Last week I told you about our hike in Los Angeles up to the Hollywood Sign (or at least as close as one can get to the sign). This week I bring you Arroyo Sequit, a wholly different California hiking experience. While Griffith Park is situated right next to the urban sprawl of the city, Arroyo Sequit takes you deep into the middle of nowhere, along winding mountain roads, inland from the beauty of Malibu. You might see a few houses on your journey and you'll maybe pass a car or two, but the general feeling is isolation.
Same too once you get to the hike itself. We saw no one all day, but a boarded up building on the road leading to the loop hike gave us a distinctly eerie feeling of the possibility of us not being alone. The park is home to an astronomy observatory area, which consists of great end of the world over grown benches and tables.
The loop itself was created by an Eagle scout named Hodges and he didn't make the path the easiest in the world if you're a city mouse like me. You cross a near dry stream a few times, sometimes with climbing obstacles like hills and drain pipes in your path.
The surroundings are amazing. Views of green mountains unlike anything I have had a chance to see in a while. You can also, at several lookout points along the walk, view the large satellites set up in a valley to reach extraterrestrials. A back drop that, along with a misty gray sky,?only adds to the hard to describe spookiness of the area.
NOTE: the trail loops ends, but not at the same place you entered it. Go right at the fork in the trail and it will eventually lead you back to the safety of your car. We didn't know this and ended up in a silent panic about being lost on the last leg of the 1.5 mile trail. Once we did make it back we found out we were in mountain lion territory the whole time.
But what do you think?