If there's one thing I love when it comes to hiking, it's reaching one of nature's treasures at the end of the journey. LA is lucky to be surrounded by a plethora of opportunities when it comes to waterfall hikes, and Paradise Falls had been on my list for a while to explore. Located at Wildwood Park in Thousand Oaks, the trailhead is located about an hour's drive out of central LA. We were happy to find parking was plentiful in the free lot on Veteran's Day, though I'm sure you could park in the quiet neighborhood's side streets if need be.
Before I attempt any hike, I like to do my research and figure out what trail I want to go on via Hike Speak (see the page on Parade Falls here). I find this site to be such a helpful resource for all sorts of insider tips from parking, lengths of different trails, to unmissable gems along the path. For example, while everyone wants to get to the waterfall, this hike also goes by a large teepee, a serene shaded picnic area, and the Indian Cave, provided you take the right trails.
Be warned that the majority of the hike does not lend much shade. Once you get down to the canyon near the end, everything becomes much more lush and trees arch over the babbling creek. In fact, once you get down to the waterfall, you have to get a bit creative by either wading through pond reeds or jumping across stepping stones over the river to get to the most photogenic side of the falls.
The beautiful variety of nature is abundant on this hike, from wild animals (we saw interesting beetles and lizars, but there's probably so much more lurking between the bushes), to swirling roots at the trunks of the trees, to clumps of cacti on the sun-basked hills. There is a Nature Center on-site, which we did not get around to explore, but I'm sure it would be interesting. Shortly after we made it down to the falls, we hiked back up around to the right of the trail and walked for awhile before we found a wonderful shaded area for our picnic. It was certainly not hard to claim one of the multiple open picnic tables in the oak grove.
We ate sandwiches and snacked on cheese and salami, while taking in the soft song of the stream and the birds playing in the trees above. I took the time to practice reading runes, a new hobby I've recently picked up, which I find to be a very interesting form of ancient divination. I also brought some crystals to cleanse in the creek as I always love to bring a few with me whenever I'm going to the beach, lake, or river.
After our picnic and rune-reading, we ventured to find the Indian Cave. Although I was trying to follow my directions from Hike Speak, I ended up relying on fellow hikers and my intuition to find the cave.
Luckily, just as I thought we were walking to the end of nowhere, we turned a bend and saw a sign that directed us to where we wanted to go. The Indian Cave is located up a short flight of wooden stairs. Once you reach the top of the stairs, you have to do a bit of clambering to get up inside, but it is quite a fascinating, expansive cave. You can actually walk through the entirety of it and out of the upper cavern, where you can poke back outside and see how high up you are. While I was disappointed not to find any interesting inscriptions or art inside, the walls are made up of thick pebbles which create an interesting bubble-stone texture along the sides. It was certainly an interesting place to explore and I'm sure that the Nature Center can provide more insight into the cave's history.
While on our way back to the trailhead, we passed by loads of beautiful cacti with red fruit as pictured below. Curiosity got the best of me and we opened the inside of one of the fruit - it indeed looked juicy inside, but we did not dare eat it. Instead, flying bugs of sorts seemed to be using the opened cacti bits as a water source.
If you want to go on a beautiful hike that's not too far out of LA, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Paradise Falls. The normal loop is only about 2-2.5 miles, whereas the "adventurous" way my friend and I went was measured by my health tracker as a 4 mile loop. The hike is definitely amateur and kid-friendly. If you have any further questions, feel free to check out Hike Speak's information on this particular hike here or comment below.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!
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