Lost in Vasquez Rocks: A Los Angeles Hiking Experience

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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.



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!