Fern Dell, Griffith Park

Hiked June 18, 2026. Hike 24 for the year.

From the Observatory down East Observatory Trail, to the end of Fern Dell is only about a mile each way, which isn't much of a hike. Altitude of 620 feet though, so at least a little work out.

It's been a while since my last trip down here, so I was overdue. Had some time this day, so down I went.

The entire trail is on the south side of the Hollywood Hills, so there's not much shade on East Observatory trail, at least not unless you're going early. In the afternoon, yeah, you're exposed. Alternatively, if it's late afternoon, West Observatory trail has more shade, but is more exposed in the morning.

I thought I had read in the past that water for Ferndell came from air conditioner condensation up at the Observatory, but is also supplemented by natural ground water. Then, when the AC was renovated, less condensation comes down this way. Not sure, but I do know that, most of the time recently, the water is pretty low, and a little stinky, until you get closer to the bottom of Fern Dell.

There's a nice little trail that criss-crosses the creek. Sometimes, there's blooming foliage adjacent and within the creek. On this day, I think there were literally three blooming flowers I saw.

Sometimes, there are fish in the creek. Other times, not. I saw no fish on this day.

Still, the running water is relaxing, and the various pedestrian and vehicle bridges are picturesque.

Lots of tall trees line the creek, so it's almost always mostly shaded, once you get to the watery part of the trail. I can't tell you what most of the trees there are, other than that there are some palm trees, which probably grew in on their own, and some coast redwood, which certainly did not grow in on their own.

There are a few other places in Griffith Park where you can see some coast redwoods, including near the entrance to the Greek Theater, which I have walked by, before. I have seen a few references to redwoods at Cedar Grove, but I've never been there, so I cannot confirm if there are redwood trees there, or not.

Fern Dell is a nice change of pace from most of Griffith Park, if only because of the tall trees and the sound of running water. The redwood trees are a plus.

I had been thinking about local redwoods quite a lot, recently. A number of years ago, I had visited the larger redwood grove in Carbon County Regional Park, near Yorba Linda. But, somehow, I never posted any pictures of that grove on my blog, here, nor, apparently, any mention of that on my personal facebook page. That omission bothered me.

In part, my trek down to Fern Dell served as a reminder about local redwood trees, and my failure to have a documented entry for the redwood grove in Carbon Canyon. And that finally spurred me to return to Carbon Canyon to redress my failure to document that trip. At the end of my Juneteenth weekend, I managed to make that trip. So that will be Hike #25, my next entry. That leaves me needing just one more hike by the end of the month, to stay on target for my 52 hikes, this year.

Whirlpool Galaxy, STL, 6/13/2026

Not a hike. I was out here on June 13, 2026, for my second consecutive week of outreach, but did not manage a hike on either trip. This week, like last week, was very windy during set up, but because the winds died down last week, I went ahead and set up my big refactor for astrophotography. This is a single frame, 60 second exposure, ISO 5000, through my 152mm f/8 triplet with .7x focal reducer / field flatner, cropped, to eliminate vignetting. Took it as the public observing wound down, and I still had my big Dobsonian for public viewing while I did this. It's a good shot for me and my limited technique. But I also took a number of shorter exposures, which I may eventually learn how to stack and process for a better result.

No idea how many people pop over here to check for astrophotography, but I do post some of my shots here, albeit usually embedded in an accompanying hike. This one's a standalone, though. Wanted to shot M51 during the last season, but weather did not cooperate.

Galaxy season is drawing to a close, but there are still a few other objects that would be within range of my set up that I haven't shot for the summer season. We'll see how things go.

Griffith Observatory to the Top of the Hollywood Sign, and Burbank Peak

Hiked May 30, 2026. Twenty-third hike of the year.

Although not scheduled to work this night, I had to come back to the Observatory for another reason, so made the plan to hike Burbank Peak. This is one of my favorite hikes, but it's been a while since I'd done it, so I got a little disoriented on catching what I call the "Ridge Route," but I think is formally called the "Mount Chapel Trail."

The photos are out of sequence, by the way, so don't try to figure that out!

