Great L.A. Family Hikes: Monrovia Canyon Park Waterfall (One in a series)

We've got another family-friendly waterfall hike for ya, and this one may even be better. Monrovia Canyon Park is a quick, hour and a half hike that covers only about 2.5 miles -- but the reward is a lush, tree-covered hike that is easy for the little ones, with a waterfall at the end. Modern Hiker has more details:

There is plenty of shade on the trail here and for most of the rest of the hike you’ll be in cool, dappled sunlight. Even on a hot summer day, this is a great trail to explore – especially once the trail dips down to the canyon floor itself around the 0.6 mile mark, where you’ll be stepping over babbling brooks and overshadowed by enormous, tangled oaks.

At the 1.3 mile mark, you’ll hop over a few boulders and reach the rocky bottom of Monrovia Canyon Falls. This 30 foot double-cascade is not the tallest nor most impressive waterfall in the San Gabriels, but even with a steady stream of hikers coming and going this is still an absolutely lovely and serene grove that feels a million miles away from city life.

A month ago we wrote about the Eaton Canyon Waterfall, another closeby waterfall in the foothills. Even though we're in a drought, the waterfalls remain and are worth checking out. While Eaton Canyon's falls is more impressive, that hike is jam-packed. We enjoyed the solitude of the Monrovia hike.

Some pics:

FREE L.A.: Beating the Heat in Los Angeles with Grand Park's Splash Pad

Need to cool off? Grab the kids (stick them in their swimsuits first -- you too) and head downtown to Grand Park's splash pad! Located on the west end of Grand Park (right off of Grand, across the street from the Music Center), the splash pad is the perfect way to survive this 100-degree heat.

Let the kids get soaked as you grab a drink at the Starbucks located right there at the fountain. But make sure to get to the splash pad early -- given the heat, the place gets crowded, especially on weekends.



From the Grand Park FAQ:

The interactive splash pad is open to the public. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to enjoy water play in the splash pad, which features interactive jets.

Visitors can enjoy the light show in the park’s Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain after dark, from the surrounding overlook and walkways, or while passing through to the Metro Civic Center station, a parking lot or an alternate destination outside the park.

Restrooms are located right next to the Starbucks and adjacent to the fountain and splash pad. Grand Park is open to the public every day from 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

L.A. Snapshots: The William Mulholland Fountain

William Mulholland's career ended in disgrace in 1928 after the St. Francis Dam collapse. But Mulholland remains one of, if not *the*, most important players in Los Angeles history. He oversaw the construction of Los Angeles Aqueduct, which brought Owens Valley water to the Valley, which, of course, helped turn Los Angeles into the metropolis it is today.

Mulholland is memorialized with this fountain, located across from Griffith Park at Los Feliz and Riverside. It's one of the most popular places in L.A. to take wedding photos (indeed, a wedding party was snapping pics when we rode our bikes there on Saturday) and was recently renovated in time for the 100th anniversay of the aqueduct. More pics:



DWP promises "pure, clean tap water."








Mulholland's famous words, opening the aqueduct: "There it is. Take it."

100 Years of the Los Angeles Aqueduct: There It Was. We Took It. (VIDEO)

It's been 100 years since that day on Nov. 5, 1913 when the Los Angeles aqueduct officially opened, siphoning water from the Owens Valley and opening the door to L.A.'s rapid growth. William Mulholland uttered those famous words -- "There it is, take it" -- and L.A. did. Here's a three-part silent black-and-white film recounting it.





Check out KCRW's extensive roundup of stories about the aqueduct, water and L.A.'s ugly history with the stuff here. And listen to KCRW's special, "Power and Water: The Los Angeles Aqueduct at 100," hosted by Madeleine Brand, below:

Retro Friday: Lake Dolores, America's First Waterpark

It's one of the many bizarre sites (along with Zzyzx Rd.) you can't help but notice while speeding down the 15 to or from Las Vegas. An eerie, abandoned water park in the middle of the desert: "Rock-A-Hoola," formerly known as Lake Dolores, seems to have been a pretty bad idea.

Yet it thrived as Lake Dolores. (Above, an 1980s-era ad for the attraction.) Opened by Bob and Dolores (the park's namesake) Byers in 1962, Lake Dolores is considered one of the first -- if not the first -- water parks in the country.

