Being a Sunday my friend in Simi Valley who I was staying planned few days for us to go on a trekking to Switzer Falls today morning. It is a low difficulty trekking route of roughly about 8 miles (to and fro). The trek location is inside Angela National forest, so you need a $5 (Daily pass) adventure pass which you can buy online. The Daily pass is an honour system, you buy the pink card scratch the date and month once you are inside the premises and leave it in your car windshield, there is no verification of it in any gates.

My friend had planned to go their early in the day so that we can finish the trek before mid-day. We had a tiny breakfast and left home (Simi Valley) around 6:00 AM, the distance to cover was about 50 miles easterly towards Pasadena.

Angeles National Forest

Angeles National Forest

Switzer Picnic Area

Switzer Picnic Area

For people living outside India this is taken for granted, but what I like when visiting national parks in the western world or in Australia is that they are all maintained painstakingly well, especially you can be sure of having Restrooms for convenience. Since Angeles National forest is a bear territory there was no running water in the restroom at Switzer picnic area, it was a dry pit based restroom but still, this should be appreciated in this remote place.

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We parked her car after driving down from the highway, it was still dark outside, but we started walking. The first mile or so was on plains, easy and you are walking under shade. Beware in the entire trek there is no cellphone coverage, which is a blessing. You can enjoy the sounds of nature – wind gusting through the leaves, water running in streams and birds.

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After the first mile or two, you start climbing up on solid rocks on a footpath that was made 80 years back.

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At few places the climbing can be a bit hard, footpaths become narrow enough for just one person, you got to be careful. You are never left wanting for breath as the climb is not steep and any difficulty is compensated well enough by the wonderful views you see.

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On the way I saw this tree with bright red coloured branches, I stopped for few photos immediately.

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We completed the trek and came back to the parking lot by noon.

On our way to the Switzer Picnic area, we were overtaken by a row of antique sports cars, they all stopped in a viewing spot for a group get-together. Look at the bright hues of every car, they were stunning in the bright sunlight of the day.

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