CANYON REJUVENATION DEPT.

We’ve had only one and a half inches of rain this season. That’s poor.

In early spring of 2019 I explored what I call Flow Falls above “the Grotto,” which had recently been rejuvenated by heavy rains,15-odd inches. Re-View and be rejuvenated yourself. It may be years before this insignificant, exquisite place gets to put on a show like this. I forgot about this film because I thought I had spoiled all my footage — the glare in the slot-canyon was so intense that day, shot after shot went to white. Yesterday, to cheer myself up I went back over the footage…it was so nice. I thought, maybe Mabel Mercer could make it all work ; she can do anything…Patient Reader, she did! Click and be transported to the ephemeral Eden of a seasonal waterfall through some of the most fascinating geology on God’s green Earth:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YB0IyZ1peE3OvvOvP_ujn-29DYpoS8n3/view?usp=sharing

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For years, Clio and I had tried to explore this fascinating little side chamber off La Tuna Canyon in the green Verdugo Hills; but the slender bowl at the bottom had always been overgrown, just a dry rocky “theatre” at the bottom of a 50 foot trail down from the road. Pretty, and romantic, but the ledge sealed the place off from the barricade of brown dead live oak and fiery red poison oak above. I didn’t even notice the syncline, it was so covered with blackberry brambles. Since we were in drought in those years, there was no “flow” at all here, ever. It looked like an old abandoned quarry. I didn’t dream such a picayune place could support a spring, much less a waterfall. Then HUGE fires in 2017 scourged it, choking it even more with thick muddy ashes and debris. Then 2019’s fierce rains flushed it out and rejuvenated the whole drainage. I’ll continue to document this astonishing vest-pocket Yosemite as I visit.

“My Shining Hour” (1943), from The Sky’s the Limit. Music by Harold Arlen, words by Johnny Mercer.