A popular recreational attraction for much of the 1970s and 1980s, it finally shut down in the late 1980s. Ten years later, in the late 1990s, it reopened as the 1950s-themed "Rock-A-Hoola." Here's a promo video from 1998:



But the new owners went bankrupt, and it shut down for good by 2004. Since then the water attractions have been removed and the location has been vandalized. Now, it's a spooky shell of its former self.

Now, people can't resist stopping off the freeway to take videos of the eerie water park ruins. Some videos:





And in the most famous example, the stars of MTV's "Rob and Big" took their skateboards and rode on the abandoned slides:



Lake Dolores isn't forgotten. Not only do thousands of motorists drive by it every day, but one filmmaker is even working on a documentary about the country's first waterpark. Here's a clip:



Check out more cool pics of the abandoned waterpark at Lost America here.

Angelenos, Here's What You Need For Christmas: A Water Filter

(Flickr pic by WHUhnnnnnnnn.)

Yuck -- according to a new enviromental report, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tap water ranked 83rd out of 100 cities "because of its cocktail of 30 chemical contaminants."

Reports the L.A. Daily News:

One cancer-causing chemical exceeded federal legal standards while 14 other chemicals surpassed recommended health guidelines, according to the report.

In comparison, the agency that supplies potable water to 19 million residents around the city of Los Angeles ranked 58th. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California tap water contained 27 chemicals, most of them unregulated and legal, but potentially unsafe.

"Looking at the data, we're definitely concerned about water quality in Southern California. We recommend utilities really look at their processing. There's much room for improvement," said Olga Naidenko, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental watchdog based in Washington, D.C., and a co-author of the report.

"We recommend residents get water filters."

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: "WATER MAIN"

Another City of Los Angeles water main broke on Thursday afternoon, this time on Topanga Canyon.

Wait a sec... have we Angelenos become extras in a cheesy, "Volcano"-style disaster movie? Coming soon to a theater near you: "WATER MAIN."

The plot: DWP officials stress that these breaks are unrelated. But a tenacious Caltech scientist says no. NOPE -- it's the first sign that what we've feared for years is coming true: Los Angeles is falling into the ocean. It'll take the genius mind of our Caltech scientist (young, blonde, female) and our at first skeptical DWP official to spread the word. But eventually, all of L.A. will get together and send that water to the Owens Valley. LA is saved, and the water is back where it belongs!

WATER MAIN... The Coast isn't Toast. It's All Wet.

(As first Tweeted yesterday on @franklinavenue.)

Dallas Raines Has Nothing on This Guy

Talk about a man born into the job. The name of the interim director of Glendale Water and Power?

Dan Waters.

The St. Francis Dam Tragedy, 80 Years Later

Mulholland inspects the dam's ruins

Will at Metblogs L.A. reminds us that Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of one of the deadliest engineering disasters in this country's history -- and the second biggest loss of life (behind the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) in California history: The St. Francis Dam collapse.

It was just after midnight on March 12, 1928, when the dam (located five miles northeast of what's now Santa Clarita) gave way -- spilling more than 12 billion gallons of water in its path. There's still not an accurate count of how many people were killed -- but it's believed to be as high as 600.

The dam was built in 1926 by William Mulholland, the man who helped birth modern Los Angeles by bringing water to the growing metropolis via the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Will notes:

In the first year after its completion in 1926, the dam hinted at its potential flaws in the form of cracks and leaks that Mulholland would inspect and dismiss as normal for a dam of that size. It was filled to capacity for the first time on March 7 and new cracks and leaks almost immediately appeared, again disregarded by Mulholland. On the morning of March 12 still more fresh cracks and leaks presented and for the last time Mulholland pronounced them normal and the dam entirely safe.

Mulholland's career pretty much ended after that, and he disappeared from public view; he died at age 79 in 1935.

Thar She Blows

The Temporary Geyser of West Hills. Created, Friday, Nov. 23. Ended, Friday, Nov. 23.

Whatever caused it (car hitting a fire hydrant the most obvious guess), the nearby homes and cars were pounded by what would have been a equivalent of a torrential rain pour.

Somebody alert the DWP Drought Busters. Sadly, whatever good that initiative may do in curbing water usage was probably balanced out by this massive waste of water. Sigh.