I'm pretty sure if you do the "Ridge Route" correctly, it's faster and easier than even getting to the bottom of the Hollywood Sign via the Mullholland Trail, because of all the zig-zags that one takes, as it follows a contour at the base of the Hollywood Hills.

From the Observatory, I left via the Charlie Turner Trailhead, up Mount Hollywood Trail, to the north side of Mount Hollywood, then the North Trail, up a trail that runs along a pipe, to a watertank, on the north side of Taco Peak, then around on a fire road, across Mount Hollywood Drive, then up on the Mount Chapel Trail, south of that summit. This is a sometimes-thin, sometimes-overgrown single-track trail, that eventually hits paved Mount Lee Drive. Left takes you up to the top of the sign; right would take you down, to the bottom.

Well, that was the plan. But I think in real-life, I missed a turn, wound up off trail, then just followed a use trail down to the Mulholland trail, hid Mount Lee Drive down near the bottom, and walked back up to the ridge, and continued up, from there. From the ridge, Mount Lee road then runs up the north side of Mount Lee, heading west.

Where Mount Lee Drive makes the hairpin left turn from, the north side of Mount Lee to the south side, the narrow "Wonderview Trail" continues straight, along the spine of the mountains. There's a short bit of high Class II / low Class III as you summit Cahuenga Peak, before you continue along the spine, towards Burbank Peak.

I passed a nice amount of mariposa lily on the short segment between Cahuenga Peak and Burbank Peak. Also, some healthy, green sections of California buckwheat. Then you arrive at the "Wisdom Tree." It's a very picturesque little tree, and sets a nice image against the horizon from many directions. That's it, at the top of this post, as well as the third shot from the bottom.

That's also me, in that top picture. I messaged down to my colleagues, down at Griffith Observatory, and one of them turned one of the portable lawn telescopes over to Burbank Peak as I arrived there. I waved my arms around a bit, so they could confirm it was me, then took a cell phone shot through the eyepiece, which explains the weird optical artifacts. But, there I am, from about two miles away.

From there, I returned along the narrow Wonderview trail, back to Mount Lee Drive, then turned right on the pavement, on to the top of Mount Lee. That's home to the famous Hollywood sign, of course. Took a few shots up near the top, then headed back down. Only took me about 90 minutes to walk back to the Observatory, with fewer stops than one the way back. I did stop to admire the rising moon, and get some observatory shots, again.

I think I passed this tiny snake on the way back, along the Mount Chapel trail section. Like the size of a big worm. Couldn't see the head or tail, so I could tell if it was a tiny rattle snake or a tiny gopher snake. Either way, at that size, there's no way he could get his jaw around my leg. But he was still, and I walked over him, and he seemed not to care.

I think the sacred datura was also on the way back. Pretty common out here, though I may have actually seen more mariposa lily on this hike than sacred datura.

Couple of shots from the top of the Hollywood sign. One looks right over it, overlooking Lake Hollywood. The other one is from a bit west, looking back, towards the Observatory.

And here's some mariposa lily.

The horses were from earlier, on my way out, after I missed my turn and wound up briefly on the Mulholland trail.

As for my return trip, I walked mderately quickly, though I still had time to take shots of the rising moon, and the DTLA skyline.

Only about 90 minutes, with no wrong turns, from the top of Mount Lee to the Observatory. So my general guess of about 3 to 3.5 hours, roundtrip for someone to walk between the Observatory and Mount Lee, at a fair pace, with only occasional rests. It's another 30 minutes or so to add Burbank Peak.

For myself, my Alltrails recording showed 9.5 miles, 1680 feet altitude gain, and 3:20 of moving time. So figure a bit less than four hours, depending on how long you rest along the way and take pictures and so forth.

This was my second significant walk in three days, so I was pretty tired after this, and for the next day. But I always feel good after a hike like this, so I was glad I had the time to make it.

No additional hikes since then, so I'm a little behind. Need to fit in three more hikes over the next two weekends to stay on track for 52 hikes for the year. Also still have a few to blog, though I've lost track of those now, too.

