Hike 2013.056 -- Eaton Canyon Falls from Eaton Canyon Nature Center

Hiked Monday, December 9. Well, I'm largely down to single hikes in a week, which is a real shame. As I noted in my previous post, my work schedule is really limiting my hiking opportunities. Also, probably because I've gotten out of the habit of three or four hikes in many weeks, it's sometimes hard for me to feel the motivation to get off my butt and into the mountains.

On this day, I took a vacation day from my regular day job so I'd have time to work on writing a test for one of my night jobs. Unfortunately, I didn't get nearly as much of that done as I wanted, so I'll be spending a good part of the upcoming weekend trying to get that done.

With the whole day off, the plan was to start the day with a short hike. I waited long enough for the sun to rise and get the temperatures out of the 30s and probably out of the 40s. Then I took a very short, very easy, but scenic hike into Eaton Canyon.

Being a weekday, the parking lot at Eaton Canyon Nature Center (Altadena Drive, just north of New York Avenue, in the "Altadena" portion of unincorporated Los Angeles County) still had plenty of spaces. But it was far from empty.

I walked at a fast clip, as I've done this hike so many times before. My real interest often comes down to wondering how the falls look this time compared to previous times.

One clue to how the falls will look is to see how far down the canyon the water flows. Today, the answer was, "Barely out past the bridge."

Somewhat surprisingly, however, the water was not even continuous from the falls to the bridge. Not more than 100 yards past the bridge, the river bed was dry. And it stayed dry until not more than 100 yards from the falls. I was surprised. But it's been a while since my last hike, so I don't know how low the water was before the recent rains. But, clearly, it must have been dry.

I took plenty of pictures, then returned the way I came. About four miles roundtrip.

Additional write-ups of this hike elsewhere on this blog would provide more detailed driving directions. There isn't much to add to the hiking directions, though. You just go "up-wash," until you reach the falls.