Seventh Ave (Hacienda Hills) Trailhead - Ahwingna, Schabaram, and Coyote Trails, Puente Hills Habitat Authority

Hiked on February 2, 2026. Happy Groundhog Day!

Sixth hike of the year. I've hiked this area many times, starting with my first serious hiking year, in 2010. Especially early in the season, the Puente Hills lend themselves to hiking when it's colder at higher altitudes. Also, it's a relatively close, 30 minute drive from my house to the Seventh Avenue Trailhead. The Puente Hills Native Habitat Authority refers to this trailhead as the Hacienda Hills Trailhead.

There's a small parking area at the trailhead, room for two accessible vehicles and about three non-accessible (non-ADA) vehicles. But across the street, on Seventh Avenue, adjacent to the field for Orange Grove Middle School, is room for many, many, many more vehicles, so parking is not usually an issue. In the past, there were soccer matches on the field, however, so if that's the case, parking may be more limited.

There's a portapotty just inside the gate. Many, many signs near the gate warn that the gate is locked from 5pm until 9am from October 1 through May 31, or 6pm until 9am the rest of the year. So don't get started too early or too late. They also warn you may be cited if you're in the area during the closed period. The trails also close after rain or on Red Flag days.

In my opinion, the hours are far too limited, especially in the summer. Sunrise can be over three hours earlier and over two hours later than the area's open hours. It didn't used to be so restrictive.

Once inside the gate, you have the option of a wild dirt/gravel road or a winding, somewhat sheltered hardpacked trail, to the right of the road. Both merge together about a 1/3 of a mile from the gate, after the dirt road turns to the west.

Near that merger, the Coyote Trail heads south from the dirt road. The Ahwingna Trail continues to the west. That's the path I followed.

The dirt turns to pavement as the road begins climbing. A wooden fence is on your right, providing privacy to the neighbors below, and a canvas for the local gang taggers.

As the pavement ends, the Ahwingna Trail becomes a single-track dirt path, to heading off to the left. It's mostly single track the rest of the way, but with occasional intersecting use or defined trails. About 1/2 mile after the Coyote Trail junction, there's a junction off of Ahwingna trail, for the Native Oak Trail. That trail heads off to the right. Again, I continued on the Ahwingna, bearing left.

After an additional 1/2 mile, the Ahwingna Trail ends, as it intersects with the Schabarum/Skyline Trail. There is a chainlink fence in front of you, so you need to turn left or right. Because I didn't quite recall my previous path here, I first walked a little right, then a little left, past where I first intersected with the Scharbarum trail. There's a designed opening in the fence a bit to the left, which I passed through. I turned right after the opening, and eventually followed the dirt road there up Whittier Hill, where there's a large, empty, graffiti-covered watertank that is now the base for many microwave transmission antennas. Stopped up there and took some pictures.

This area overlooks a bit of the farthest southern and eastern bits of Rose Hills Memorial Park. The large Chinese temple thing is visible, down below. Meanwhile, left of that, at the base of the hill, would be Whittier. Several potential trailheads are down there.

You can also look north, towards the San Gabriel Mountains, northwest, towards the 605 freeway and the San Gabriel River, and east, along the Puente Hills. Further off that way would be Chino Hills, which I kind of wanted to hike this day, but got too late of a start to do.

I then headed down from the watertank, determined to make it over to the Nike missile area. But, again, I did not entirely recall where it was, so I just headed in the direction I needed to go. This put me on the southside of a barbed wire-topped chainlink fence. The actual Schabarum-Skyline trail is on the north side of the fence. The barbed strands atop the fence leaned north, to keep you out of the Rose Hills Property. There were no "No Tresspassing" signs, however, so I continued walking west, looking for a place where I could easily get myself from the Rose Hills side to the Skyline trail side of that fence.

I overlooked Rose Hills as I made my way over. They own all this area, and will eventually expand pretty much all the way to the fence, I assume. They also have a huge watertank for reclaimed water, to irrigate their vast property. No picture of that tank posted, but it dwarfed the graffiti-covered tank.

