About Monrovia Canyon Falls
Monrovia Canyon Falls was a pleasant two-tiered 30ft waterfall in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains near the suburb of Monrovia.
Presenting another little getaway for Angelinos like us, we were pleasantly surprised that it was flowing as well as it did late in the Summer (I think around August 2001) when we first visited the falls.
It even flowed fairly well on a visit in April 2014 when we were in the midst of a third straight year of drought, further attesting to its resiliency.
In fact, the creek responsible for this waterfall manages to avoid the evaporative Southern California heat by flowing underneath the surface to emerge as a spring unseen further upstream deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Therefore, this waterfall was actually said to flow year round, and in this instance, we believe it!
Indeed, this attribute was something that was quite rare for Southern California waterfalls given its relative lack of rainfall and hot, sunny days for most of the year.
We think this fact alone made this short waterfall well worth visiting.
Hiking to Monrovia Canyon Falls
The trail to Monrovia Canyon Falls was a pleasantly shady, gently uphill hike for 3/4 miles (or 1.5 miles round trip).
Along the way, we passed by a handful of manmade dams and some narrow, minor cliff-hugging spots.
Over the years, we definitely had to pay a bit more attention to the narrowness of the trail as well as the dropoffs as we made visits with our little daughter.
But for the most part, this was one of the easiest hikes to do.
After all, we witnessed plenty of seniors, other toddlers, as well as locals walking their dogs while doing this trail.
To further illustrate how much confidence we had in doing this trail, Julie and I took our daughter to this waterfall when she was four months old.
We then did it with her when she was 15 months old, and once again when she was 3 years old.
On the visit when our daughter was three, she managed (actually insisted) that she do the hike all by herself!
She even refused to hold our hands around some of the narrower parts of the trail.
Probably the hardest thing to do regarding an excursion here would be to find parking, which can be an issue if you’re not an early bird.
We knew that the hard way on a couple of our visits.
It wasn’t surprising to see people marauding the narrow upper lot waiting for people to leave so they could snatch those hard-to-get spots.
That said, it was also possible as a last resort to park at one of the lower lots (even near the payment kiosk).
You could even go as far as the residential areas further down the hill to perhaps avoid paying the park fee to enter.
The only drawback for those last options was that the hike would be prolonged depending on how far away from the trailhead the parking would be.
In any case, each time we made it to the main parking lot and trailhead area at the top of the road, we never forgot to check out the view of the Los Angeles basin from the lookout there.
Authorities
Monrovia Canyon Falls resides in the Monrovia Canyon Park in Monrovia in Los Angeles County, California. It is administered by the City of Monrovia. For information or inquiries about the park as well as current conditions, visit the Monrovia City Council website or their Facebook page.
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