Hiking the Mt Wilson Toll Road

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, I decided to take a drive up on Angeles Crest Highway (Route 2) through the San Gabriel Mountains and ended up at Mt Wilson.  The mountain is famous for its observatory and telescopes (this is not the iconic Griffith Park Observatory that you can see from metro LA).  The drive was a lot of fun - although there are always a lot of cars and motorcycles on a sunny Sunday, I was lucky to cruise along in a pocket of open road, which is a lot better than wedged between tailgaters and nervous minivans :)

I took a hike on part of the Mt Wilson Toll Road.  This fire road goes down from Mt Wilson to Altadena - the total length is 9 miles, but I only hiked down for an hour (and then back up!).  It was very green and lush, and the ceanothus and manzanita were still blooming along the trail (they finished blooming a month ago at my house).

I haven't hiked much this past year - I only have Sundays free and they tend to fill up pretty quickly with other activities.  I'll have to schedule more outdoor days in the future.

LA basin from the trail.

Ceanothus (California lilac).

Yucca.

More ceanothus.

Trail with ceanothus hedge.

Ceanothus buds.

Pointing the way.

Indian pink.

Solar telescopes.

Twisted branches.

More blooms.

A lot of these little guys running across the trail.

Mahonia.

Tiny flowers.

End of the trail - back at Skyline Park.

Hike's reward:  Moroccan vegetarian stew and bulgar salad in a spinach wrap. Yum!