The whole trip to L.A. through the Central Valley was interesting. The landscape is so flat here, yet different than Holland.
First, it is such a large area (it stretches for nearly 400 miles) and second, it is very dry (it reminded me of the Egyptian landscape); nevertheless this is the center of California agriculture. It’s actually irrigated by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
But then shortly after Bakersfield the mountains rise suddenly. Such a huge alteration! And by a place called Gorman I’ve seen something I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to take a picture of. The mountains were literally covered by wildflowers. For a couple of miles blue, purple, orange and yellow colors all over the slopes.
I have never seen anything like that before.
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Maarten was so excited to go camping again. When we pitched our tent he wanted to immediately go inside to sleep with Oušík and ... with Madison of course. Well, he didn’t fall asleep, and he was not scared to sleep in the dark tent later that day.
Yet to sleep so close to the deer grazing every night in the meadow next to our campsite seemed to be pretty adventurous for him.
To be honest I never felt any desire to visit the city of Los Angeles so this was a good way to explore at least its surroundings.
Malibu Creek State Park really is special. You would never know you are just some 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles .
And it does have some glorious past too. Part of this area was once owned by Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and 20th Century Fox.
But now everybody can freely enjoy its beauty.
We spent just a couple of days here but it was enough to explore the park and we even had time left to check out its surroundings.
When we arrived on Thursday the large parking was full. It seems to be nothing special to see a film crew in this park. Its décor already served several famous movies.
Past the visitor center (by the way a stunning place which I believe used to be owned by Bob Hope) is the dramatic Rock Pool where several famous movies were filmed: Tarzan, Swiss Family Robinson and Planet of the Apes. It is already a while since we've seen those movies so we wouldn't recognize much of it here.
But the pool is a picturesque place to chill and take a rest.
More familiar was the site of the TV series M*A*S*H. There are still two old rusted cars which add to the atmosphere of the place.
The first two days at the park were very warm, in the high 80’s actually. We were warned to look out for rattlesnakes. Some hikers even saw a couple of them slither over the path. We didn’t see any.
We rested at Century Lake, which was once built to be used for sailing, fishing and duck hunting. This original purpose seems to have been abandoned already years ago. Now it is more a marsh than a lake.
But there is still enough water to jump in. Of course our Maarten had to give it a try. Dressed of course!
I always carry extra clothes for him but not extra shoes.
Luckily it was so warm even the shoes dried fairly well.
It was surprising that the weather forecast for this weekend was so accurate.
It was not exactly foggy on Saturday but it was cloudy and we had a nice, warm night. This compared to the other two nights when towards morning it grew very cold and froze. The meadow was covered in frost and the water in our bucket was one piece of ice!
Anyway...
On Saturday we ‘discovered’ another splendid place, Escondido Falls in the Santa Monica Mountains . I would never expect such a spectacle so close to the huge Malibu homes. We had to cross the creek several times, perfect for Maarten indeed! I’ve already seen quite a few falls in California but this one was different again.
Already by approaching the base of the lower fall you could see the high upper ones in the distance.
The rock walls, covered with light green moss and dripping water reminded me of Fern Canyon in the North.
It was pretty cold at the pool. Some friendly 60+ hikers advised us not to miss the upper falls.
At first I thought also of taking Maarten up there, because there should be a lot of salamanders in the pool. But to be honest I had had enough struggle climbing up myself, scrambling and using my hands to stay on the slippery path.
The ascent was really challenging yet it was worth the climb. Here you see the water crashing over the three tiers and falling into another lovely pool.
I was probably so impressed by the beauty of this place that I forgot to look for the salamanders.
In the afternoon the sky cleared up again so we spent the rest of the day at the ocean. Though being in Malibu you would expect the beach to be nicer and especially cleaner...
