Vasquez Rocks, the Pacific Crest Trail and this hiking family. On a quick trip down south to the greater Los Angeles area I decided to do a little solo hike with my toddlers at Vasquez Rocks. All I knew about

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park

was that an episode of the original Star Trek was filmed there a long time ago. FYI, I only knew that fact because I watched a Big Bang Theory episode that was fake filmed at Vasquez Rocks so I researched it and Vasquez Rocks was a real location.

Vasquez Rocks is part of the

Department of Parks and Recreation County of Los Angeles

but it is a 20-30 drive east of Santa Clarita, California. You can't really tell that Los Angeles is a desert until you leave the main metropolis area and can see the natural environment and really enjoy the beauty of it, like Vasquez Rocks. You can see this parks main features from the freeway and it is actually on the outskirts of Agua Dulce, California. Off the freeway the drive to Vasquez Rocks is very rural and ranch-like, we even saw a buffalo on one of the ranches.

The Interpretive Center looked like a space ship to my kids. It has a modern look to it, I'm assuming it was designed to compliment the rock formations but not only was the design modern it had a

LEED Platinum Certification

. Layman's terms means that this center has the highest level of being "Green" which is fantastic! The Interpretive Center had a diagram of Vasquez Rocks, a few reptiles and spiders, as well as a Hollywood history of all the movies that had been filmed at Vasquez Rocks. Outside the center was a small area that housed some native birds.

The Pacific Crest Trail at Vasquez Rocks

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a trail that runs from the border of Mexico/California to just across the Canadian border. Almost every hiker that I know dreams of hiking the PCT, so any time I get a chance to hike on it, I do! Even just one mile on the PCT with my kids, satisfies my future dream just a little bit. I didn't even know that the PCT went through Vasquez Rocks until the day before visiting so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it on the map. FYI: I brought EXTRA snacks and food just in case I ran into a PCT thru-hiker but I didn't run into anyone except some tourists.

We started out on the PCT (AKA the Geology Trail - 0.9 miles) near the Interpretive Center. From the beginning there were giant rocks right along the trail which made the hike terribly slow because my kids had to explore every rock, hole and "mini-cave." I'm not complaining, I want my kids to explore but I'd prefer they explored at least 100 ft down the trail vs. 10 feet down the trail! But alas the caves must be explored and my patience must be tested constantly on the trail.

We hope that someday we can do hike the entire PCT as a family, but probably not all in one sitting! PCT section hiking is more up our alley, but it won't be for a few more years until our little ones can hike longer distances and carry a pack. Either way, I was getting a little nostalgic with the idea at some point in the future I was to return to Vasquez Rocks and remember that I had been there before with my babies.

It took a little while to get into the groove of hiking but everyone enjoyed the little 0.9 mile hike on the PCT. There was exploring of the caves, playing with the sandy trail and even touching of the spiky Yucca Whipple-Our Lord's Candle. My son has a fascination with prickly plants, I just make sure they aren't poisonous before he touches them.

The Geological Trail had many markers with the descriptions on the pamphlet, sadly I'm so busy with the kids on the trail I never get a chance to see what the markers are all about, but the geological formations are just amazing to see all along this tiny section. When we had reach the famous section of the Vasquez Rocks, my kids starting yelling with glee, "Those rocks are Crocodile Rocks!!" and indeed they did look like crocodile heads. One of the great things about hiking with kids is the fact that they help you view the world in a beautiful imaginative way.

The famous Vasquez Rocks are really neat, they are giant slabs of rock shooting out of the ground! We hiked along the back side of the rocks and I was a little saddened by the graffiti and trash I found along there. I picked up as much trash as I could but still I don't understand why people have to put "I was here" on these beautiful rocks.

The Pacific Crest Trail continued but my children could not, so once we reached the picnic/parking lot area for viewing the rock formations, we headed down another trail back to the Interpretive Center. There is a dirt road which you can take to iconic Vasquez Rocks but we opted to hike on the PCT. I almost took the dirt road back but decided to stay on the trail and I'm glad we did because we saw some hieroglyphs and a Road Runner, which of course was too fast to snap a picture of it!

Vasquez Rocks is a great park, truly felt like I was in a different planet! Great rock formations, family friendly trails, a great "green" center and it has the wonderful Pacific Crest Trail. My suggestions would be:

Take lots of water! We visited on a cool day but it is still in the desert and it got very warm.
If you have time check out more of the longer trails, such as in SoCal Hiker's visit.
Visit the Interpretive Center! It's a really neat place and the employees are very informative.
Please take children on the Pacific Crest Trail. You don't have to be a backpacking ninja to hike on the PCT. Even a 0.9 mile hike is worth enjoying the PCT with your family.

