Monrovia Canyon

Monrovia Canyon Park

Locate the trailhead.

We had a fair bit of rain, so I decided to go out and see the waterfalls, or at least one. I wanted to go to Fish Canyon, but the shuttle was canceled "due to rain" even though it was supposed to be sunny. I was going to go anyway, hiking over the edge of the canyon down into it, then I got lazy and just went out to Monrovia instead. I still needed to get exercise, so parked on the street and walked in. The snow level came down very low over the many days of rain and there was a little snow that could be seen still up on the hills on the way in.

The hills around Monrovia Canyon aren't all that high, but a little snow remained in among the vegetation.

The park has quite a variety of trees that really shouldn't be growing here. Pines, yes, but the furs and ceders and palm are a little odd.

I have already made an attempt at drawing the waterfall here, so as I passed a little tributary, I took off up it and looked for a subject. I found a couple of bays leaning far over to the side beside the stream and decided they would be quite nice.

Bay trees along a tributary, sketched sitting in the wet leaves by the side of the stream.

Then I made my way the rest of the way up to the falls...

Some of the typical flood control structures along the way. These are a little bigger than typical, though.

... and past the two Asian ladies singing a delightfully accented "Country Roads".

Water rushing downward at the end of Monrovia Canyon.

I spent quite some time playing with the camera around the falls.

A little bit of rainbow in the splash between the levels.

On the side of the canyon, a little bit of water was leaking over the side and dribbling in quick drops all over a small area. I couldn't ever quite capture the dripping. With the flash on, everything clear became much less visible and without it, it was much too dark at a sufficiently fast shutter speed, even at high ISO. There were interesting images, anyway.

Some drops landing in a small puddle after starting far above.

Sometimes lucky.

Sometimes twice.

And one attempted without flash.

And then I started to get my camera all wet.

A look up into the jaws of the waterfall... if it had jaws, which it doesn't, or anything like jaws.

A few more looks at the waterfall...

Another look up at the rushing water from a different angle and with fewer water spots.

The foot of the waterfall. Lots and lots of foam for this one.

Then I headed on back, with a few stops to have a look at a few details on the way.

A mud wall along the trail with ferns growing from it. Very nice erosion patterns.

This tree didn't look like it would be all that stable for long. The roots are quite undermined.

Mushrooms finding their way in a cut log.

After getting back, I drove over to Eaton to see another waterfall, but it turned out that I'd dallied so long at this one that I really only had an hour or so of light left. Once I got a good look at the river coming down the canyon, I decided it would be too much to do quickly or in the dark and decided not to see that one after all.




©2010 Valerie Norton
Posted 4 February 2010