Saturday Morning Hike

Today for our hike we ventured to Elsmere Canyon.  It was a bit confusing when we arrived  because it shares the parking with the Park and Ride and Whitney Canyon (another hiking area).  Needless to say it was very crowded and there were a lot of bikers so this is definitely a popular place for all outdoorsy people.  The signage wasn't as obvious as in other places and there wasn't a map of the area but we felt confident where the trail began.  There were a lot more trails in the area than what showed up on the online map so at some intersections it was guesswork.

This was a much better workout than our previous hike.  It was a pretty moderate incline for a good distance.  As we neared the top we started to notice the hum from the electric towers and lines which were directly over us.  I wasn't a big fan of this.  I swear I could feel the top of my head buzz but Sean thinks Im making that up.  During this time all I could think of was, what if there was an earthquake and these huge towers came crashing down.  Then I thought, that would be a cool movie, seeing people dodge the towers as they are coming down.  :)

Some time after the power lines we started to head down into the small valley.  When we got to the bottom we noticed the trail narrowed into a single line trail along a tiny creek.  This was my favorite section of the trail.  It was very pretty and you felt like you were hours from civilization.  It was very shaded so this section would definitely be a doable hike during the summer months (the rest of the hike was only partially shaded).  My favorite part was crossing the creek which we did several times.  Since we're in our drought it was easy to jump across but if there was more water than you would definitely have to use the small rocks to cross.  At the end of this trail we noticed a breakout for the Elsmere Canyon loop which is 6 miles long.  Sean told me he wanted to come back and do that one.  I was on board for that!  Our last climb brought us to the parking lot where we were all of a sudden hit with the noise of the 14 freeway.  We were amazed that that small hill was such a strong sound barrier because we had no idea we were so close!

If you can get past the power lines than I would definitely recommend this hike.  It had some of the best scenery I've seen in Santa Clarita too!  

Sean loves how we have unique rock formations.

The cemetery over looks this area.  We'll probably end up there :)

Typical trail in the beginning of the hike. 

Look how green and gorgeous that is (by so cal standards)

 

One of the many creek crossings we had to make.

I found some tasty beverage along the trail!  Nope, just being the good citizen and picking up the trash we saw.

This was really interesting!  We saw several really old power lines and this one still had the wires attached.