Lots of green grass, and lupine growing on the Rose Hills property. I took a few shots of those flowers as I continued heading west. That shot is still several pictures down below.

Finally, as I reached the section with the eucalyptus trees, where the trail is basically just the tree-lined road wide, with the Rose Hills fence on the south and a fence to keep you out of the former landfill to the north, there was a chained gate section of fence, with a wide enough gap that I could pass through. I checked carefully to be sure neither my head nor my hips nor my chest would get stuck in the gap. Once so confirmed, I slipped on through to the other side.

The area north of the Skyline/Schabarum trail will eventually be a large regional park. Ground breaking hasn't happened, yet, so I imagine this is far off in the future. For now, it's just a fenced off area with many signs telling you not to mess with the equipment there, or face prosecution.

The good news is, whenever construction actually finishes, there will still be the Schabarum trail, linking this new park to the existing Schabarum Park in Rowland Heights, and points east of that, as well as west, from this future Hacienda Hills park, down to the San Gabriel River. From there, the San Gabriel River trails link down to Long Beach, or up to the mouth of the San Gabriel River canyon. Along the way, you'd also be able to travel up to Legg Lake (Whittier Narrows Recreation Area), or link with the Rio Hondo trail, and also the Santa Fe Dam (Irwindale), and Encanto Park (Duarte).

All of these trails are multiple-use trails, open to hikers, mountain bikers, or equestrians, although the number of horse riders is rapidly diminishing.

After the eucalyptus-lined dirt road, the trail veers left of the paved road, on a series of switchbacks that lead up to a hilltop. At the top are many antennas and some park benches you can sit at. Currently no restroom facilities up there, nor, as far as I can tell, any water, for either people or horses. Nice views, though.

Incidentally, just before you reach the top, there's a sign indicating the Schabarum trail to the right, or a trail to a scenic rest area, to your left. Ignore that sign. The scenic rest area is at the top of the hill, and the Schabarum trail will take you there. The other trail was super overgrown, and just took a longer way to the same place.

At the top is a small shack, maybe two or three times the size of a phone booth. That used to be the guard shack for entrance to this hilltop location, which was where a radar installation and launch site for anti-aircraft Nike missiles was based. During the Cold War, this would have been where missiles were launched at incoming bombers. Of course, once ICBMs were a thing, the anti-aircraft battery seemed sort of pointless, so the Nike missiles were retired.

Maybe a half-dozen people were up there when I got to the top, the largest concentration of people I saw during my hike. Other than that, it was just singles and pairs, and a few larger groups of hikers. This was a Monday afternoon, of course, but, still, it was pretty empty. Undoubtedly busier on weekends.

From here, it was back to my car. The only variation was, instead of returning entirely the way I came, I continued on the Schabarum Trail maybe 1/2 mile past the Ahwingna Trail, and returned via the Coyote Trail. No significant difference in distance. Just wanted a bit more variety to my hike.

By the time I got back to my car, the Alltrails recording said I had a little over seven miles, and gained 1237 feet. So not a bad day. Roughly the same distance, but 800 feet less altitude gain than my previous hike.

Not surprisingly, it's pretty green out there. There hasn't been any significant precipitation since New Year's, but it was a wet couple of weeks around then, and the ground still has plenty of moisture.

The warm weather since then has meant lots of growth, but it's not necessarily good for wildflowers. They'll have to compete with plenty of grasses, as opposed to their normal preference of germinating ahead of the taller grasses. Also, the heat will shorten their lives. As annuals, they want to bloom and seed quickly. Too hot, and they'll die before they can flower, or their bloom will be cut short, saving their energy for seed development in the earlier flowers.

No rain in the forecast for about another week, at least, so there's a fair chance this'll be it for significant rain in our rain year. Ten day forecast shows some "occasional showers" or "scattered showers" periods, which means maybe heavy rain, maybe light rain, maybe no rain, so I'm not expecting a lot of rain, although the long-term pattern allows for significant rain into April. This year, I fear the early spring could mean a very long fire season.

