Hiking for Fall - Aspen Groves

For several years now I have wanted to visit the Aspen Groves where quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) could be found in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Should I say, for almost 20 years. Many years ago we visited the ranger station to get a day hike permit. There were no more permits for Aspen Grove so we choose to hike out of the Fish Creek trail head on the Fish Creek Trail.

Emily, Eric and Scott on the Fish Creek Trail

I planned on going to Aspen Grove this Friday. I wanted to see some fall color here in Southern California. My plans changed when I learned that it was going to possibly snow Wednesday night and probably would Thursday night. Wind, rain and snow tend to remove fall colors. I also should mention that I visited the blog of Hikin’ Jim where he detailed his visit to the Aspen Groves this past Sunday. His blog lets us know that aspens are not normally found this far south. They kind of hung around after the last ice age.

With the quick plan change, I asked Scott to go with me. The plan was to work half a day and then head to the mountains. We stopped at the Ranger Station and picked up the needed permit to enter the wilderness. We reached the Aspen Grove trail head and Scott and I stared down the trail. O how I love going downhill in the beginning so I can hike uphill at the end. As we came down the trail we came across Fish Creek. The same Fish Creek that is just over three miles south where you can find the Fish Creek trail head.

Fish Creek in the Aspen Groves

As the trail crosses the creek, you have two choices, going North or South. We decided to head down the trail going North towards the largest grove of aspens. The hike was on fairly even terrain at first. We also noticed that there were many fallen leaves at this time.

As we hiked North we passed several small groups of aspens. The trail seemed to go up and down as it made it way around the creek. We also crossed Fish Creek a few times. Soon enough, in the distance we could see what looked like a large grove of aspens.

part of the large grove of aspens

We continued down the trail not knowing if we would find any more large groves of aspens. When we were convinced there were no more aspen groves to be found, we turned around and and headed back south. We decided to stay on the west side of Fish Creek rather than cross over with the trail. We made our way carefully to avoid hurting any plant life as we made our way up towards the grove.

Being under the trees is not as wonderful as looking at them from the outside. Unfortunately, there were several smaller aspens that did not fair very well this year as it has been hotter and dryer than the previous few years. We did find some small white fir trees that had been decorated with golden ornaments from above.

We were ready to head out so we made our way back to the trail.

We took a few more pictures of the large grove of aspens as we headed back up the trail.

Once back at the junction we decided to take the trail that heads south towards the Fish Creek trail head.

We hiked about a mile before we took a short break. Scott wanted to have his picture taken while pondering. I did not ask him if he was pondering anything other than his pose.

As we were resting a hiker came down the trail. I asked if there were any more aspen groves up the trail. The answer was no. However, we were told that it was beautiful up the trail and that we should hike up to Fish Creek Camp. I thought, I have been past there several times and I do not need to hike 3.4 miles or more to that camp and back the 4.6 miles back to the car. That is 8 miles. It is getting cold and soon to be dark. Did we have the gear to hike in the cold and dark? Yes. We just did not have the desire.

We soon turned back and headed to the trail head. We did stop and look at the golden colored leaves of the aspen trees on our way down the trail.

Once to the trail head we hiked north at a higher elevation to see if we could find the grove. We did, but there were a lot of trees between us the the aspen grove. We then headed higher up the dirt road in the truck to get a view from an even higher elevation. We could see the sun getting masked by the clouds as there were making their way up the valley and over the tops of the mountains.

This afternoon of hiking reminds me that fall is upon us. The days are shorter and the evenings are cooler. There may even be some snow at the higher elevations after this weekend.