Father's Day

Hi Everyone,

I drove up to LA with my boyfriend over the weekend to spend some quality time with my family for Father's Day. Last year I treated my dad to a baseball game at Dodgers Stadium, but being on a much tighter budget this year, I opted for a cheaper and equally as fun outing - hiking at Eaton Canyon.

This is one of the more popular hikes in the Los Angeles area so I expected it to be crowded, but then it was also a weekend and Father's Day to boot so it was especially crowded. Apparently this hike gets a lot of negative buzz as there have been numerous deaths and cases of hikers gone missing. If you stick to the marked trail, there is no reason for any danger whatsoever. The trail is just shy of 4 miles with an elevation gain of about 400 ft. I was a little nervous about the waterfall being dried up as we're about to enter summer, but there was a decent stream going when we made it to the end.

 The terrain was relatively level for most of the hike with lots of chaparral.

Once we reached the concrete bridge it got a bit more rocky and we had to do a lot more "crossing". I imagine in the winter and spring seasons there is actual water to cross but it was fairly dry when we went. Naturally, I was the only one to slip on the rocks anyway.

My dad cracks me up. He was rocking that straw hat!

It took about an hour and a half for this easy out-and-back trail with ample time to play around at the waterfall. Both my brother and my dad went into the water and my brother was bold enough to dunk his head into the waterfall. There were tons of little kids and dogs roaming around that gave the hike a quaint family vibe. I would love to do this hike again at the end of winter or start of spring.

After our hike we headed over to a Vietnamese restaurant for a ginormous bowl of pho. It was a really nice relaxing day out with the family and boyfriend. As much as I love having a job and teaching, summer vacation ain't so bad. ;)

As always, thanks so much for reading.