In the meantime, enjoy the greenery! Funny enough, I saw some of the greenest, largest poison oak leaves I have ever seen, so keep an eye out for that, too!

BTW, I don't always note this, but I can say that dogs on leashes are permitted on these trails, too. There are some shaded areas on this trail, but it will warm up fast. And, as noted above, no apparent water available on the trail, so if you bring a dog, bring some water for them, too.

Old Mount Wilson Trail to Jones Peak Cutoff

Hiked Janury 25, 2026. Fifth hike of the year.

The Forest Service adjusted their closure area from the Eaton Fire, moving the lower portion of the Old Mount Wilson Trail out of the closure area. It's now officially open to Orchard Camp, about 3.5 miles from the official trailhead. Since I parked a bit down in Sierra Madre, I wound up covering seven miles just to get to the Jones Peak Cutoff. Bailey Canyon Park is still closed, so I was curious if access was allowable via the Old Mount Wilson Trail. But I started too late to check up that way, so I just hiked to the sign for the cutoff.

It was a wet December and early January, so the hills are pretty green. The topography of this trial doesn't lend itself to sprawling fields of wildflowers, but there was definitely spots of color along the way. Lupine were pretty common from about 1/2 to about 3/4 of a mile up.

Canterbury Bells were more common from just around where the lupine petered out for another mile or so. Some purple and white nightshade in spots. Oh, and a field of mustard at the lowest parts of the trail. That's the yellow flowers in the picture near the end of this post.

There's a memorial stone out near where a ridge runs off from the trail. Not sure if that's what these guys were visiting.

The water was running well in Little Santa Anita Canyon. Partially because of that, and partially because of the thinner vegetation, I could see even more waterfalls down in the canyon than I recall. Unfortunately, most would require a technical approach to do so, safely. Otherwise, there are steep and significant dropoffs into the canyon.

I also saw a signficant waterfall upstream from First Water. So, on my return leg, I went back down to First Water, again, and headed upstream a bit. But the water was pretty high, and I didn't have waterboots or hiking poles to help make it through these rapids. I was sure I could hop the small distance of that first crossing, but then it would be moving along boulders that might or might not be very slick, where a slip would dunk me in the water. Not going to die or even necessarily risk significant injury, but I would get very wet. So I just turned and returned to my car. Might try again in a few weeks, when the water's lower.

As previously noted, on my uphill leg, I was aiming for the Jones Peak cutoff. The sign is still there, and there was no sign saying the trail up to Jones Peak was closed. On the other hand, the trail itself was very eroded, at least here at the bottom.

Had I left even a half-hour earlier, I might have poked around a bit, just to see if anything resembling a trail continued from what looked like a dry streambed. But I was somewhat short on time, and wanted to stop and look for the waterfall I saw above First Water, so I just drank some Powerade Zero at my turnaround point, and headed back down.

As it turned out, my detour down near First Water was pretty brief. Crossed the stream, headed up, past a bench that I don't remember seeing before, then the stream got narrow. Rather than risk a slide over a boulder into the water, I removed my boots and walked through the creek at the first barrier. Then, as noted above, I was on a boulder and could hop to the next boulder, but wasn't sure about the return.

Also, had I hopped to the first boulder, then I'd be walking over granite and fast moving water. Also as noted previously, the water wasn't that deep, but it might have been enough to knock me off my feet, for a full dunking. Probably not, but, being older, I more often turn around at the first sign of an Imperial Starship, rather than. . . .

Wait, I mean I turn around at the first significant chance of a slip and fall, even if the result would just be scrapes and an unplanned dunk. But I'm a Star Wars geek, and once I typed, "first sign," couldn't resist finishing line.

Quite a bit of baby blue eyes (the flowers one shot above) just as I made the final approach to the Jones Peak cutoff.

Nice ribbony waterfall here, somewhat past First Water, I think.

This shot was a little further down the trail, before the turn to the west. You might not be able to see, but some of those trees are burned. Further down, from First Water and below, I saw little to no evidence of fire damage. But up here, you could see some trees were burned and dead. Others were burned, but survived.

