Monrovia Canyon Falls

Park and Trail Map

Driving Directions

·      Exit the 210 Freeway @ Myrtle Avenue & head North through Old Town Monrovia

·      Turn Right @ Foothill Blvd

·      Turn Left @ Canyon Blvd, turn left through residential for about 1 mile

·      Turn Right into Canyon Park

Well that was pretty much an amazing hike to kick off this blog, first off: I was accompanied by my best hiking companion, Daniel. This vivacious four year old is tearing it up on the trails these days at times leaving me in the dust; and he definitely did better than Eaves a couple weeks ago haha.

Before even making it to the park I had the opportunity to drive through Old Town Monrovia and I must say I am a fan.  The town was quaint and teeming with foot traffic, which made me yearn to move there and ditch the vehicle.   

I could not have asked for a more gorgeous day, the temperatures in the high 70s with abundant invigorating sunshine.  To make things even better, since it was midweek we shared the trail with 3 trail-runners and that was about it. All factors considered it was perfect hiking conditions!

Upon arriving I was informed by the ranger on duty that my original plan to hike the Bill Cull Trail would not happen. Apparently fire damage has rendered that particular route to the waterfall impassible. No matter he informed me: there is an alternate route that takes you to the waterfall and it’s a little better suited for the little guy.

The beginning of the trail was marked with clever posts adorned with numbered tiles emblazoned with little nature themed pictures. Daniel got a kick out of these, as he would look for the next number (at one point declaring I went the wrong way because we skipped a number).

The trail is simple and well-maintained and did not venture away from the stream at any point. There was two points where you must cross the stream, but both are pretty effortless rock hops. I will say there is a fairly noticeable temperature drop on the trail. This can be credited to an impressive tree canopy overhead through the bulk of the hike. Just be warned that the immense amount of shade made it quite difficult to work on the tan!

Just before you arrive at the waterfall there is a cavernous rock wall on the left side that I recall captivated me to stare at it for a while.  The pictures do not really do it justice, but they seldom have the same force as the having been there.

Waterfall

Daniel and I had lunch at waterfall, as we often do on our hikes. It was nice, we had the waterfall to ourselves with the only visitor being a millipede that joined us after the sandwich course. The area around the waterfall offers lots of flat surrounding great for setting up the new tripod, or if you happen to come on a busy day. Sit and have lunch. I suggest turkey on wheat for this particular hike. The millipede disagrees.

If you happen to check it out have a great hike and let me know what you think.

Here we go....

Who knows why I selected today to begin this blog, I suspect it had something to do with staring at my Facebook clutter, and deciding it was time to chronicle my outdoor adventures on a palette less littered with insipid status updates like: "im so wasted" and my favorite: "gtl"... It is my sincere hope that eventually people can use this blog to help them select hikes or check out adventures on which they have gone with me. 

My History vs. Nature

I started my outdoor adventures a while back with my buddies Del, Sota, and Phil... These guys dragged my ass kicking and screaming to Joshua Tree National Park for what would be the first of my exposures to the wilderness. I had a lousy trip because I went in with a horrible mindset and there was nothing anyone was going to say to me to make me get over it. Ironically, I look back and think about how much fun I really had and would in reality, not allow myself to admit it haha. Needless to say, I was ill prepared for that trip, my Hurley sweatshirt and USC hat did little to protect me from the immense temperature drops out in the high desert (one thing that I did learn is that no matter how nice the day was, the night is cold). I have pictures from this trip, however they are in the old film format. I will be thus required to locate them and scan them... to be done at a later date for sure. This brings me to the second aspect of this blog, and why I am starting it.

My artistic nature and an outlet for it:

I have always (since I can remember) LOVED photography, dating all the way back to my first camera. It was given to me by my grandfather and at the time was the newest thing, Polaroid, which gave you the picture right away - no waiting. I was hooked and before I knew it I was tearing through those film cartridges in no time (too bad there was only 10 exposures per cartridge). Anyhow, like the Lakers (which my Grandfather instilled in me early on as well), photography has always be a passion of mine to this day. We will not discuss the dark days of my Vivitar and my mom's Minolta because that got expensive and taught me NOTHING, suffice to say the passion never ever left. 

Enter digital photography and thus the passion becomes addiction... 

I got my first digital camera in trade for an extra cell phone I had laying around, the rest as they say is history. I am on my third Canon digital Elph (I will only ever own Canons) and currently have something like 19,000 pictures on my computer (taking up most of the available space), and I have done most of that damage with my (latest) trusty little point-and-shoot (Digital Elph 790 IS). Picture taking took a steep spike towards excessive when my son Daniel Alexander Huapaya was born: May 17, 2006. Needless to say, it is a good thing I have had a decent camera for the bulk of his life, because he will NEVER lack pictures of his childhood (not that I do either - thanks Mari, good looking out). His energy has led to some of my best pictures, while reminding me that he is only going to get more active and so I took a turn for a more healthy lifestyle and started to lose weight, one such way I discovered was hiking.  

The Digital SLR transition is upon us and well... I am a little scared of how many pictures I am going to have within the year, we will have to wait and see.

The Marriage:

No not mine... I am speaking of the marriage between the outdoor (and active) lifestyle I have taken on and the love of photography. The union has taken many of victims along the way and I have yet decided if I will pull up old images and hikes I have done with people or just start fresh and run with it. Daniel will become a pretty common subject of the photography and if you get tired of seeing him, well just think of how tired he is of posing for daddy. Recent hikes have included other friends from as far back as middle school to as recent as Seasons 52. Hopefully at one point or another I will be able to incorporate all the loved ones in my life into my little ramble rant I call this blog. 


For now, Thank you: Del, Phil and Sots for showing me there is more to the world than televisions and video games. Mari for doing an amazing job of photographing my youth and giving me someone to mimic for Daniel. And Papa, who will never read this, but for that first camera that touched a part of me that I have grown with for thirty years. 

Daniel took this on my birthday hike this year.