mountains – chartopia

San Ysidro Falls

On my previous post (Secret Gardens [check it out ;)] ) I dared everyone to take a hike this past weekend, including myself. So I did.

There are many, many trails where I live (Santa Barbara / Montecito), but since it just rained, I decided to go to San Ysidro Falls. You can access the trail from Park Lane off of East Valley Road. I enjoy this hike because along the trail, you are next to the a creek almost whole way. Plus, there are so many awesome natural pools of water to SWIM IN! Yes you can swim in! It’s a cold, wet, but fun adventure. The best part is the waterfall (pictured above). The volume of water in the waterfall is not a ton, but it is decently tall, about 50 feet. The picture I took only shows the top of it, so it does not look that large in the photo, but it is. The waterfall is about 2 miles up the trail, so in total it is a 4 mile hike (up and down).

But what is hiking really all about? Why do we choose to walk up a mountain then done the mountain?

It’s about the scenery:

all the wildflowers, the odd shaped boulders, the birds’ singing, the eucalyptus trees

I went on this hike with my dad and while we were walking past a green field of long wild grass, he said, “It’s funny how people pay all this money to have gardeners, who make water drip systems, remove all the weeds, and put wiring under the soil to protect it, so your garden can survive and look nice, but then you go out in nature and see a tree growing out of a rock, and you’re like, that’s so much cooler!”

It’s true. I remember in eighth grade my English teacher read us this poem a kid wrote about a desert plant. I don’t recall word for word what it was, but it was the comparison between a pretty garden flower versus a stark desert plant. When I grew up I was told to like the delicate attractive flowers that are watered each day and taken care of, and I do like them very much still, but this poem brought to my attention to the inner strength of a plant. A cactus for instance, stands in the middle of a dry, hot, dusty, windy terrain. It’s surviving and thriving. Yes, they are not a beautiful small flower, but they are some bad ass plants that can with stand a whole lot more than a rose.

I think the poem explains nature well as a whole. It’s not like anyone is taking care of the natural world all the time, and it’s almost the opposite, since nature now has to suffer from deforestation, trash, and global warming mainly due to the PEOPLE that roam the Earth. Yet, somehow through all this bad, it still looks beautiful. Though, if people keep treating it like it is for granted, it will change for the worst. Give nature some love and take care of it, so it remains green and happy!

That is why I love hiking because it is the time I can really appreciate my natural surroundings.

Have a great weekend!! Give nature some love!

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

LIZARD’S MOUTH

Sometimes you wonder, “Why do I feel sad or mad or just the weird feeling?” Then, you drive up a mountain away from everything, and look at the sun slowing moving down to the horizon. All the negativity goes away. It is amazing what nature can do to you.

This past weekend, I met up with my friends, Jameson and Kelsey, at 4:30 and drove up the 154, took a left onto the windy back road up to Lizard’s Mouth. Lizard’s Mouth got it’s name because there is a rock there in the shape of a lizard’s mouth. It is also well known for rock climbers. For my friends and I, we jump to rock to rock until we find the “perfect” rock. Every time I go up there I try to find the rock I was at the time before, but it is really hard because the whole place consists of rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Many times I will go away from my friends and find my on rock so I can be by myself to reconnect with nature.

Spending so much time inside being in school and having a boatload of homework, can take a toll on yourself and your body. This school year for me has been tough because I started a new school. The academics are not bad, or the teachers, or the kids because most of my friends go here, but I feel stuck inside all day. Last year, I went to an alternative school where we took four bike trips each year going to places like Sedona, Arizona to to Ashland, Oregon. I was used to just having these adventures planned for me, instead of me planning them for my own.

To conclude, there are things in life that I really appreciate like being with my friends and looking out towards Santa Barbara with the sun setting onto the ocean at Lizard’s Mouth.

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

chartopia

Tag: mountains

Resilience

Up The Mountains