Griffith Observatory to the Base of the Hollywood Sign

Hiked May 28, 2026. Hike 22 for the Year. My hiking pace took a dive this month, but I managed to get a few in at the end of the month, keeping me on pace for this year's target of 52 hikes. I got a boost by cloudy weather and forgetfulness. For this hike, it was the former.

I was scheduled to work a lawn telescope, but the clouds made showing anything problematic for the night, though there would have been some brief peeks at the moon, had I stuck around all night. Most of the time would have just been standing around, or showing city sights, which is allowable, but not much fun, to me. So I put in my hour, then went hiking.

I have obviously been hiking in Griffith Park since the year this blog began. Looks like I last hiked to the top of the sign about two years ago. But I think it's been a while since I was at the bottom of the sign, so I figured I would do that, and get an idea of the hiking distance and time from the Observatory.

Turns out the answer is, "A lot." The problem is, from the Observatory, the trails you need to take to get to the base are very windy, weaving along contour lines that turn in and out of various erosion creases. It was about 8.5 miles, roundtrip. And since I hadn't gone on any longer hikes in a while, I found it pretty tiring.

It was longer than it needed to be because I don't like having to cross West Observatory Road, down near the Vermont Tunnel, and I don't like walking up or down West Observatory Road, because of the foot traffic. So either staying up from the Charlie Turner trailhead, or returning over the tunnel, both add a lot of distance and altitude gain to the hike. But I usually find that preferable to the foot and car traffic, down below.

So, on this trip, I walked past the Berlin Children's Forest, then dropped down to West Observatory Road, cross West Observatory Road and Western Canyon Road then walked up the paved but gated road that is Mount Hollywood Drive. I then took Mulholland Trail over to paved Mount Lee Drive, then turned down, to the left.

Then it was west, on and along Mulholland Highway (passing on the pedestrian bypass for a gate that otherwise blocks Mulholland Highway), to a lot that is signed as 6101 Mullholland, and has a steel sheeted placesaver and a "No Tressspassing" sign on the stairs leading up to the sheet metal outline of a home. I assume the intent is to one day build there, and so to preserve their private holding, no right of public access until they do. Google maps calls the place, "The Last House on Mulholland."

Of course, if you buy and build, there, I would expect an awful lot of foot traffic around your house, and you'd probably have to grant an easement of some kind, to preserve the view of the sign.

I returned to the Observatory via the "three mile" trail, back up to near Mount Hollywood, then took the east side trail around Mount Hollywood, then back down to the Observatory, via the Charlie Turner trailhead.

A screen shot of my Alltrails recording is here: 8.79 miles, 1,053 feet of vertical. I was pretty tired, the next day, and the day after.

Unlike national park areas, dogs are permitted. No smoking is allowed anywhere in the park. You may need to share the trail with horses, and you'll definitely see horse poop and smell horse urine. Also, there's a lot shorter way to get here, if you park down near Lake Hollywood Park. Parking is free, down there. But because I'm me, I almost always park near the Observatory for my hikes in Griffith Park.

Red Rock Canyon State Park, Cantil, CA

Hiked May 18, 2026. Twenty-first hike of the year.

This was not the original plan. My 21st hike was supposed to be in the eastern Sierra, on the afternoon-evening of the 17th. But as the 17th moved from morning into afternoon, I saw what looked like a huge bank of dust, to the north of Bishop, and coming our way. By about the time I would have headed out for a hike that would end with the soft afternoon-evening light, the winds were whipping, dust was heavy and tree branches were breaking. I siren wailed.

So, yeah, no hike above Bishop on Sunday afternoon. After a few hours, the thick dust blew by, but the winds continued. The building shook. So I just hunkered down in the room, and hoped things would be better, tomorrow.

The next morning, it was still windy, but the air looked pretty clear. I considered a hike locally, but that would have meant a long, unbroken drive home. So I figured I'd try to leave relatively early, then stop and hike a bit around Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Red Rock Canyon State Park is about two hours from my home, so it's a little long for a day trip, but too close to feel like making it an overnight trip. Basically, it's Joshua Tree far, but withot a convenient gateway town to stay in. Also, the campsites are exposed, which would be a problem if it's windy, and potentially hot. In any event, I never managed to hike here, before, despite many trips through the area on the way to or from Bishop.