There were a few western wallflowers blooming along the trail, just above First Water. I think I've seen them growing right around here, before, too.

More inaccessible rapids and waterfalls, down in the canyon.

One of numerous morning glory in bloom.

Little Santa Anita Canyon Dam. It doesn't impound water, any more. It just slows the flow.

That field of mustard I mentioned, above.

Trailhead sign, which appears unchanged from before the fire.

Sign and gate for the Old Mount Wilson Trail. I don't remember this sign and gate, so I'm not sure when it went up.

It was a good hiking day. A little cool by the time I started (3pm or so), and cooler near the end. But it's strenuous on the way up (pretty steep), and an easy coast on the way back (for the most part). Because I parked down on Carter (rather than Mira Monte), I added a half-mile each way to my hike. My Alltrails recording said I walked just over seven miles, with just under 2000 feet of vertical gain. I hiked down and up from the main trail to First Water twice, which added maybe a hundred feet.<\p>

Mount Hollywood from Griffith Observatory

Hiked January 21, 2026. This is the same hike I took on December 7, 2025, and have probably hiked as often as any hike in the past ten years. The starting point, and the north end of the top parking lot for Griffith Observatory, is very convenient for me.

The trailhead is also called the Charlie Turner trailhead, so I sometimes refer to the trail itself by that name, too. From the end of the parking lot, you climb a bit, past the Berlin Children's Forest, cross high above Vermont Canyon Blvd, then weave on a long, sweeping fire road, to just south of Mount Hollywood. From there, you can go left or right, looping back up to the summit.

Because it's a wide, mostly flat road, without many trees, and set against the city of Los Angeles, I find it easy to walk, even long after sunset, without a flashlight. Many others do bring flashlights, so judge for yourself if you trust your night vision or not.

My Alltrails recording says I walked 3.6 miles, with 528 feet of vertical gain. So another short hike, but all I had time for, before my shift. I actually signed in later than normal for my shift, just because I knew the clouds would keep me from showing anything in the sky, which is my main duty. I signed in late so I could help upstairs, for visitors to the Zeiss Dome, which would be in exhibit mode (no viewing through the telescope, just a chance to see it up close).

This was my fourth hike of the year, which is a better pace than most recent years. I'm sort of resolved to up my hiking to at least once a week, this year, to try to improve my health, again. I can't reasonably do 100 hikes in a year, any more, which is what this blog started as. But once a week may be doable, assuming no major health issues arising for myself or other family members.

Samuelson's Rocks via Creosote and Bigfoot Trails, JOTR National Park, CA

Hiked January 19, 2026. I hiked to Samuelson's Rocks once before, from a slightly different starting point. That time, I just parked on the side of the road, off the pavement. This time, I couldn't find that spot, and the Alltrails suggestion didn't have a lot of room from the pavement. So I drove back a bit, and found a spot with an actual paved pullout.

The odd part is, I couldn't find my writeup for my first time here. I searched on this blog and on my personal facebook page. Either I didn't do a write-up, or I misspelled something. So that was part of my impetus for choosing this hike: Let's get a freaking write-up!

My pullout was also a trailhead for the Creosote Trail. This trail does not appear on the www.nps.gov/jotr website, but it will turn up on Alltrails.

It's a fair-sized pullout, with room for about 10 cars. Fully paved, with a curb. You can park further north or south of this pull out, if you can find room to park with your tires completely outside of the whiteline (if there is one) or pavement (if there is no white line), but it's more comfortable to merge back into traffic if your tires are on pavement.

As I noted, this trailhead did not appear on the park website that talks about day hikes. For refererence's sake, it's about .6 miles past (south) of the Maze trailhead, and about 2 miles south of the new West Entrance kiosks, on the right side of the road. Maybe 1/4 of a mile past that, there's another paved pullout, on the left side of the road.

