This is definitely one of my favorite hikes in the LA area, because it is easily accessible off of Sunset Boulevard, and it is a rewarding loop trail that passes a tiny waterfall before climbing to a nice panoramic view of Santa Monica and the ocean. The hike this day was even more awesome than usual, because we saw newts!!! And some were in amplexus!! I had heard from my friend Gary, a California newt expert, that this year was dry and he hadn't seen many in the Santa Monica Mountains. Maybe the rain on March 31st helped these guys come to the stream and have fun newt times. Apparently, these newts do not have internal fertilization, rather the amplexus functions as a way to sway the female newts into later picking up a package of sperm the male has left... she seems to make her decision based in part on how well the male rubs his chin on her head while they are joined, which is almost too cool for words. We also ran into several interesting hikers on the way down, one of whom was an environmental lawyer and alumni of Tulane University (my alma mater, her Tulane shirt sparked our conversation :) She is a co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is trying to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that is used and dumped everyday, and ends up in the ocean, either poisoning and killing sea animals and/or creating huge depressing gyres of plastic that continues to break down into smaller particles, but never actually decomposes. Some other highlights were a plethora of wildflowers! Photos below, with attempts at species names in the captions.
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AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
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