Echo Mountain

Another one of our hikes! This time it had been a cold weekend and it had recently snowed on the mountains.

Hey guess what, there really ARE mountains in Los Angeles. This sight still confuses me. I just never, ever imagined big snowy mountains behind downtown Los Angeles. It is really quite pretty here on clear days...


This is a picture of the mountain we were about to climb. We started the trail directly at the base of the mountain at the end of this street.


I love it when you start hiking up and as soon as you've gained a decent amount of elevation, you turn around and see the city stretch endlessly beyond. How smoggy downtown is seems to be a good gauge of the air clarity that day. Today was a pretty smoggy day. Still looks neat though...


This is the trail we climbed, and the view from about halfway up.



There was a fine powder of snow on these mountains, which is positively thrilling in Los Angeles.



I liked that you could see the trees turning in the city below...



A look back down at the trail from which we came...



A part of the panorama at the top of the trail. Mountains rose beyond us but this was the ending point for this section of the trail. An old railroad was built up here I suppose to bring passengers to and from a mountain retreat. Maybe I should have read more of the historical information...huh. I think I was eating trail mix and staring at the view...



At last, Brian checks our topo maps against the peaks surrounding us. He's a good mountain man. I never knew that the word "orienteering" existed before him. But I also never had as much fun saying "rocket scienteering" before him either. Or "rocket scientry." Try it, it's fun.