The best walks

For me, the best walks are not when I'm surrounded by buildings and walking on concrete, although these are the walks I take during my weekly routine here in Downey. No, for me, it's when I'm surrounded by nature and walking on dirt or sand. Downey is surrounded by miles and miles of buildings and pavement in all directions. Unless you travel 20 minutes up the 605 freeway to the Whittier Hills.

Some significant portion of the hills have been set aside as Hellman Park so that the only buildings or pavement are the water towers. Other that that, you can walk for miles and see nothing but green grass, trees, and the city far off in the distance. This is the walk we took on our day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. There are multiple trails through the hills separated for different levels of hikers. We took the more level path called Peppergrass Trail rather than the steeper Hellman Trail.

For a small portion of our day we escaped to see in 360 degrees nothing but nature. What a great time.

Where do you like to walk?

July gloom?

The weather in Downey is being so weird lately. These are the Whittier Hills (just north of Downey) and at 10:00 am, it's humid and muggy and overcast. Yesterday it even rained! What's going on with this summer?

What is that?

On my hike the other day, I kept seeing this weird, almost creepy, plant covering other plants throughout the hills. Back home, I looked it up and it is a parasitic weed called the "California Dodder." It's less creepy when you actually read up on it. Click here for more information on it.

A wide basin of smog

Not everything is fun and pretty about taking pictures. I was really hoping after all the rain we've been having, that the sky would be a lot clearer from up in the Whittier Hills. The sky is still pretty ugly right now. Maybe it is the wrong time of day.

I want to show you a panoramic view of the basin Downey sits in. In the far right of the picture you can just make out downtown Los Angeles, but other than that, no significant landmarks...

Sometimes, we can see clear from the mountain range containing Big Bear all the way to Santa Monica. That's about 100 miles east to west. The ocean sits south of us and the Hollywood Hills, to the north. From shore to hills is about 35 miles. I keep waiting for a day that will display the whole circle.