[Lancaster is about 45 minutes from Red Rock, but that's not enough time saved to be worth an overnight stay; Mojave is just twenty minutes away, but it's a pretty desolate area, with basically nothing but gas stations and fast food, although there is a Stater Brothers (market) in town. Overnight for Joshua Tree only makes sense because I usually stay late for astronomy.]

Stopping on the way back from Bishop broke up the drive, and let me stretch my legs for a few hours.

With no particular idea of where I would walk, I just drove to the visitor center, which, it turns out, was not open on the day I arrived. There was a roofless vault toilet in the parking lot, however, and an electronic ticketing machine. So I used the restroom, then spent a few minutes figuring out how to pay ($6 for general admission, $5 for seniors over age 62), grabbed what I needed, then started walking. I could see a very obvious far off to the south, along a ridge, so I headed that way.

At the top of that ridge, was a sign pointing to the left, saying, "Whistler's Ridge," so I headed up to that viewpoint, then came back down, and headed further south. Ran into a steap dropoff through volcanic rocks, so I turned back, again.

Then tried to make my way back towards some cliffs I saw on my way out, far to the west. This led me to a couple of box canyons, so I wound up having to backtrack all the way back to the pass I took to get here.

Once back on the CA-14 side of things, I headed a bit west, running briefly near a cliff, before arching back towards my car.

Total distance for this walk was 4 1/4 miles, according to my Alltrails recording. 584 feet of altitude gain.

Interesting formations were I walked, but not too much color. That was more near the offramp from CA-14, and further north, but on the opposite side of CA-14. Because I still had a fair walk remaining, and work, the next day, I didn't want to walk too far on this walk, anyway. So, less than two hours of walking, and a nice break. Could defintely take at least one more similar walking day to see the other areas of the park, though.

Two more hikes this week, in addition to anything I haven't blogged from earlier, yet.

Volcanic Tablelands, Near Bishop, CA

Hiked May 17, 2026. Twentieth hike of the year. This was supposed to be part of a dark sky weekend, where I was going to try an extended period of astrophotography. However, for various reasons, I ended up not even setting up the telescopes.

I arrived at the Ferguson Group campground about 6pm on May 16. But my group had already vacated the site, due to anticipated poorer seeing conditions. And, for various reasons, I wasn't up for setting up and camping there by myself, so I drove back down to 395, and booked a reservation once I had a signal. Once i was checking my messages, I also discovered that I had been at the right place on the right date, but the friends had already vacated.

So I checked in, moved some stuff up, and microwaved my dinner. Took an evening walk around the motel, to reach my step count. That's the two shots at the end of this post, so they would have been May 16, 2026, but not an actual hike. Pretty, though.

After I got back, I did some Internet searching to decide on my morning hike. The plan was going to be for a short hike among the Volcanic Tablelands in the morning, then resting up, and taking a longer hike into the eastern Sierra in the afternoon, once the light turned golden.

On Sunday morning, May 17, 2026, I got a relatively early start, leaving the motel before 7am, and got back, just before 10am. The goal was "skyrock" and then what ever else I could find.

I had read that my intended trailhead was some distance past "Happy Boulders," off Chalk Cliff Road. Turns out my gps actually knew how to get to "Happy Boulders," so I followed those directions, then just continued past, looking for a parking area with a trail heading up into the Volcanic Tablelands.

A good part of the road out here is dirt, and somewhat washboarded. Still easily managed by a typical sedan, if you find the right speed to go and the right lines for the washboarding.

Turns out there's a portapotty at "Happy Boulders," by the way, so you may have one restroom option between Bishop and the Volcanic Tablelands. I didn't notice any actual signage calling this place, "Happy Boulders," though, so you'll just have to know it, when you see it.

