Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Orange County. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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Banshee Rock, in Laurel Canyon, was formed by sandstone weathering.

At 1.5 miles, turn right on the first intersecting pathway. Traverse a grassy meadow, and then follow the trail as it plunges down through more dense growths of chaparral toward the narrow bottom of Laurel Canyon. The deeper you go, the more you gain a sense of seclusion. Once you arrive in the canyon bottom (2 miles), don’t miss the turn onto the narrow trail that branches right and goes down (not up) the canyon.

Graced with gorgeous oaks and sycamores (and copious amounts of poison oak), Laurel Canyon has recovered from the extremely hot, fast-moving Laguna Beach Fire of October 1993. Nearly all of the vegetation you see here is no stranger to periodic fires. Centuries ago, coastal Southern California landscapes, such as this one, were visited by fire every decade or so.

At 2.4 miles, you pass near the lip of a dramatic dropoff—a seasonal waterfall nearly 100 feet high. During the extraordinarily wet winter of 2005, hikers beheld a spectacular sight of plunging water, but most years, this declivity sports only a modest trickle.