Went to Devil's Canyon Saturday 03/01/08. I arrived early at 6am with the hope to possibly see wildlife, but of course that didn't happen. Well anyways, I began hiking down the canyon, on my way down I came across several down tree's completely blocking the trail. They were pretty difficult to get around. Also I noticed lots of overgrown brush all along the trail. I bumped into the branches over and over again and even had several ticks land on me. Luckily I noticed the ticks on my pants before they had a chance to actually get on me. For a while on the way down I considered turning around, but as soon as I caught my first glimpse of the stream my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to keep going. The stream was tiny at first but the further I got down the canyon it kept growing in size because of all the passing tributaries flowing into it. The first good size swimming holes began to appear at the trails end at the former Devil's Canyon Trail Camp. I decided to keep exploring further into the canyon by scrambling along the creek. The further down stream I went the deeper the swimming holes got, most were about 3 to 4 feet deep, but one or two appeared to be at least 6 or 7 feet deep. I even thought about jumping in for a while, but the water was way too cold. Well after a while of exploring I decided it was time to turn around. The whole way back was all uphill. It wasn't that difficult, but I did have too stop and take a few short breaks. Overall I was pretty impressed with the size of the creek and the scenery at the canyon bottom. It was fun, but remember you really have to watch out for ticks!!!!!!!!!
A few pictures of the area: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24141711@N ... 025022823/
Devil's Canyon......San Gabriel Wilderness........03/01/08
VERY cool area. There's a couple of really BIG pools if you go down far enough, but it's at least class three to get down to the pool because of the waterfall that feeds the pool (although I've heard there's a ridge you can climb around to the east on). I'll bet it's really gorgeous right now with all that water. I was there last Sept, and it was dry at the trail camp. I had to walk down a half mile or more to get to the first water.
HJ
HJ
