A couple of weekends ago, I did another small section of the PCT, this time with the purpose of seeing Eagle Rock. It was a warmish day…
But the first part of the hike, which leaves near the Warner Springs fire station, is mostly under big oak trees, running next to a stream.
It was quite pretty on this section…
We were not a huge group, but that’s because there was some race going on that blocked traffic from North County making it to Ramona, so we were missing a bunch of people who were supposed to go.
There were these great big meadows of grasses that stretched out under the warm sun…
This reminds me of the area near Sacramento, where I spent the first 7 or so years of my life (obviously imprinted on me).
Of course, that’s because things here turn brown very early…we haven’t had much rain this year.
There is a section that is more desert-like after the trees…
You can see mountains surrounding the valley…
We were blessed with a decent breeze for most of the hike…
Lots of far-off vistas and beautiful blue skies…there were many through-hikers of the PCT on this section…apparently Warner Springs has good pancakes and omelets, so they were motivated to get up and move.
This was not a difficult hike, about 6.5 miles, with no real climbing.
It is out and back…and I’m sure it’s very hot during the summer, so lots of water…
More of those grassy meadows stretching for miles.
There were lots of wildflowers around too…not that I took many pictures of those…this was the last hike my old camera made it on. To get it to take photos, half the time I had to remove and replace the battery. So yeah. That’s what finally motivated me to get a new one.
Not a lot of trees in this section…
Oh yeah, and it’s not a hike in Southern California without some cactus…seriously, this stuff grows everywhere.
All the while, I’m keeping my eyes open for something big enough to be called Eagle Rock…
More flowers…notice how dry the ground is? These won’t last long…
It’s not a wide trail…
Rocks? In the distance?
These were actually west of the formation itself (which is not on my PCT map at all)…
And there we are…you can’t see this from the PCT…you see the back end. It looks like someone did some selective chipping to the beak area, but otherwise, that’s an eagle all right…
It’s big enough to stand on. No group photo this time…not enough motivation for that, I guess. This is looking south towards the PCT. Someday I’ll do this section…it’s supposed to be nice.
More southerly looking…
Giant flowers…seriously, bigger than your hand, just growing right out of the rock.
A view to the west…
And back towards the south…there was a steady stream of through-hikers on that section.
Thistles…
Rocks…in case you’ve never seen one.
People eating lunch on rocks…we actually hiked this really fast, so it was more like brunch on the rocks.
Bird…refused to turn around and pose.
I think this is a blue-belly (despite the lack of actual blue belly showing)…I had a lizard expert helping me stalk these around the rocks…we heard a rattlesnake under one of the rocks too, but we never saw him.
More sitting upon the rocks…
A spiny granite lizard…there were a bunch of these, but they were photo-shy. This one did push-ups for me.
No photos please…
After a short stop, we hiked back the way we came…
It always looks a little different on the way back…
One of those big flowers ready to bloom…notice the lavender tint.
And those big old beautiful oaks…
More flowers, even on cactus…
Back through the desert wash area…
And into the meadows and trees again…
I could live out here…except for all the hikers. And the summer heat. And the fire danger.
We made it back quicker than it took to get out there…
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Here’s the sign for food at the Warner Springs stop for the hikers…they must be good for business.
Like I said, it was hot and dry…over 80 degrees, but a nice breeze kept it bearable…
This would be a great hike with kids old enough to make the distance…just be careful of snakes, especially around the rocks. Oh yeah, and if you just want to see the rock, you can drive up very close and do a super short hike to see it (wimps!). It took us about 3 hours, I think, to do the whole thing…it took longer to get OUT there and park, because yes, it’s in the boonies if you’re coming from San Diego proper…but definitely worth it. Crossing it off the list and trying to figure out how to hike the section south of it next…
Kathy Nida 