A Slot Canyon, A Beautiful House and Wildflowers

Even though I love to go camping, it was a nice treat to stay in a hotel last night, especially waking up to a rainy morning. I felt very grateful to be able to get dressed in a dry, warm place, where I could actually stand up when I put my clothes on! I decided to go for a hike at a place called Annie’s Canyon where I had heard there was a slot canyon. It’s obviously a very popular place as by the time I arrived there were lots of cars parked nearby, and many people already on the trail. The start of the trail was on a hill just above highway five so it was pretty noisy, but eventually wound around closer to the lagoon and the traffic noise abated. I found the pathway to the slot canyon, and even though it was labeled difficult (the information I had found about it online had it labeled as easy), I decided to go forward. Though short in length, it was the narrowest slot canyon I have hiked, in many places I had to walk sideways to squeeze through. There were also several steep staircases, either carved out of the sandstone or created from wood or metal. These were my biggest challenge as an overweight 54-year-old, who does not have the best balance! I almost turned back a couple of times, unsure if I could get over the steep steps and worried about falling backwards, but I took my time and persevered. I was very grateful there wasn’t anybody walking directly behind me! I was able to get up all of the stairs after some maneuvering, but when I reached the final stair, I was stuck. It was more than half the height of my body, and I didn’t have the arm strength to pull myself up, there also weren’t any hand or finger holes nearby. Luckily, there was a young couple at the viewpoint just above me, and when I called out to them, they immediately offered to give me a hand. That little help up was all that I needed to make it over the top. They were very sweet, I think they were a little worried about me as they told me I should sit and rest for a few minutes! 

I did take it easy for about 30 seconds, then went exploring to check out the view. It was a great perch to see the surrounding lagoon and all the way out to the ocean. I took the moderate route down a series of winding paths with stairs, then followed the trail around the lagoon. 

At one point, I met some people staffing a table for the local preserve organization who gave me a map for a 3 mile walk around the lagoon and surrounding area. Since the weather was clearing up I decided to check it out and was glad that I did – there were lots of water birds in the lagoon, and I passed dozens of families walking on the trail, many with happy young kids  splashing in the muddy puddles. I love the closed-in, damp, musky smell of the lagoon, it feels so alive. 

After that I got on the road and decided to stop at the Gamble House in Pasadena. This is a huge craftsman-style house built for the Gamble family of Procter & Gamble fame. I absolutely love the architecture – lots of wood, built in cabinets and furniture, the simplicity of the style, the solidness of the house. You can see all the work that was done, where the joins were, etc. The leaded glass design of a beautiful tree in the front door is especially striking, and the lights and some of the doors and windows in the house were similarly gorgeous. It was very dark inside, which was common for the time since they had gas lighting, which was not as bright as our electric lights. The top floor that had windows all the way around was the brightest room and one of my favorites. The subtle inlay and carvings on the furniture were the main additional decor in the rooms. I wish I lived closer by so I could do one of the longer more in-depth tours, I’ll have to remember that on my next visit to Southern California. 

One funny thing that happened on this trip is that I often got asked if I qualified for a senior discount. I wonder if it’s because I was dressed very casually and wore no make up – perhaps compared to many of the other people in Southern California I looked older than my age!

I got up early on Monday and drove to the Carrizo Plains National Monument, which was about an hour away from where I had spent the night in Bakersfield. I was hoping that my timing was good and that there would be wildflowers blooming. I lucked out, and was delighted to see the beautiful yellow and purple swabs of wildflowers on the hills, though I suspect in another week or two there will be even more. It was a pretty, deserted place – for the first half of my drive I only saw one other vehicle. Since I was on a pitted dirt road, I made sure to drive slowly, knowing it would probably take a while to get assistance if anything happened to my car. I was able to pull off a few times and walk down four-wheel-drive roads to get a closer look at the wildflowers, though the best views seemed to be from further away, where you could get an overall view of the masses of flowers. I wished I had more time to explore this place, definitely will be on my list to come back and check out again next spring. I didn’t want to stay too long, knowing that another storm was headed in and I wanted avoid driving in Bay Area traffic in the late afternoon. 

On my way out  as I passed through the town of Taft, I was amused by all of the signs for the various church congregations along the side of the road, it’s like they were competing with each other for members! I also went by a few areas with small oil wells, as well as a paddock full of sheep, all white, with the exception of one brown one.

Interesting things I saw on my drive on I5:

• Goats keeping the weeds at bay
• Dawn
• Sheep
• Cloud cover making the drive cozy 
• Bee boxes on the outside of orchard rows
• Cows (and the smell!)
• Flowering fruit trees
• Snow on the mountains all around
• Low flying crop duster