National Trail Trek - South Mountain Park

I hiked Phoenix's South Mountain end to end with hiking buddy Mark on Saturday. The city of Phoenix sponsors the hike and runs the shuttle buses, and you get lunch at the midway point, and even a tee shirt. Over 300 people participated in the 15-mile hike, and the weather was perfect. Mark took this photo of some of the hikers atop the summit ridgeline, with the Estrella Mountains in the distance.

Henninger Flats

On a hike with friends to Henninger Flats in the San Gabriel foothills today, the sun came out and I took this photo. This is looking southwest, toward the cities of Glendale and Altadena, and also the Verdugo Mtns in the distance on the right.

Snow Falling in the SCV

In today's winter storm, Valencia was positioned exactly on the lower threshold of snowfall. Here's a shot of my back yard and the neighbors' roofs. This is actually after about two hours of off-an-on snowfall, but the ground remains warm enough to melt it. This area may receive more tonight, though. Snow is not unheard of at this elevation, but I guess this is the first measurable snowfall here since 1989. There's a funny post about this on the LATimes blog here.