For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by Hive account@thesocalhive I head up into the San Gabriel mountains to cool off at...

San Antonio Creek!!

My buddy Larry(Hive account@csusbgeochem1) wanted to get his dogs out for a little hiking. His dogs are getting older now and so he wanted an easy hike and it's been hot lately so preferably one with water. So I suggested we head up to San Antonio creek! San Antonio creek drains the Mt. Baldy high country and flows down through a massive canyon with lots of great spots for hiking. We started at a turnout on the highway and hiked down into the canyon. We headed up the canyon a short distance and we arrived at the "Hidden Lake" which is really more of a pond than a lake. The lake is not fed by the creek, but actually fed by natural springs and there was even a little waterfall of spring water cascading down behind the pond. Just above the pond we hiked through the remnants of the old boy scout camp and then headed down to the creek. We found a nice spot to hangout by the creek, and the dogs were happy to cool off in the water. There were lots of ripe blackberries along the creek and we enjoyed snacking on them. I also did a little bit of rockhounding and found a few pieces of corundum, but nothing too exciting. We hung out by the creek for awhile and then had the dogs cool off in the creek one more time before making the hike back up and out of the canyon. All in all it was a great day to be out in the mountains!