Off the Beaten Trail

With summer officially beginning next week, you might think the time is long gone to find a cool flowing stream to hike along in the Santa Monica Mountains.

But in the middle of the Cold Creek Canyon Preserve, a 1,000-acre area above Calabasas maintained by the Mountains Restoration Trust, there’s a stream that flows perennially. It’s in the middle of a pristine wooded canyon set amid gigantic sandstone boulders--a lush setting you’d never expect to find anywhere near the Valley.

On Sunday Kevin Landis will lead visitors on a hike through the preserve. “In certain places the trail through the [natural] growth is almost a tunnel,” he said, “and at the site where a hermit once lived in the canyon there are ponds and marshes with Humboldt lilies.”

Landis, a Reseda resident, is a member of the Cold Creek Docents, the support organization of the Mountains Restoration Trust that offers regular guided hikes in the preserve. He is thoroughly familiar with the flora, fauna, geology and history of the place.

The initial part of the hike will include a look at some fossils that indicate the whole area used to be at the bottom of the sea.

“These mountains, which used to run north-south gradually rotated on a tectonic plate like a Lazy Susan and now run east-west,” he said.

Part of the hike passes through cool oak woodlands, where Landis will point out the differences between the abundant blackberry bushes and the poison oak growing along the trail.

“Here, the berry bushes for some reason don’t produce fruit as they do in the San Gabriel Mountains, where I also hike--and some people have to have the difference pointed out,” he explained.

The preserve’s pond and marsh area have an abundance of tule, iris and “fertile celery,” which Landis said is evidence that the hermit, Herman Hethke, grew that plant as a cash crop in the early 1900s.

The ruins of a two-story abode Hethke chiseled into a massive boulder stands nearby.

Further along the trail, where Landis said the temperature is cooler still, there’s a rock grotto with falling water, ferns and scarlet monkey flowers. “And,” he added, “when we cross over Cold Creek we’ll see some newts in it.”

Visitors will see several waterfalls in the distant reaches of the preserve.

If all this sounds like Shangri-La on a hill above the Valley, well, it is.

If you want to visit it on your own, arrangements can be made by contacting the Cold Creek Docents at their Canoga Park office, (818) 346-9675, Ext. 12.

School groups are encouraged to book weekday docent-led hikes. Parking is a bit tricky, so call for instructions.

BE THERE

“This Is Los Angeles?,” a program of the Mountains Restoration Trust at Cold Creek Canyon Preserve in Santa Monica Mountains above Calabasas, a free docent-led hike from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Call (818) 346-9675, Ext. 12, for details on meeting docent at unmarked parking area 1.2 miles east of Mulholland Highway on Stunt Road. No restrooms or drinking water on the preserve.