Читать книгу 101 Hikes in Southern California. Exploring Mountains, Seashore, and Desert онлайн

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To Reach the Trailhead: A good starting place is the north end of Bonsall Drive, in the Point Dume area of Malibu. From the intersection of Kanan Dume Road and Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) at mile marker 001 LA 54.00, drive 0.9 mile west on the highway to Bonsall Drive, turn right, and continue 1 mile to where Bonsall Drive ends at a trailhead for the Zuma Canyon trail system.

Description: From the end of Bonsall Drive, walk north on the Zuma Canyon Trail following the canyon’s winter-wet, summer-dry creek. Several trails branch off along either side, but stay on the mail trail up the canyon bottom. You pass statuesque sycamores, tall laurel sumac bushes, and scattered wildflowers in season. This is a promising area for spotting wildlife anytime—squirrels, rabbits, and coyotes are commonly seen, deer and bobcats less so.

After about a mile’s walk along the creek or dry canyon bottom, the canyon walls close in tighter, oaks appear in greater numbers, and you notice a small grove of eucalyptus trees on a little terrace. The path abruptly ends at a pile of sandstone boulders, 1.3 miles from the start. During the dry months, surface water may get only this far down the canyon. Often, however, the water trickles or tumbles past here, disappearing at some point downstream into the porous substrate of the canyon floor.