Corriganville Maze - Fit Beginner
Details
3 miles, 400' gain, Fit-Beginner
Easy option: 1 mile, no gain.
This is the famous Corriganville Park, previously the Corriganville Movie Ranch. This is not only a great place for hiking, but there are picnic tables, barbecues, drinking fountains, and bathrooms. It's also quite historic.
The park and lot close at sunset, so we'll leave when it gets dark.
If you have not been to Corriganville Park, you are in for a treat. It used to be a film studio ranch. There are many placards on posts in the ground with notable facts and photos from movies filmed here.
Part of the park is like hiking through an old western motion picture, with dramatic rock formations. Parts of Tarzan were also filmed here.
It served as the background scenery for:
Fort Apache (Film Link)
Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory (Film Link)
The Robe (Film Link)
The Lone Ranger (Film Link)
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (Film Link)
Sky King (Film Link)
Circus Boy (Film Link)
Star Trek (Film Link)
This park provided terrain such as lakes, mountains, caves, rock outcroppings, overhangs, and large boulders. Estimates of the number of movies and television shows filmed there range from the hundreds to the thousands.
Potluck.
This event is a potluck. We will carry our stuff until arriving at the covered pavilion. This is where the Easy Option ends, and I'm sure there will be a hiker or two that opts to stay, while the rest of us head on a 45 minute walk around the park, returning back to this same location for a social event.
If the pavillion is taken by another group, we'll just move over to one of the many picnic areas close by.
The Hike.
Since this is the first time doing this exact route, I don't have a map of it. Next time.
This hike is a series of loops and turns that cover most of the park. There will not be any extended inclines, but the total hike will have 400' of gain and there will be a few small hills (75 - 125 steps, each). This will be fine for fit beginners but it will get the blood pumping.
The hike starts out as a flat walk through the park along a heavily wooded area with lots of tree cover. After about 1/2 mile, we'll have circled around a picnic pavilion and the trail turns into a rocky fire road with interesting outcrops reminiscent of old western movies.
We'll walk up the first hill and then head right, then a hard right, circling around past the "Interesting Rock", and then turning right at the junction moving all the way to the end where there is a fence with Foothill Park on the other side.
We'll retrace our steps back a short distance, and then keep going to a flat area where the scenes from Spahn Movie Ranch in Once upon a time in Hollywood were filmed. We'll see the remaining foundations of a couple buildings and after circling around, we'll head back, and then turn up a somewhat steep climb
on a single track, that takes us back to the top of our first climb.
We'll return down the original path a short ways, and then take a different route back to the pavilion where we'll have our potluck and social event. After, it is about a half mile flat walk back to the lot and then on to the cars.
Interesting Notes.
Here are a few plants you are sure to see on this hike:
Thorny. Also called yellow cockspur and golden star thistle. Generally considered a weed. Long-term ingestion by horses causes a neurological disorder known as chewing disease, a lethal lesion of the nigropallidal region of the brain. This disease is expressed as a twitching of the lips, tongue flicking, and involuntary chewing. Permanent brain damage is possible, and affected horses may starve to death. Used in Turkish folk medicine for the treatment of ulcers. In a laboratory study, aqueous extracts of fresh or dried flowers of yellow star thistle given orally showed significant antiulcerogenic activity in rats.
The leaves and flower tops have long been used in home remedies as a bitter tonic for the common cold. Horehound has been used traditionally as an expectorant and continues to find a place in cough lozenges and cold preparations. It now is used primarily as flavorings in liqueurs, candies, and cough drops. In addition, extracts of the plant were used for the treatment of intestinal parasites and as a diaphoretic and diuretic. The picture is what the plant looks like when dry, as in late summer.
Directions.
Corriganville Park
7100 Smith Road
Simi Valley, CA 93063
34.263244, -118.654719
The park and parking lot closes at dusk, so it is suggested you park on Smith Road, just outside the lot.
From the 118
Exit Kuehner Dr., south for 1.5 miles.
Left (west) on Smith Rd. for 0.4 miles until dead end.
Park just before entering the lot.
From the 101 @ CA23
North CA-23 for 8 miles.
East I-118 for 12 miles.
Exit 30 Kuehner Dr., right (south) for 1.5 miles.
Left (west) on Smith Rd. for 0.4 miles until dead end.
Park just before entering the lot.
The Hike.
Distance: 3 miles. Easy Option, 1 mile, no gain.
Elevation Gain: 400'
Difficulty: Fit Beginner
Pace: 2.0 mph
Dogs: Yes if leashed, per State law
Restrooms: Yes
Drinking Fountains: Yes
Parking: Free. Park outside the lot on the street.
Trail: Fire road, rocky trail, single tracker.
What to Bring.
1-2 liters of water.
Snacks and/or beverages to share.
Hiking shoes preferred, but athletic shoes will be OK.
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