Instead, it turned and parked parallel to Altadena Drive, and right then and there I started to wonder if the park was closed due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in California.
Sure enough when we finally got to the familiar entrance for the Eaton Canyon Falls, we saw that the gate to its large parking lot was indeed closed…
It had been a very dry Winter, and it was already becoming a very hot one as well.
The Santa Anas had been picking up ever since last week, and thus we were getting temperatures in the 80s even though we were in the middle of January!
Nevertheless, we wanted to do our first waterfall hike of 2021, especially since today was Martin Luther King Jr day, and Tahia was off “school” (more like home school these days).
Speaking of home schooling, the COVID-19 waves had worsened throughout the USA over the late Fall and Winter, but in California (especially Los Angeles county), the situation had gotten to the point that we were epicenter of COVID cases and deaths.
It was getting scary out there, and even my workplace was also reporting new COVID cases ever since the New Year (undoubtedly, people must have gathered over the break and then brought the virus to work).
Luckily, my manager continued to discourage people from coming into campus for work unless you absolutely have to.
I don’t think I can say the same thing for other managers or powers that be.
Anyways, I flexed my hours and decided to join Julie and Tahia in our first waterfalling pursuit of 2021.
That said, it was slim pickings because of the dry (and very warm) Winter, and we were quite concerned about this being the start of a prolonged drought.
In the past, when it came to dry years, I usually fall back on waterfalls that I knew would perform, and that would be Eaton Canyon Falls, Monrovia Canyon Falls, or Sturtevant Falls.
I figured that since today was MLK day, it was going to be difficult to find parking and that it would be crowded so we settled on doing Eaton Canyon Falls since we hadn’t done it in a couple of years (there was a time I was getting sick of visiting it).
And so it wasn’t until about 8:50am when we finally left home and pursued Eaton Canyon Falls.
The drive went by very smoothly since it was semi-holiday light but I know it wasn’t a major holiday where most people wouldn’t be working on this day (me included, which was why I had to flex).
Nevertheless, as we were stopped at the traffic light just south of the entrance to Eaton Canyon Nature Park, I couldn’t help but notice there was a minivan in front that attempted to turn right but then decided not to.
Instead, it turned and parked parallel to Altadena Drive, and right then and there I started to wonder if the park was closed due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in California.
Sure enough when we finally got to the familiar entrance for the Eaton Canyon Falls, we saw that the gate to its large parking lot was indeed closed.
This latest closure brought back that deja vu feeling from back in March and April of last year when there was a sort of lock down going on such that all establishments and trails in LA county were closed.
Still, Julie wanted to show me that there was a more residential approach to Eaton Canyon Falls so we went up there to see if that side was open.
But by about 9:35am, when we finally pulled up to the gate leading down to the mouth of Eaton Canyon, we saw that it, too, was gated off and closed.
I guess all trails in LA county suffered from this latest outbreak of COVID cases.
So as we pulled away and headed back to the 210 freeway, we thought about alternatives.
Surely, LA County was nixed, but I would bet that Orange County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County would probably have more laxed enforcement.
I guess the irony here was that because people in these counties frustratingly refused to observe COVID restrictions last year, we’re now looking to those areas for some time outdoors visiting what waterfalls that we could visit.
In the end, we ultimately decided on going to Bonita Falls to salvage something out of this day.
I kind of knew that they had large shoulders to park at so I assumed that parking shouldn’t be an issue even if there are closures.
Moreover, the hiking was on a wide open wash after a crossing of Lytle Creek.
However, the side canyon leading up to Bonita Falls would become a little dodgier as far as social distancing was concerned.
Thus, we promptly headed east on the 210 freeway at around 9:50am, and thus we headed into the very gusty Sanda Ana-affected regions of the Inland Empire and San Bernardino Mountains.
The drive went by pretty smoothly though as the winds grew stronger the closer to the I-15 we went, the more wary I was about being around high profile semi trucks that might fishtail or topple over.
By the time we got to around the I-15, the dancing trees were back as they were violently swaying in the Santa Ana Winds tunneling through the Cajon Pass and into the Riverside Basin.
We then drove up the familiar Sierra Ave, which eventually followed alongside Lytle Creek, where we caught up to a caravan of at least three or four cars.
I knew these folks were headed to Bonita Falls, and I resigned myself to the notion that gone are the days of seeing bighorn sheep right at Bonita Falls (which we witnessed back around the New Year 2015 or 2016).
With social media and the expected crowds (along with associated noise pollution; especially people playing music) around this waterfall, I’m sure wildlife would find other places to go by now.
Anyways, we finally parked near a speed limit sign, which was right around where we had parked the last time we were here a little over six months ago.
We got here at around 10:30am and there were definitely lots of cars already parked here.
So my hunch that at least this waterfall would be doable given the LA County COVID restrictions preventing those waterfalls from being accessed did come to fruition.
That said, as we were getting ready for the hike, there were a couple of cars parked around us, and those families didn’t wear masks (except for maybe one or two people).
Once again, it was annoying, but it was also further evidence that the widespread COVID-19 breakouts, especially in the Southern California area were largely due to these people not taking it seriously.
Thus, we were prepared with our masks (both Julie and Tahia double-masked), and then we proceeded to walk along the road towards the familiar spots where we expected to cross Lytle Creek.