I think it's likely that you could hike up the trail near Happy Boulders, then just wandered to the west. But because I wasn't sure, I just continued on Chalk Cliff Road until I found the next small parking area, with a distinct trail head up the cliff.

The trail up is short and steep, but easier coming down than I expected it would be. Great views over the winding waterways south of the Volcanic Tablelands on the way up, as well as views of the Sierra, to your west, and the White Mountains, to your east.

Once at the top of the highlands, there's a line of boulders to your right. As I undestood it, skyrock would be visible from somewhere at the top of that mesa, looking downward, so I intended to find a way up to the top of those boulders, and keep peeking back over to the west, looking for Skyrock.

The strategy proved sufficient. After checking between various rocks, I finally did find the skyrock petroglyph, pictured at the top. I continued poking around these rocks. Just east of the boulders, by the way, maybe 1/8 of a mile from the southern cliff, was a jeep or atv trail, with a turnaround area. The trail came from the north. Just before the turnout area was a small wide area for parking or turning around. The Skyrock was not too far from that area.

Across the jeep trail, and across the arroyo, was another set of boulders. A relatively distinct use trail lead across the arroyo, to where I could see some ambiguous markings on those rocks -- maybe indigenous, maybe not.

Near those ambiguous markings was another rock face, with what looks like bullet markings all over. Thirteen Moons was right near that.

So I'm not providing gps coordinates, but this should get you close enough to find the petroglyphs. It's actually more fun, this way, when you "discover" them only with a little bit of effort on your part.

In retrospect, I learned that you'd either want to get here shortly after sunrise, or in the early afternoon, to put both sets of petroglyphs either fully in sun or fully in shadow.

With lots of wandering and crisscrossing, I made a bit over three miles of walking for the morning, so enough to qualify as a formal "hike."

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve

Posting out of order. I hiked this over two months ago, March 14, 2026. Twelfth hike for the year.

Only been here once before, and it was a long time ago. Not sure how I managed never to come back, but I hadn't, until this March.

This trip was a spring trip, with quite a bit of flowers in bloom, even away from the watery bottom of the seep in Big Morongo Canyon.

The The area has several defined trails. One heads down the main canyon. One runs along the east side of the preserve. One runs to the west. Numerous trails criss-cross the central, wetter area of the preserve. I wandered somewhat aimlessly, but not very far down the canyon, as I didn't have time to do that.

The spring bloom was still going strong, with a wide variety of flowers along the paths: Desert mallow in the wash, brittlebush on the hills, a patch of Mojave aster near an overlook, chia, yucca, and a very few larkspur and lupine.

I zigged zagged around enough to hit my three mile minimum, plus a little bit.

This would have been a Saturday afternoon, a stop on the way towards Yucca Valley/Twentynine Palms, and a night of astronomy outreach at Sky's the Limit. I was still on a decent roll, as far as hiking, getting out once or twice a week. It's been slower, recently, but two hikes this last weekend: Volcanic Tablelands near Bishop, for Hike #20, on May 16, and Red Rock Canyon State Park, near Cantil/Ridgecrest for Hike #21.

That was supposed to be surrounding a nice astrophotography outing, but that fizzled out for me. Only managed two short hikes, so I think that means I have, I think, three hikes to blog.

Big Morongo Preserve has a webpage on the San Bernardino County website. Apparently, it's owned by the County, as part of Big Morongo Regional Park, but there's also a non-profit partner that shares in management.

Free entry. No pets. No smoking. No collection of plants or animals. Open 7:30am to sunset.

And, of course, it can get *really* hot in the summer, so it's more of a three-season park, although it does remain open year round, and an early or late hike in summer would still be comfortable. Trails are a mixture of regular dirt and boardwalks, because the trails crisscross a seap, where water bubbles up due to the San Andreas Fault. That makes this a literal oasis in the desert, but even an oasis can be hot in the summer.

If you do hike in the summer, wear proper sun protection, bring liquids, and carefully monitor your comfort, especially if you're with kids. They overheat quicker and don't always signal you before they *really* overheat, so, can not stress this enough, if you go in the summer, take it easy, and don't over do it!