For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by Hive account@thesocalhive I headed up into the San Bernardino mountains for a fun day hike at...

Plunge Creek!

I drove up highway 330 to forest road 1n09 and then down to the (usually locked) gate at forest route 1n21. I parked there and headed down the Little Mill creek drainage (which is the easiest way to access Plunge creek). I got to the junction with Plunge creek and continued working my way downstream passing lots of little waterfalls and pools. There's no trail and the canyon is pretty rough, but it's a really beautiful area and almost nobody ever visits it. The creek was flowing really good and the pools were full of trout and had lots of watercress (and stinging nettle and poison oak) growing all along its banks.

Forest route 1n21

Watercress

Plunge creek

Wildflowers

Waterfall

Eventually I got to the upper mine, which of course I had to go inside! It's only about 100 feet deep, but it's still pretty cool. There's a lower mine as well but I didn't get that far down canyon on this hike. I did hike down into the narrows. Which is probably the coolest section of the canyon. The tall cliffs squeeze the canyon really tight almost like a slot canyon. And there are nice waterfalls and pools all along the bottom. Unfortunately it was too cold to really go swimming, but it was still an awesome hike. Plunge creek is definitely one of my favorite spots for a quick getaway.