Surprising me was the fact that Lytle Creek was actually running at somewhat high levels, which was very unexpected considering we only had a single storm a several weeks ago.
That was the only real precipitation that has happened this Winter, and the only thing I can think of that would result in such high flow now was that all that snow had melted as we were getting super early spring conditions.
I mean, I would expect high flows like this in the April through June time frame, but for this to be happening in mid-January was quite a worrisome development as far as Global Warming is concerned.
So of course, we didn’t come prepared with a change of shoes to get through the Lytle Creek Crossing obstacle, and we all eventually got the insides of our shoes wet.
For Tahia and I, the water intrusion didn’t seem too bad, but for Julie, she decided it was better to walk right through than to have a fall and wet other things she didn’t want to get wet (like what happened at Fern Canyon a couple of months ago).
By about 11:05am, we then proceeded to walk the familiar wide open wash while unmasked individuals were passing us or going in the opposite direction as us.
So I knew that it wasn’t going to be a relaxing experience when we’d finally get to the base of Bonita Falls.
Also annoying were other immature folks deciding to bring music expecting that other people want to hear it.
I suspect the lack of people wearing masks is another aspect of this immaturity though I also saw some older individuals (perhaps my age) not wearing masks either.
Anyways, we eventually made it up to the familiar side canyon containing the Bonita Falls, and then we followed the faint path on the left side of its creek.
It wasn’t a relaxing experience due to the limited width of the trail while unmasked individuals were coming this way and that.
But after all that tense hiking, we eventually made it up to the base of Bonita Falls by about 11:45am.
While Julie and Tahia were scoping out a spot to take selfies and waterfall shots with a bunch of people linger closer to the falls without masks, I went back up the steep trail leading to the caves and a top down view of the waterfall.
Unlike the last time I was here alone, there were a handful of Hispanic folks probably surprised that I made it up here. A couple of them scrambled even higher on the cliff as they were exploring their surroundings.
However, I was content with my top down view near the end of a ledge as I could see all the people gathered down below clearly not social distancing and clearly unmasked for the most part.
While this scene was nothing new since we’ve been COVID waterfalling, I think given the issues with the latest spread of a “more contagious strain” (which I’m still unclear about what exactly this means), this lack of caution kind of corroborates the observation of why Southern California seems to be the epicenter of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world now.
After having my fill of this lofty vantage point, I then descended back down to the base to take a few more shots, and then join Tahia and Julie a little further downstream so we could briefly hydrate and have a snack.
There was one girl who followed us and opted to sit near us, which further emphasized the lack of sense of social distancing of some people, but we’ve managed to maintain social distancing as far as we were concerned.
Once we had our fill of our snack, we then took one more family selfie with my SwitchPod, and by about 12:05pm, we headed back towards the trailhead.
It seemed like there were ever more people coming up to the Bonita Falls so perhaps we picked a good time to leave.
Ultimately, we made it back down to the wide open wash where it was easier to maintain social distancing, especially as more unmasked folks were coming up into that canyon.
Then after more hiking along the shaded side of the wash, we ultimately made it back to Lytle Creek, but it didn’t look obvious where the best way to scramble back would be.
In fact, the way we took on the way in seemed to be more inundated now than it was earlier this morning.
I suspected that the warm day further accelerated the melting of whatever snow was left from that one storm.
So on the way back across, Tahia took her shoes off and walked across. However, both Julie (holding Tahia’s shoes) and myself walked right across. And it was on this crossing that my boots finally got wet on the inside.
I guess there went my intentions of keeping the insides dry for this relatively new pair of boots.
As we followed the road back to our parked car, I couldn’t help but notice all the barricades that prevented parking for the nearest spots where the Lytle Creek crossings were.
Was this place supposed to be closed? I wondered if there were some COVID-19 precautions being taken here as well though you wouldn’t know it from all the traffic on Sierra Ave (including RVs).
Finally by about 12:55pm, we finally returned to the car where we could finally get out of our wet shoes and socks.
Ten minutes later, we finally headed out as Julie had her heart set on us having lunch at King Taco, where there was one in Fontana, which was nearby where we were at.
After a brief drive-thru at the Klatch Coffee (as Julie wanted to give them another try since our friend Wendy raved about it), we finally made it to the very busy shopping plaza containing King Taco by about 1:50pm.
Unfortunately, there was a fairly long line to wait to order, and after we found parking, Julie promptly went straight there while Tahia and I stayed at the car (and I was busy trying to figure out how to take advantage of the strong winds and hot sun to dry out our boots).
Julie wasn’t particularly pleased with this King Taco since they didn’t have online ordering (unlike the one in Pasadena), which resulted in this long wait.
And it ultimately wouldn’t be until about 2:30pm when we finally started to eat in the car.
At least Tahia got to have her Quesadillas while Julie and I had our pastor burrito and taco as well as a carne asada burrito and taco.
And it definitely hit the spot.
Finally, we headed out around 15-20 minutes later, and ultimately by 3:45pm we finally made it home, which was just in time for Tahia’s 4pm zoom call with her piano teacher.
And thus ended this rather adventurous day where we managed to do our first waterfall of 2021, but we’ll have to see how feasible it would be to visit other waterfalls while we’re still dealing with complications from the pandemic…
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