Hermit Falls

Name: Hermit Falls
Location: End of Santa Anita Road, Sierra Madre CA (Arcadia Falls)
Miles: 2.4 miles round trip
Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation:
Level: 4

Review:

I really enjoyed this hike! Surprisingly.. haha. This week, Diana and Edith joined me on my hiking excursion. We originally planned to go to the Monrovia Canyon Falls but we got there around 4:30pm and the park closes at 5pm... so to Arcadia we went, which is only about two exits away on 210!

The hike down was pretty easy. Quite easy to be honest. The trail was narrow and very different from Sturtevant Falls trail. Diana liked Sturtevant because of the wider trails but I liked these narrow ones. I felt like a mother though. Edith is 10 and I kept telling her to stay away from the cliffs. Ahh!

Anyway, the walk down.. there's a fork in the "road" where you can either take the walkers trail or the horse trail. We took the horse trail which appears to be shorter than the walkers trail. You walk past a couple cottages and a beautiful stream. Once you pass the cottages, the incline begins. It's somewhat steep but not too far from the falls.. maybe 1/4 of a mile away.

The falls itself are pretty cool. It's four levels. The top two are probably the best areas for children. The waterfalls from the top two levels are perfect water slides. The bottom two levels are probably best for adults. The drop is probably 25-40 feet. A bit scary in my opinion. One girl jumped to the third level (about 20-30 feet depending on where you stand) and said she hurt her ears. Another guy jumped on the bottom level (probably a 40 foot jump) and his entire body hurt. The sketchy part about the jump is how you get back up... a rope. So if you don't have great upper body strength, I'd stick to the top levels or it may take quite awhile to get back up.

We stayed for an 30-45 minutes, soaking our feet on the top level and watching others cliff jump. The walk back up took about 40 minutes. It's a good incline. Whereas Sturtevant Falls incline begins the last quarter mile (maybe less), Hermit Falls' incline is from start to finish. All in all, this was a fun hike. It's pretty short if you're not planning to swim. It's also a good place for a picnic. There are a couple areas where you can have your own "spot" if you're not interested in cliff jumping.

The only downside was all the trash left behind at the falls. There was also tons of graffiti on the rocks. It was quite sad to see... but to be expected, I suppose. I'm not sure about my next hike. I may try and join one of the LA Trail Hikers.