Haskell Canyon Open Space

This morning, my brother Keith, my dog Hiker and I took a hike in the Haskell Canyon Open Space area in the Santa Clarita Valley. This area had been known for equestrians for years but opened up for hikers and mountain bikers about a year ago. I had attended the city dedication of this area with my friend Linda.

We started out at the trail head on Copperhill Drive in Saugus, CA and headed north up into the canyon.

As we were hiking into the canyon, we began to notice that there were a lot of strange looking wooden structures on trails that took off from the main trail. We started to inspect them.

We finally figured out that these were jump ramps for BMX bike riders. They were everywhere.

We hiked in a little over a mile before turning around and heading back to the trail head and the car.

This hike is not a very scenic one. If you just want to hike and not enjoy nature, this hike would be for you. I prefer oak groves and panaramic views. If we had a good season for wildflowers, I think this canyon would be a great place to see some. We ended up doing almost 2.5 miles with an 300 ft. rise in elevation.

The trail is mostly flat, but there are a few areas where you have a little bit of a steep climb.

Directions: Haskell Canyon is located north of Copperhill Drive, east of Haskell Canyon Road. Parking is available east of High Ridge Drive along the roadway. Parking is also available on Ranchview Terrace, off of High Ridge Drive, along the street curb. Signs are posted at the trailhead.

Morning Hike At Quigley Canyon Open Space - Santa Clarita, CA

This morning, my friend Linda came to my house and then she, me and Hiker headed over to the Quigley Canyon Open Space near Newhall, CA in the Santa Clarita Valley. We met up there with our friend RuthAnne.

This open space is fairly new and has recently opened up for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.

There are four loop trails in the area ranging from easy to difficult.

We did two of the trails...the City Trail and then the Fox Trail.

The trails start out in a large field and head off through oak trees and then proceed to head up the side of the mountain.

The City Trail takes you up to a vista point where you have views of the Santa Clarita Valley.

We headed back down to the meadow and then headed up the Fox Trail which lead us through more oak groves and along a dry creek bed.

Here we all are...Hiker, me, RuthAnne and Linda

After hiking 2.7 miles, we decided to call it a morning and headed back to the trail head where our vehicles were parked.

The City of Santa Clarita purchased the nearly 160 acres of this beautiful canyon nearly a decade ago, and it has provided the surrounding Equestrian homes in Placerita Canyon with hiking, picnicking, and equestrian trails in close proximity to where they live. The trails were refurbished in the spring of 2011, and now include four separate trails that total approximately 4.1 miles, offering pristine 360 degree views and undulating slopes in varying degrees of difficulty.

Directions:  Exit SR 14 at Newhall Avenue. Head northwest on Newhall Avenue and turn right on Railroad Avenue. Continue to 13th Street and turn right. 13th street curves to the right and becomes Arch Street. Continue on Arch Street to the first street on your left which will be 12th Street. Stay on 12th Street and it will make a slight curve to the right and became Placeritos Boulevard. Take Placeritos Boulevard to Quigley Canyon Road and turn left. Stay on Quigley Canyon Road until you reach Cleardale Street. Continue to where Cleardale Street dead-ends at the trail head.

Two Hikes In One Day

This morning Hiker and I went for two hikes with my friend Linda. Linda had found some trails over in the Rocky Peak area of Simi Valley, CA and wanted us to see them. The first trail we hiked was The Hummingbird Trail.

As we started off along the trail, we came upon these strange spider webs that covered the ground all around us. I remembered my brother telling me about these kinds of webs so I Googled this and found that these are made by Funnelweb Spiders. I can see how these spiders got their name.

This trail was pretty rugged and steep in some areas, but when we reached the ridge, it gave us some great views of the Simi Valley and the fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean. Here you see Linda and how rugged the area is, next you see the views.

Here we are on the ridge.

To get to The Hummingbird Trail, we took SR 14 south from Canyon Country and switched over to Interstate 5 South. Then we took the 405 Freeway South until we came to the Simi Valley (Ronald Reagan) Freeway 118 where we headed West. We left the freeway at the Kuehner Drive off-ramp and turned right. Drove about 2 or 3 blocks and parked in the clearing alongside the road. There are signs on the fence that point toward the trail head.

We hiked about 2 miles on The Hummingbird Trail then decided to drive under the freeway down Kuehner Drive and go to Corriganville Movie Ranch Park where we hiked another 2 miles around the historic site. Here is a link that will take you to a PDF file of a brochure of Corriganville Movie Ranch Park.

http://www.rsrpd.org/park/corrignavilleparkandtrail/twocorriganvillebrochures.pdf

This historic movie ranch was where they filmed many western movies and TV shows in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Plus they filmed "Tarzan" movies here and the TV show "Robin Hood" here.

The following photo is of "Stagecoach Road" where many westerns were filmed. Many stagecoaches, wagons and horses came down this road during filming.

There are many signs like this one along the loop trail that explain what movies were filmed in different locations around the park.

Here is a map of the areas were were hiking today.