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
Comments