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

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Bigleaf maple leaf

The canyon’s melodious creek flows decently about half the year (winter and spring), caressing the ears with white noise that echoes off the canyon walls. During the fall, when the creek may be bone-dry, you make your own noise instead by crunching through the crispy leaf litter of sycamore and live oak. Down by the grassy banks are wild blackberry vines, lots of willows, and occasionally cottonwood and alder trees.

Soaring canyon walls ahead tell the story of thousands of years of natural erosion, as well as the destructive effects of hydraulic mining, which involved aiming high-pressure water hoses at hillsides to loosen and wash away ores. Used extensively in Northern California during the big Gold Rush, hydraulicking was finally banned in 1884 after catastrophic damages to waterways and farms downstream. At Placerita Canyon, several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of gold were ultimately recovered, but at considerable cost, effort, and general messiness.

Cross and recross the creek. In 1.85 miles, you reach the scant remains of some early-20th-century cottages hand-built by settler Frank Walker, his wife, and some of their 12 children. The area is now used as a group campground, and it has drinking water.