Unnamed Arches (11S-337756-3772662), Corral Canyon Cave, Backbone Trail, Santa Monica Mountains NRA, CA
After lunch with Jim Seida, a colleague who I worked with in at least a half a dozen countries, and dinner with my niece Sarah, her husband Jason and their twin daughters Poppy and Goldie, we headed to Agoura Hills, CA, one of the many access points to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the 67-miles Backbone Trail. It crosses the best-protected stretch of coastal Mediterranean habitat in the world and connects Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades with Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County. There are 12 trailheads along the route and the best one for seeing natural arches begins at the end of Corral Canyon Road. The first half mile traverses a large granite outcropping where most of the arches are located. I wish we had known this before we hiked an additional four miles, as the return hike was all uphill.
On May 2, 2016, California State Parks’ Los Angeles District Superintendent Craig Sap sent out a memo that Corral Canyon Cave, better known as Jim Morrison Cave, would be completely closed to the public until further notice: “….The area has become popular with the public after a rumor began through social media that Jim Morrison from The Doors was said to have frequented the location. As a result large crowds have shown up on a daily basis to see the often vandalized cave and in some cases add to the vandalism with graffiti of their own. While State Park Rangers have been successful in catching and arresting several individuals for felony vandalism, however the graffiti of the cave and surrounding area has increased….”
The cave also made news headlines back in November of 2007 when partiers made an illegal campfire and started a wildfire. Nearly 5,000 acres were burned and 50 homes were destroyed.
The dirt parking lot for this hike is located at the end of Corral Canyon road. You turn on Corral Canyon Road from the PCH, the same place you turn for Solstice Canyon, and then head up the small two-lane road for five miles. At the end, it turns into dirt, and you drive about 50 feet on the dirt road before reaching the parking lot that holds about ten cars. The hike starts from the parking lot, on the right-hand side, and heads along the Backbone Trail.
We later learned that there were at least seven unsolved shootings in and adjacent to Malibu Creek State Park between November 2016 and June 2018, including the murder of a camper who was asleep in his tent with his two young daughters. The park is just north of the trail we were hiking.
On The Road, Summer 2022
We live in the beautiful Sonoran Desert, so when the temperatures consistently reach triple digits, we migrate and explore.
There is very little that is random on our itineraries since we strive to reach select wilderness destinations in the best light for photography. Coastal hikes often require low tides that correlate with sunrise or sunset and inland hikes to natural arches, waterfalls and other destinations that require long drives or hikes, often require pre-dawn departures to reach destinations before the light becomes too harsh and the temperatures too hot.
Even then, as Joni Michell wrote and Judy Collins first recorded, there are those pesky clouds:
“But now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way.”
In mid-June, we headed west to the Colorado Desert in southern California, then up the California coast before cutting inland to Pinnacles National Park and Mt. Shasta. From there, we traveled across southern Oregon before dropping down into southeast Idaho, northeast Utah and across to western Colorado for a week in the Fruita area. Afterwards we stopped in Boulder, Denver, Littleton and Del Norte, Colorado before heading into New Mexico where we made stops in Taos, Las Vegas, Abiquiu and Counselor before crossing back into Arizona, and arriving home.
Details are within the slide shows, but thanks to our friends and relatives: Libby, Sarah and Jason, Jim, Guy and Lisa, Steven, Bonnie and Myra, Karen and David, Marilyn and Joel, David and Judy, Ross, Kate and Greg, Bob and Carol, another Carol and Peter who fed us, housed us, hiked with us and guided us. We loved spending time with you all.
