Canonical Correction

We have been using the book Day Hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains by Robert Stone as our guide to hiking the Backbone Trail. It is a great resource with very informative descriptions of the trails as well as maps and instructions as where to park and shuttle. Before each hike we make sure to read about the start and end points and calculate driving times. We don't always read the full description of the hike until after we complete the hike.

On the last hike we messed up. In Stone's book it is Section 7 that describes the hike from Malibu Canyon to Corral Canyon Road. Near the end of the hike we saw the rock spiral and climbed on the nearby rocks. Then we saw this:

We went to the left and that trail led to Corral Canyon Road and then we walked up the road to the parking area. However, we should have gone RIGHT. That is the Backbone Trail and it leads right to the parking area and has some beautiful rock formations. Matt and I are determined to do every part of the Backbone Trail, so before starting the next hike segment, we backtracked from the parking area and completed the .4 of a mile part of the trail we had missed out on.

This was the first rock formation we saw. 

In the distance we could see the Pacific Ocean.

Near another rock formation we saw an old foundation. 

And a little lower the remnants of an old room that has become graffiti central.

Further on the trail goes up onto this rock formation.

From the top we can see down onto the trail and in the distance we can see the rocks we climbed on that are next to the rock spiral. Someone responded on Facebook to my last post and said that the rock spiral was started by a nearby homeowner who lost his house due to late-night partiers that started a campfire at that site that got out of control.

There are great rock formations to check out. 

This formation was in the distance behind the rocks in the last picture.

The Zen of Bruce

Matt on the trail. The parking area is off in the distance.

For Those that Give a GPS

Here is the GPS pic of the hike from the parking area back to the fork in the trail and then back to the parking area.