Midweek Mountaineers 2025

JANUARY

January 1st – Wildwood Park Loop

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The early winter morning sky was a bright blue behind scattered high clouds when 14 hikers with 2 dogs met at 8:00 AM at the main Wildwood Park parking lot at the west end of Avenida De Los Arboles in Thousand Oaks  The parking lot was nearly empty when we arrived (but completely full when we finished).  We began our counterclockwise loop hike by heading west on the Mesa Trail.  Soon we turned left (south) and hiked a short distance on the Tepee Trail until turning right (west) when we came to the Stagecoach Bluffs Trail which rose steadily uphill affording us with views of hillsides dotted with prickly pear cactus and soon we could look down into Wildwood Canyon below.

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Eventually the Stagecoach Trail came to a junction (further west) with the Mesa Trail.  We turned left (west) and followed the Mesa Trail fairly steeply up to its junction with the Lizard  Rock Trail.  After taking a short break we followed the Lizard Rock Trail southward down into Hill canyon (after descending a little over halfway down we were afforded with excellent views of the relatively new Conejo Canyons Bridge near the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant).

We then headed upstream into heavily shaded Wildwood Canyon (which was noticeably chillier than the previous trails we had hiked).  As we headed upstream we crossed flowing water several times on short wooden bridges. When we reached Hoegeman’s Hollow, there were several picnic tables (and bathrooms). We took a short break and continued on upstream to Paradise Falls where we enjoyed looking at and listening to the waterfall. Continuing on up Wildwood Canyon we eventually reached the always pleasant Indian Creek Trail and followed it up to a short unnamed trail that led us back to our vehicles, thus completing a very pleasant 4.8-mile hike with about 850’ of elevation gain/loss.

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