Near the pull out is an informational sign about deserts, in general. Further away from the road is (was) a stand-up board, with a warning about staying cool and hydrated in the desert, and a warning that some trails from this trailhead are long and strenuous. Then there's a trailhead mileage sign.

The first 1/2 mile out is called the Creosote trail, although I saw a lot more juniper than creosote. Lots of rocks and boulder hills and Joshua trees, so a lot of people will park here and just spill out randomly nearby, posing for pictures. Even on my return trip, however, there were very few people going beyond that 1/2 mile.

At the half-mile point is a warning sign, advising that you are leavning the creosote trail, and the other trails form significantly longer loops. I continued forward, eventually turning left when I hit the Bigfoot Trail, heading towards the Samuelson West trail. Later, when the Samuelson West trail headed to the right, I continued on the Bigfoot trail.

Still lots of rocks and Joshua trees, although you are soon walking along a wash. At one of these large rock peaks, I saw what looked a little like a large foot, facing downward. A somewhat closer view of that "foot" is the last shot in this post. The "foot" is a little left and above center. Click on the photo in the post to view a larger verson of that shot.

I assume that's the big foot that gives this trail its name.

Samnuelson's Rocks is not super obvious, from a distance. You'll generally be heading towards some pretty tall peaks in the distance. When you get within a few hundred yards of Samuelson's Rocks, you may start seeing some artifacts (small rusted cans, large fallen water tank, lots of large planks and barbed wire, some standing, some laying on their sides, and a small, enclosed corral -- somewhat interestingly, you may note the grass inside the corral is often significantly greener than the grass outside the fencing). You'll need to veer a bit left, off the Bigfoot trail, to get to Samuelson's Rocks. Be looking for a small rise of rocks, or evidence of the corral, fences, or water tank.

There are a lot of flat rocks, on which the namesake John Samuelson carved or chisled many, many words. He lived here in the 1920s, and apparently had some intent to homestead the area and work a mine. Apparently, by this time, non-citizens could not file for homesteads, and he was later forced out. But he left his thoughts behind, as well as some fences and assorted detritus.

Although well over 50 years old, and, thus, subject to Antiquities Act protection, this phase of Joshua Tree's history does not appear to have been noted on the official sights or hikes to see in the park, and, as noted, is does not have an official spur trail leading to it. In searching the www.nps.gov/jotr site, in fact, I could find only one small reference to this site, in a management plan related to the 1994 change from a national monument to a national park.

Despite that, I think the site is still worth a visit, and a moment or two of contemplation. The grammar and spelling errors in the carvings just make you work harder to figure out the author's intent.

My Alltrails recording showed my distance as 4.88 miles roundtrip, and 394 feet of elevation gain. Most of that is on the slight incline on the return trip, though you'll also do some altitude climbing as you scramble around the rocks, looking for carvings. I'm not sure how many in total there are, or if I found them all, but I found plenty.

Temperatures were in the 60s or 70s when I walked, in the mid-morning of January 19, 2026. It was great walking weather, and I felt great to be out in the desert. In the summer, this would be a hotter, tougher slog. In exteme heat, you probably shouldn't do it, at all.

This is one of at least three reasonable approaches to Samuelson's Rocks. Somewhat shorter is just parking a little further down the road, then heading directly away from the road until you hit Quail Springs Wash, then heading up the wash to Samuelson's Rocks, or starting at Quail Springs Rock Exhibit Area, then heading straight up Quail Springs Wash to Samuelson's Rocks.

Of these four approaches, the second one is the one I took the first time, and is the shortest. But it's just parking on the dirt adjacent to the road, with not a lot of room to slow to park or accelerate to merge back on to Park Blvd. I guess in theory, everyone's supposed to be going about 40mph, but that's not always the case, so merging or turning off of Park Blvd could be risky.

Given that, I'd suggest the route described here as the best balance of distance, scenic interest, and ease of parking.

However, neither here nor in option 2 is there any restroom facility. For that (vault), I think you need to go to the Quail Springs exhibit area. There are also restrooms with running water near the old West Entrance, and vault toilets at numerous sites further inside the park.