The amazing
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a wilderness area that you can spend ½ a day
hiking the outside trails or spend an hour bouldering the iconic rocks at the
center of the park. The park is only ½ hour north of Los Angeles just off the
14 freeway.
The remarkable
geologic rock formations within the park are caused by the active Elkhorn
Fault. Rocks soar over 100 feet out of the ground at 50-degree angles. The
park’s iconic rocks have formed the back drop for dozens of films and TV shows
from Star Trek to Blazing Saddles to Westworld.
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| Iconic rocks |
The park is visitor friendly with free parking, a well-put-together interactive visitor
center and marked hiking trails. Unlike many hikes where you must
hike hours to arrive at a trail’s iconic photo spot, this park allows you to
drive right up to it to take your pictures and hike afterwards. But being a dad
and a scoutmaster, I made my wife and two sons complete the 6-mile loop around
the park before exploring the 150-foot tall prize.
And of course, I
got us lost.
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| Views of the rock uplift. |
Our ill-fated
hike started on a beautiful day: the sky was a beautiful cobalt blue and a cool
breeze kept the high desert temperatures in the 70s. Walking along the Geology
Trail, we wound through various boulders and desert shrubbery with signs
describing them. The area also afforded some amazing views.
Then the trail
descended behind a ridge of sandstone and sedimentary rocks momentarily
blocking our view of the central rocks. Looking back up at the ridge that we
had descended, it appeared as if we had walked down a massive rent in the
earth.
We descended
further into a beautiful rocky canyon and saw a boulder shaped like a guppy and
another like a bantha from Star Wars.
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| Guppy Rock |
I, being the
faithful Instagrammer, was taking copious amounts of photos so my family soon
left me behind. But have no fear, my wife and younger son responsibly waited
for me at the Foot Trail turnoff that would take us back to the visitor center.
My older son on the other hand was nowhere to be found.
He had missed the
turnoff and continued on our current trail. We called his name but there was no
answer. We hurried after him. He was 16
and a Life Scout so I did not fear for his safety, I just didn’t want to do a
lot of backtracking once we caught up to him.
Besides the park did not look that big on the visitor center map. But
looks can be deceiving. I soon learned why Tiburcio Vasquez, a notorious bandit
during the 19th century, was able to escape the law for so many years amongst
these rocks and canyons.
Ten minutes on,
the trail wrapped around a bend and it was here that we finally saw my son. He
stood atop a ridge 100 yards beyond. He waved at us to follow him. My younger
son urged us to go back. I looked at the map. It appeared that this trail would
eventually merge with the Foot Trail, so I said we should follow my older son.
I really didn’t want to back track.
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| Older son is dot on hill. |
But soon, the
trail narrowed to almost nothing, then widened into a definite trail again and
then shrank back down again. After forty-five minutes on this rubber band
trail, we found ourselves ducking under branches, avoiding rabbits on what had
become nothing more than a game trail, and ended up in a farmer’s backyard.
My older son
stated the obvious, “We’re lost.”
Now we had to
backtrack. Still, I didn’t think we had to backtrack all the way. There was a
path that had branched off from the one we had come down that I thought would
lead us towards the center of the park. Instead we came across signs for the
wildlife conservation area. I was even more confused. The signs should’ve been
west of us. We reached the top of a
ridge and just saw more ridges before us. At this point, with my nerves
starting to whisper, “Danger Will Robinson, danger.” I said, “We are going all
the way back.”
It was strange because
as we headed back, we found markers indicating we were on the Foot Trail but we
were definitely not on the trail marked on the map. We continued backtracking.
I finally found a well-marked trail going through our “trail”. I told my family
to wait at the crossroads while I hiked up his broader trail for a better
vantage point. At the top of a bend was a sign that said Horse Trail. I was
so turned around at this point, the map was useless.
But from here, I
saw this trail pass over the next ridge into a valley and then over another
ridge where people were standing looking about. We had found our way home! 25
minutes later we arrived at the park’s main road.
Unfortunately,
when I told the boys we should climb the main rocks now, they looked at me as
if I were loony. So, the boys went back to the car, while my wife and I headed
to the central rocks. I was bound and determined to climb the darn things since
they and I were here. The climb took less than 20 minutes. From the top, we
could see the areas we had hiked through and my car in the parking lot where
the boys waited.
It was a great
ending to a long day.
I highly
recommend visiting Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park.
Hikespeak.com has a
detailed itinerary of the hike around the outside of the park with pictures. The 6-mile loop also incorporates a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail (the PCT), so you can say you hiked a portion of it. Be
sure to bring plenty of water and a hat as there are no trees for shade.
Enjoy!
