Jan 16 Topanga Canyon Red Rock Canyon Park Geology Hike

California Professional Geologist Jay Schneider leads this Sierra Club Natural Science Section hike through a variety of volcanic and sedimentary rock units in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Red Rock Canyon Park http://lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=47 is located in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains. The riparian canyon walls are fortified with huge red sandstone outcroppings, reminiscent of Southwest canyons and gorges. Special rock-land micro-habitats reside among the many beautiful red, tan and pale purple rocks, interlaced with chaparral at the crest, and oak and sycamore trees at the bottom of the gorge.

Dr. Jay Schneider is one of our own Meetup group's earliest joining members, and has led some of our best and most well-attended hikes.

The hike will take the Calabasas Peak Trail from Stunt Road over a ridge to the Red Rock Canyon Trail. It is in moderate terrain and will be at an easy pace.

The total hike is 4 miles. There is about a 0.6 mile hike with a 300 foot elevation gain at the beginning, where the trail forks between a further ascent to Calabasas Peak to the left, and a 600 foot descent to the right, to the brilliant red sandstone outcrops at the bottom of the park, for which the park was named. We will turn around and there will be about a 600 foot elevation gain over 1.4 miles, back to the saddle, then a 300 foot descent back to our cars.

Bring 2 liters of water and wear hiking boots. Directions to trailhead:

From Highway 101, exit on Topanga Canyon Road and head south one mile to Mulholland Drive. Turn west (right). In 0.5 miles, turn left at the traffic light on to Mulholland Highway and drive south for 5.3 miles. As Mulholland Highway curves west, turn left (east) on to Stunt Road and travel exactly one mile to a large turnout on the right side of the road at mile marker 1.0. The trail, a gated fire road, begins on the opposite side of Stunt Road.Please note that Meetup produces a map with a mile marker and location that are off by a few hundred feet.

The parking area is near the entrance to Cold Creek Preserve. A port-a-john is available there.

We’ll meet at 9 am. Or, meet at 8 am at the West LA carpool location, Federal Building parking lot, 11000 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, visitors’ section, on Veteran just south of Wilshire. This will be the first of 3 hikes to be led by Dr. Schneider to each of the three Red Rock Canyons in California (that he knows of). Watch out for more!

In the event of rain, hike will be rescheduled to January 23.

Leader: Jay Schneider (626) 841-2667, rtnttnj@aol.com.

Liability Waiver - In order to participate in a Sierra Club outing, you will need to sign a liability waiver contained on the sign-in sheet. If you would like to read a copy of the waiver before the outing, please call 415-977-5630 or see http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/chapter/forms/

Carpooling/Ridesharing - In the interests of facilitating the logistics of some outings, it is customary that participants make carpooling arrangements. The Sierra Club does not have insurance for carpooling arrangements and assumes no liability for them. Carpooling, ride sharing or anything similar is strictly a private arrangement among the participants. Participants assume the risks associated with this travel.