Santa Ana Mountains

Linda and I got up early on a Saturday Morning with the car loaded with camping and hiking gear. We wanted to stay fairly close to home but somewhere new to us so we decided to go camping at Blue jay campground in the Santa Ana Mountains in Eastern Orange county. We drove up through the clouds and ended up driving up along a high ridge where we stopped and took in some spectacular views above the clouds. We could see San Gorgonio mountain and San Jacinto mountain ( which I have summited ) rising above the clouds on the eastern horizon. We found our camp and set it up. We were then ready to hike. First we hiked down into Hot Springs canyon toward a location of waterfalls and pools that we read about. The creaks were dry and the poison oak was really creeping up on the trail so we had to hike very carefully. What was really nice was the solitude we had down in the canyon and on our entire trip for that matter. We covered many miles after coming up back out of the canyon hiking through grasslands and pine and oak forest. Then we set out and hiked up to two small peaks and took in the views of the mountains and enjoyed the silence. After all of that it was time for lunch and a nap. Later we ate a nice dinner, say around a nice fire and gazed at the star filled sky. The next day we hiked to Tenaja falls where we were happy to find cool flowing water. Peace..........