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Tag Archives: Black Star Canyon

DOPPLER RADAR – SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Alex G in Distance hikes, Strenuous Hikes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Black Star Canyon, cleveland national forest, Hiking, nature, santa ana mountains

The hike to the KSOX Weather Radar in the Santa Ana Mountains is best done on a cool day. Its around 8.5 miles to the Radar. The non shaded trail winds though Black Star Canyon and then up to the top of the canyon to the Main Divide Road.

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Doppler from Beeks Place

The doppler viewed from  Beeks Place which is at the 8 mile mark on this trek.

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There are two single track short cuts that will save you time and miles on this 16 mile hike. Look for them when your on your way up the trail and take then on the way down. Its a great change from the fire road.

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Up on one of the unnamed  singletrack trails heading down Black Star Canyon.

CLICK FOR DIRECTIONS  TO TRAILHEAD

● Trail difficulty – Strenuous
● 18 mile hike
● Trail type – Out and back
● Zero shade – bring sun protection

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BLACK STAR CANYON INDIAN VILLAGE

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Alex G in Distance hikes, Outdoors, Strenuous Hikes

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

black star, Black Star Canyon, california, cleveland national forest, Hiking, indians, native people, orange county, santa ana mountains, tongva

Black Star Canyon Indian village is located a little more than 5 miles from the trailhead on Black Star Canyon Rd. The trail starts off moderate for the first 2 miles as you make your way up the canyon. The last 3+ miles up to the Indian site are the strenuous  part. The trail climbs up the canyon walls as it takes you into the Cleveland  National Forest. The site is easy to miss since it’s not marked. Just look for the grove of Oak Trees a little after the 5 mile mark. It is on the right hand side.

The canyon is full of history! Including the story about the Indian massacre.  You can read about is on the Wikipedia page.

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Click for Directions to trailhead

● Trail difficulty – strenuous
● 10.5 miles roundtrip
● Trail type – out and back
●  mostly exposed – bring sun protection
● Bring minimum  2 liters of water
● California  historic  site 217

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BLACK STAR CANYON TO SILVERADO CANYON

01 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Alex G in Distance hikes, Outdoors, Peaks, Strenuous Hikes, Waterfalls

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

beeks place, Black Star Canyon, canyon, cleveland national forest, distance, doppler, hike, Hiking, long, maple springs, peak, radar, santa ana mountains, Silverdo, trail

This 20 mile hike begins at the Black Star Canyon Trailhead and ends at the Maple Springs Trailhead. We used the car shuttle system to complete this hike, meeting at the Maple Springs Trailhead, leaving a car there and carpooling to the beginning of the hike.

This is a great hike with lots of points of interest: A coal mine, school bus, historic Indian site, Beeks place, doppler radar, Pleasants Peak and amazing views are things that you will experience along the way.

The hike begins at the parking lot just past the large steel gates.This is Black Star Canyon Rd. The first 2 miles are on a wide level fire road. Along the way you will see a closed off coal mine on the right and shortly after an old abandoned tractor and an old school bus in the creek are visible on the left.

New Bridge on Black Star Cyn Rd

School bus in the creek

A little past the the 2 mile mark you will see a house to your right, this is Black Star Bills house. If you see him say hi and keep on walking. When you reach the large concrete cylinders make a left and continue up the road. Making a right and dropping into the creek will take you to Black Star Waterfall

The next 3 miles are a gradual climb consisting of a few switchbacks and several hundred feet of elevation gain. (aprox 800ft) for the most part this section of the trail is exposed with very little shade and hardly and trees but around the 5 mile mark you will notice a bunch of Oak Trees on the right. This is the site of the Historic Indian village. This is a wonderful place for a break and an even better place to do some exploring. There’s a large amount of grinding rocks here which indicates that there was a large group of Indians that called this place home. There is a great lookout point located in the southwest section of the site.

Entering the Historic Indian Site

Grinding Rocks

Historic Indian Site

After a quick break and a small snack we continued on to the next of many points of interest on this hike. Next up, Beeks place, which is at the 8 mile mark. Beeks place sits on the Main Divide Rd and offers amazing views of Orange County, The San Gabriel Mountains and IE.

Entering the Cleveland National Forest

Beeks Place

We continued right, passing Beeks place and headed to our next destination, The Doppler Radar which is just over 1 mile from Beeks place.

Break time at the Doppler

On our way to Pleasants Peak we stopped at Little Pleasants Peak to check out the views

view from Little Pleasants Peak

Our next stop was Pleasants Peak (4,007 ft) This peak is much like the Santiago Peak but on a smaller scale of course. 360 views are not possible because of the many communication towers that call this place home but a quick scramble up the ridge provide awesome views!

Pleasants Peak

My beautiful wife an I before leaving Pleasants Peak

Leaving Pleasants Peak

From here we still had 8 miles to go! We thought it would be all down hill from here but we were mistaken. The rest of this trek on the Main Divide consisted of rolling hills once we reached the 17 mile mark we reached the junction with Main Divide and Silverado Truck Trail. We took the Silverado Trail (straight ahead)  for the remaining 3 miles to the car. Making a left will take you to Bedford Peak.

On our way down the Silverado Trail we had amazing views of Santiago Peak as the clouds rolled in.

Santiago Peak from Silverado Trail

Happy Trails,
Alex G

RECAP:

  1. ****STAY ON WIDE FIRE ROAD THE FIRST 17 MILES****
  2. First 8 miles are on Black Star Canyon Rd
  3. Make a right at Main Divide towards Beeks Place and continue for 9 miles
  4. At 17 mile mark go straight past the brown rails and take Silverado Trail for 3 miles to Maple Springs.
  5. Once on Silverado Canyon Rd make a right towards the Maple Springs parking lot
  • 20 MILES
  • 3,400 FT ELEV. GAIN
  • HISTORIC INDIAN SITE
  • DOPPLER RADAR
  • PLEASANTS PEAK(4,007FT)
  • 8 -10 HOURS TO COMPLETE
  • >>>>NO SHADE<<<<<
  • CAR SHUTTLE

CLICK HERE FOR MAP OF HIKE

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RED ROCKS OF BLACK STAR CANYON

18 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by Alex G in Easy Hikes, Outdoors

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Tags

Black Star Canyon, Hiking, OC Parks, Red Rocks

Yesterday, the 17th of October. A couple of friends and I were lucky enough to join the members of OC Parks and IRC on a docent led hike to the Red Rocks of Black Star Canyon. They were extremely friendly and very knowledgeable of the land, plants, and history of the canyon.

The park is currently only open for guided tours on select days but will eventually open to the public and will be known as Black Star Canyon Wilderness Park and will span about 2,000 acres.

Due to time limitations we were not able to view the whole park. The hike was scheduled for 2 hours and with 4 stops along the way we only made it about a mile or so into the canyon.

The park itself is plentiful with plant life and signs of wildlife as well. There is also a Golden Eagles Nest on the cliff side, though there was no sign of the eagle, it was still a sight to see.

I look forward to the opening of this wilderness park and I want to thank OC Parks and IRC for their very informative tour.

For information on guided tours and other activities visit IRC website for details.

Click here for Directions.

Happy Trails,
Alex G.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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