Red Rock Canyon Trail

Okay, finally an entry on hiking! We went on a great hike past Sunday at the Red Rock Canyon Trail near Calabasas. The drive on our way there was cool. Instead of the 101 freeway, we took the twisty road via Las Flores off Pacific Coast Highway 1. It was a nice sunny day (but not hot) so it was a perfect drive with the sun roof and windows open. It was kind of scary though with so many motorcyclists buzzing by really fast. Oh well, can’t blame them for enjoying the ride on such a nice day too. Anyway, it was adrenaline-filled, speedy fun on our way there. Oh watch out for coyotes on the road. We saw one strolling in the middle of the road.

We parked on the side of Stunt Road across where the fire road starts. The very beginning of the fire road is quite steep but levels out soon. The fire road led us to a “Y” of the road (a bench on the left side). I think it’s the Calabasas Peak if you go to the left, which supposedly is more strenuous. We decided to take it easy and go right which is the Red Rock Canyon Trail. The dirt trail was pretty wide and well maintained. On the side of the trail, there was a set of steps that took us to some big boulders so we scrambled up to the top of the boulders. It was quite fun. We went scrambling the first time in Joshua Tree a few months ago so we got a taste of the fun of scrambling. “Scrambling” is basically climbing rocks without any gears. We enjoyed this mini scrambling session.

*being silly...*

*view from top of a boulder*

After that we continued on the wide trail…then we hit the end/start (?) of the trail with public parking area and a private residence. Huh? Uh oh…we didn’t know if this was the end of the trail or what?!? So we went back where we came from and found along a sign saying “trail”…hmmm I guess this is the “real” trail head. Once we entered the “real” trail head, the trail got narrower (one person width). Now this is what we were there for!

This was a fabulous time of the year to hike here because the spring flowers were in full bloom. The grasses were tall and there were many different colored spring flowers. Don’t ask me what they’re called because I have no idea. But see the pictures! The only bad thing around this time is that there’re lots and lots of bees. Don’t know about you but I’m not too fond of them.



It continued to be sunny, overcast and breezy at times so it was nice to be out in nature. Not too many people on the trail but just a few. Total distance should be approximately 4 miles (out-and-back). Most people would finish in about 2.5 hours. It was longer for us because we took lots of pictures; and scrambled here and there.


Wait, one more excitement… When we got back on the wide trail on our way back we encountered one of our most-feared things…a rattle snake! It was a hunky one. It was sunbathing on the side of the trail in the grass. But when it heard me freaking out it slowly slithered into the woods. Oh man, that was close. My honey did not see it until I panicked with muttered words/sounds, he said “oh sh*t! give me the camera!” He didn’t get a good picture but just peek. A good thing we saw it on a wide trail. If it was on any narrow trail, I wouldn’t be writing this right now, instead I’d be catatonic somewhere. Hahaha. But no worries, my honey has been preparing for all kinds of adventures…got a kit for bee stings and snake bites; fire starters to start fire anywhere in case we get lost into the night; got water purifier in case we have to drink stream water; getting fancy knives to do whatever he needs to do; and learning ways to survive anything (?) (watching TV shows...). Hmmm, I don’t know… Whatever it is, I’m hoping that we don’t have to use any of these anytime soon.