Named The Grotto, this hike is in the Santa Monica Mountains is great destination.
This hike starts at the Circle X Ranch, which has a few different trail heads at it and a camp ground.
Start your hike in the free parking area and check out a great view to the right of the ranger station. There’s actually a monitor up here which tracks the movements of the earths crust.
Following the road down to the camp ground you can find the trail head just past the restrooms.
This trail is mostly down hill on the way to the creek bed. There’s plenty of great signs to let you know you’re on the right track.
This is a great trail with some challenging climbs at the end to get into and out of the Grotto. Definitely get here early to avoid the late morning crowd and get a great parking spot.
Its a little challenging to climb down into the Grotto, there’s no “easy” path and you’re going to have to do a little bit of climbing down around the large rocks above it.
Since we’ve been in a drought in So Cal there wasn’t a lot of water in there but it was nice and cool and the water was ice cold, which felt great after the tough climb down.
Though a short 3 mile round trip hike, I’d rate this as an intermediate level hike. For this hike you need to come prepared with proper shoes and the ability to do some climbing to get in and out of the grotto.
There’s a great hike that starts nearby that we’re hoping to try soon and even come back for a camping trip. Subscribe to this blog for more posts on our adventures and hikes.
For more on this hike and other great hikes check out –
L and A in L.A. 
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