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Spring time in Southern California – get out this weekend and enjoy it

Posted by: Maven on March 8, 2008 at 7:11 am

With all the rain we’ve had this season, the hills are uncharacteristically green and lush with vegetation. With mild weather expected this weekend, it’s a great time to get out and check out the countryside. Here’s some suggestions:

Who says Southern California has no seasons! Why, of course we do! Smog, fire, rain and Kodachrome,  says the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

And in case you hadn’t noticed, we have entered Kodachrome season. The hillsides are radiant green, the sky is actually blue — instead of gray, brown or black, as it is in other seasons — heck, there are even wildflowers blooming in fields and on hills that haven’t yet been covered with housing developments.

The mountains are more than a dim and hazy outline. You can actually see the wrinkles and folds in their terrain and individual pine trees on the top ridges. And this is with the naked eye. The NAKED eye! No remote live cam required.

So if you want to get a good view of the Inland Empire, this is the time. And there is hardly a better place to do this than from the top of those very mountains.

Click here to read the rest of this article, which tells of places in the Inland Empire where you can drive to check out the scenery of the season.  If you’d rather hike than drive, here’s an article about waterfalls and vernal pools which are back this year, courtesy of the rains. Also from the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

Steady winter rain has revived seasonal waterfalls and vernal pools around the area, some of which were non-existent last season. Now, with wildflowers abloom and water flowing, it is a great time for a hike.

Rangers say the rain this season did not compare with the deluge in 2005, but have been more than enough to make for a nice spring show.

The Ortega and Tenaja falls in the Cleveland National Forest are flowing. So are the Bonita and Big falls in the San Bernardino National Forest and the falls in Tahquitz Canyon in Palm Springs. At the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve west of Murrieta, the vernal pools are filled to the brim.

For some hikes you can take to check out the waterfalls and wildflowers, click here for this article from the Riverside Press-Enterprise. And for more ideas on where you can view wildflowers, check out this article, also from the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

OK, and one last thing … if wildflowers and waterfalls aren’t your thing, how about something a little more …. ? It’s time for the grunion run again, according to the LA Times Travel blog:

In the dark and still hours past midnight, people gather along the sandy shores on Venice Beach. With rain boots on and armed with flashlights, they are hoping to see something truly spectacular, and quite bizarre: thousands upon thousands of fish having sex.

These fish are the California grunion, and they have a habit of leaving the water in the nighttime hours to mate and spawn on the beach. To read more about the fascinating grunion, as well as see an estimated schedule of spawnings for spring and summer 2008, view the California Department of Fish and Game’s brochure.

Check out the rest of this post from the Los Angeles Times’ travel blog by clicking here.

However you choose to spend your weekend, I hope it’s a good one!

March 8, 2008 · Filed Under General Water Issues

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