3 Dog Days: Hike in Wildwood

Last Sunday ffluffy and I had the day off from formal dog activities and we had planned to go on a hike. I was going to take her on my favorite hike in Santa Barbara, but then I remembered the traffic going back to Ventura County from Santa Barbara on a Sunday is terrible, and as great as that hike is, it isn't worth that traffic.

Wildwood Regional Park is a large park in the middle of Thousand Oaks. Back when I had Ranger, a horse I owned for a short time, I rode him to Wildwood which is how I knew about it. ffluffy and I took the dogs and off we went.

We hiked down to see Paradise Falls, a 50 foot waterfall, then we went deeper into the park, hoping to escape the crowds. We ended up going past Lizard Rock, through Wildwood Mesa, and along Stagecoach Bluff, where we saw a rattlesnake.

It was a good walk with nice elevation changes. I wish I had remembered my GPS so I could know how far we went. It wasn't very long- maybe 2 hrs or so.

We were in no danger from the snake- we had been warned, the dogs were on leash and he was making his way away from us. At one point we were in danger of being trampled by a horse. We found a group of 5 riders blocking the trail. The were having some kind of trouble so we had to wait for them to mount up and when they did, we back tracked to let them pass us. Pie has some kind of intense feelings toward horses and I'm not sure what they are and I don't think I want to find out. Hence the back tracking to let the horses pass us in a wider spot. All the horses passes us except the last one. He did not want to go down the embankment into the water. The rider seemed inexperienced and the horse was toss his head, and backing up at an angle away from the water and towards us. Our escape route to avoid a trampling or kicking would have been through the poison oak behind us and down a steep (but do-able) embankment into the river. Hmmm... poison oak or trampled by a horse? I got stomped by a horse once before and that was just on one toe, but had no desire to repeat that, so I would have taken the poison oak.

Luckily the rider decided to stop trying to make the horse go forward and the horse quieted down. Another rider came back and lead the horse through the water and we continued on our way, avoiding the poison oak and a trampling.

Hiking down the hill we stopped at a this tee-pee picture spot. I say this was a hike at and some points it was. Other times (such as on the super wide and busy "trail" at the beginning,) it was more like a walk. But at the same time, going down the hill to the falls was somewhat steep so I don't recommend taking your toddler and expecting him to walk on his own.

The falls from the top.

Dottie tries to get a better view of the falls.

The view of the falls you get from the bottom.

The view of the falls you get if you take the camera and sacrifice your shoe to the nasty black mud to get a better picture of the falls. (that would be ffluffy, not me.)

All the dogs hiking together down in the canyon. Nice greenery and shade.

Very green.

The dogs waiting for us at a bathroom break in the canyon. There are picnic tables and the bathrooms have flush toilets! Pie is looking at a horse and Dottie is eating something.

Starting to head back up out of the canyon. Getting dryer and browner.

Almost to the top. If you look exactly in the middle of this picture and you have really good eyes you will see a tiny white dot. That is the tee pee from near the falls. Probably if you click on it the picture will get bigger.

Zooming in so you can see I'm not lying.

A bit of a zoom in on Wildwood Mesa.

Looking backwards from Lizard Rock. The water treatment plant we passed and some Thousand Oaks houses on the ridge.

Looking off to the right.

We didn't purposefully do small to tall, it just happened that way. And Pickle is actually taller than Fancy when he isn't pouting about having his picture taken. Pie has a big tongue and Dottie was sitting in a bush that was giving her trouble by poking her in the face. Typical.

Pie still has a big tounge, now it is just in a different position.

Lizard Rock.

The Rattlesnake. This is the first Rattlesnake I've seen while hiking with my dogs. I think I saw some as kid while hiking with my dad but I don't really remember. I saw a few at the ranch in Santa Clarita where I used to board my horse. Lots of rodents attracted by the horse feed which brought the snakes. I was surprised to see one in this park because it was super crowded and busy with lots of people. You think snakes would want somewhere more quiet. It is important to leave dogs on leash when it is snake season!