Hiking Temescal Canyon

Today some friends and I hiked Temescal Canyon in Pacific Palisades. (The only Palisades trail I'm willing to share on the Internet/with non-locals.) It was amazing... and grueling. I'm so out of shape since I stopped wanting to hike alone! (That ends now. There haven't been any new mountain lion sightings.) ANYWAY! This isn't a diary and I do have a point! ... We hiked a higher version of the loop than I've ever done before (general rule being start at the left and stay to te right after the waterfall) and when we got to the top there was a big rock to climb. Here we found a new version of the sweeping city+ocean views Temescal has to offer. It was breathtaking! Our (barefooted!) hiking guide had even brought us each a perfect apple to munch while looking out over the Pacific. The real highlight, however, was an unnatural one. A fire department helicopter came cruising over the hills while we were on the rock. For a good time we were ABOVE the helicopter even. Finally, it came so close we could see the people inside through the glass!... and then it swooped overhead and left us back with our peaceful view.
I'm trying to not always be one of those people who sees the world through my iPhone, so I was sans camera for the whole thing, and it did feel good, but that means you'll have to use your imagination.


...There are cabins in Temescal too! I took this photo on a previous visit: