Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Waterfalls of the San Gabriel River

The first picture in my previous post (see below) belongs here because it is the best waterfall picture ever taken by my camera. Unfortunately, I am in it, so it's pretty clear that I can't claim credit for taking it. The pictures below don't include me, but alas, they too were taken by a friend. What I can claim credit for is being along on the trip.


All the pictures in this post are taken on the West Fork "trail." I use quotes because the darn thing is paved. Even so, it is a beautiful destination on foot or on bike. These waterfalls are feeding the West Fork of the San Gabriel. Likewise, the "previous post" photo isn't the North Fork, but something that feeds into a tributary of the North Fork.


As I write, it occurs to me that these photos look much better larger. I think you should click on them to see them in all their glory. The one below is a  straight down the cliff kind of waterfall. We saw another place where an entire thirty to fifty foot wide section of cliff was just dripping. One could think of it as a very shallow waterfall. It was neat, but unphotographable. Some things are best left as memories...

Saturday, February 5, 2011

There's Snow In Them Thar Hills!

Today's ride was the old standby: Hwy 39 up to Hwy 2. Looking at the mountains, it seems that all the snow has melted except for Mt Baldy and something to the East. But looks can be deceiving when you are looking at the south faces. For example, here is my favorite waterfall. It's between the turn off to Crystal Lake, and Angeles Crest Highway.

Risking Gastro-Intestinal Distress

This is not a picture of me. 

This, however, is.

Once we got up to Islip Saddle (Hwy 2), we could see that there was snow everywhere on the back side of the San Gabriels. Unfortunately, I got a flat, and we were tired, so we made a mental note to come back soon, and bombed home...

It was quite clear up there. It looked like it was hazy below.