhat clearer for the “after” photo, and it was earlier in the afternoon, so the angle of the sunlight helped pick out terrain features a bit better.

Here’s a shot from the Irvine Spectrum area from April 6, 2006:

That’s not a lawn behind that hedge, that’s a vacant lot. You can see it’s just as green as the strip of maintained grass along the sidewalk. Now here’s a picture taken about half a block away, taken last week, on April 6, 2007 (no, the timing was not intentional).

This year, only a few weeds and flowers have managed to take hold in the vacant lot. Meanwhile, the hills are their usual golden brown. Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to see much in the way of wildflowers this year. Here’s what they looked like last May, specifically May 5, 2006.

Instead, everything pretty much looks like these hills out in the Foothill Ranch area (IIRC this was called Borrego Park), taken last Wednesday:

You can see what a difference sprinklers make. Which brings me to this item: I walked to the Spectrum shopping center for lunch last Friday, and noticed that the parking lot across the street was bordered with these brilliant magenta flowers. I didn’t have the good camera with me, just my phone, but I’ve tried to correct the colors as much as I could: I went back on Monday and got a better picture.

Right after taking this the original photo, I looked down and noticed that the embankment was practically crawling with bees. I carefully backed away and continued on my walk.

For contrast, here’s a shot from a few weeks earlier (February 23), when it was unusually clear. This was taken from a park in the Quail Hill area of Irvine, looking across the Saddleback Valley from the south toward the same range of hills seen on the left of the picture above.

Click to enlarge