Trip Report Details

Who: One Adult and two toddlers

Mileage: 1.8 miles (0.9 miles on the PCT)

Time: 1 hour (51 minutes to be exact)

Elevation: 7 ft - very flat

Family Friendly: Very Easy

I truly had lots of fun with my kids at Vasquez Rocks, knowing that it was a hideout for the California Bandido

Tiburcio Vasquez

(hence the namesake) and with all the Hollywood film history, makes hiking at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park out of this world!

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On a little trip to the greater Los Angeles area, we decided to get out of the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and headed out for a desert hike at

Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area

in Pearblossom, California near Palmdale. The park is very remote, far away from the "main civilization" of Palmdale, on the skirts of the San Gabriel Mountains. We arrived on a perfect fall day but I could imagine how hot the park gets in the middle of summer.

Devil's Punchbowl Visitor Center

The parking lot was pretty empty and I was not expecting the visitor center to be open at all, so I was surprised to find it open and was glad we decided to check it out! There was no mention on the website that the visitor center had animals so it was quite surprising to see all the live spiders, snakes and insects as well as some taxidermy animals. The ranger was very happy to show us the around the tiny Visitor Center, gave us a little lesson on the Honey Ants that you can eat alive. We didn't want to eat them but apparently they taste sweet, like candy! They also had a neat Animal Track Chalkboard Art.

RATTLESNAKES

~ The ranger told us the baby rattle snake (collage featured above) was born a few days prior to our visit. He blew air into the vent which made the rattle snakes shake their rattles, something we've never experienced! My son cried to leave but he still wanted to see the snakes, intriguing fear!

Punchbowl Loop Trail (1 Mile)

I don't know why I still have the belief that we could quickly hike five miles with our toddlers, but we opted out to hike

Punchbowl Loop Trail

which started in the Visitor Center/Picnic Area, the ranger suggestion. The canyon looked deep, deserted and dry which would be great to find a dry creek bed for the kids to play in, so down we went into the canyon. How can long can one mile take?

With having to touch every rock, spiky bush, sand piles and climb every rock my children encountered this one-mile loop took us a whopping two hours for this family of four! It was a beautiful day to hike, the weather would get nice an warm when the sun was shinning and would cool off when the sun hid behind the clouds. We sat took pictures, let the kids roll around in the trail, though after visiting the visitor center I was a little paranoid of snakes!

The Dry Creek Bed

We took a little off shoot trail down to the dry creek bed before head out of the canyon. Earlier the ranger explained to us that normally there is "some" water all year round but the minimal rain has cause the creek to go dry. A little sad but a dry creek bed is also fun to explore with little ones. There were amazing sand rock formations as well as seeing how the creek has shaped the boulders over hundreds of years. My kids also love sand and the creek bed provided lots of soft sand for them to play with, better than a playground sand box!

Lunch, climbing boulders, throwing rocks, playing in the sand and maybe some napping in the dessert sun took place in that dry river bed. There may or may not have been some "Flash Flood" survivor reenactment ala Bear Grylls down in the creek bed, just in cased it rained on us. Having so much fun in the creek, we reluctantly packed up and started hiking up hill out of the canyon.

Up and Out of Canyon

Hiking up hill is always a little challenging with toddlers and we had about 0.5 miles left. My kids can barrel down the mountain on a slight down hill, but throw in a little uphill with a tiny bit of warm temperature and they wilt! It's rather irritating how long it takes to hike up hill, knowing that my son has the ability and energy to hike five miles...it's a mental block he has but then again he's only four.

We got to see the creek from a different perspective going up the trail and saw lots of birds hanging out in the canyon rocks across the creek. We coaxed the kids with candy all the way back to the parking lot. My son sprinted on the flat sections of the trail but then wilted then instant we hit an uphill section.

Taking an Uphill Break!

My only complaint about Punchbowl Loop Trail is the trash I saw thrown into the canyon near the parking lot. If you start hiking near the Visitor Center (counter clockwise on the trail map) it's very clean until you start hiking up hill towards the parking lot. So many cans, bottles, food wrappers...I always pick up trash on the trail but there was so much thrown into the canyon. Seems like a place people come to hangout after hours to drink.

Trail Report Details

Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area - Trail: Punchbowl Loop

Mileage: 1-1.5 miles (extra to the creek bed)

Elevation Change: 343 ft (per

Strava

)

Time with Toddlers: 2 hours

Family Friendly: Yes - Check weather!

Devil's Punchbowl has lots of geological features, Native American history, as well as being very near by the San Andreas fault and other smaller faults. It's a great small park to visit if you are in the Palmdale area! For more information please visit their website at

Devils-Punchbowl.com

or visit their