Mount Palomar
Lorri and I took off Wednesday and drove up to Palomar Mountain State Park. Neither of us had been up there in a while and it seemed like a good time to go. The weather was nice and the area is beautiful and home to Cal Tech's Hale Observatory with its world-famous 200-inch Pyrex mirror made by the Corning people in New York 50 or so years ago. Think of how many Pyrex dishes it took to make that!
We found a great camp spot and there were very few people around unless you count about 8,000 kids attending the camp "school" for a week instead of regular school. It was OK though, they kept to themselves except that occasionally a rag-tag group of them would march by headed to some nature trail or other. You could only hear them if they were within a half mile or so. How can kids be so loud?
Our camp spot was very nicely laid out for our purposes. We were able to level up the van easily and it had a nice area for relaxing around the campfire and barbequing dinner.
Here is a view of Lorri all dressed up in her camping best and relaxing with her book.
Here is another view of Lorri. This time we're on a trail through a fern covered field. I had never seen so much fern (or should that be so many ferns?). I had never seen so many bugs either. We must have just timed the bug season perfectly. If only we were entomologists.
Here we are on the trail just before we parted our ways. Lorri heading back to camp and Jack heading off on yet another Geocache adventure.
This is the trail I took, Chimney Flats Trail, built by the CCC in the 1930's.
Here is another one of Lorri relaxing in camp and reading her book. She's good at that.
This is Boucher Lookout, an old fire lookout with views over most of San Diego County when it is really clear about two or three days a year. It is no longer in use because we have better ways to detect fires these days. Pretty soon they will turn this into a restaurant and guest cabins. Just kidding.
Here are a couple views from the lookout.
No trip up Palomar Mountain is complete without stopping by the Hale Observatory, so that's what we did.
It's difficult to get an idea of the scale of this thing from a photo, especially my photos, but take my word for it, it's big!
This sculpture of George Ellery Hale is located in the lobby of the observatory and when you ask it an astronomy question, it actually gives the answer. Kind of like a really smart animated statue like they have at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Well not really, but I put the idea in the suggestion box.
GC276 - June 14, 2001
Yes I know, I can't go anywhere without looking for one of these things and this trip was no exception. This would have been a great hike if it weren't for the bugs. Many, many buzzing flies, gnats and unidentified bothersome creatures. I suspect we just hit this area at a bad time but I hate sharing my peanut butter & jelly sandwich with flies. Click below to see a topo map and GPS track of my quest for this cache.
This cache was interesting because it was set in the winter. Its owner using cross-country skis to get to the spot. I suspect that it was a lot easier to find back then. I'm going to post a couple photos on this page and then add a second page which will show precisely where the cache is. So if you're planning on looking for this one, don't look at that page unless you want to CHEAT!
On the left is the Chimney Flats Trail leading toward the cache and on the right is the general area of the cache.
On the left, the open cache and on the right, the headless cache man holding the cache.
On the left is the Chimney Flats Trail sign and another sign warning of mountain lions in the area. I didn't see any. The middle is a photo of Scott's Cabin Trail cutting across a fern field. On the right is, you guessed it, Scott's Cabin! Scott doesn't live there anymore.
If you want to see photos of the cache location and the approach to it, click here, cheater.