Labor Day Weekend Hike

I apologize for having such a random posting schedule... Life has certainly been hectic these last weeks. Between midterms and studying for my final, getting my research sorted, and moving apartments, things still won't be all sorted out until at least September 12!

First off, I hope you all had an amazing Labor Day Weekend! On Saturday my friends and I decided to go on a Labor Day Weekend hike to Sturtevant Falls, a place we found online with amazing waterfall pictures. I thought it'd be a perfect little opportunity to share a blog post about the trip.

So I picked up my friends a little after noon, and we set off to Angeles National Forest, about an hour and 15 min drive away where the falls were located. We had to drive about 3 miles up an incredibly windy road to get to the parking lot, and it was my first time being the driver since usually I make my dad or sister drive when we have to go through mountains to get to the beach or something, so it was super scary! The tiny little railing brought little comfort, but we managed to make it to the parking lot alive. Another thing to mention, because who knows why, we all decided to literally go during the hottest part of the day.... but after buying our parking pass and getting situated, we set off on the hike.

Luckily, the beginning of the hike is all downhill, but that only meant the way back was going to be killer. I tried to stick to the shade as much as possible, and as we went farther down the mountain there were more trees and shade. Sturtevant Falls was about a 2 mile hike from where we parked, and the plan was to eat our packed sandwiches at the falls.

Beginning view of the hike!

Being one with nature.

After about an hour and half since we took a couple breaks here and there, we finally arrived at the waterfall! It was actually good for me since the friends that I was with had a tendency to walk SUPER slow so I didn't have to exert my heart in any way. Unfortunately, to our utter dismay, the waterfall was just a trickle of water from the California drought!! ):

The "waterfall". Nothing like the pictures we found online... lol 

My friends and I! :) 

After finishing our lunches and enjoying the nature, we all decided to climb to the top of the waterfall. Originally I wasn't planning on it and the boys went ahead, but curiosity overtook me and I really wanted to see what was up there. The climb was extremely steep and I'm still shocked I made it, but I'm glad I did! There ended up being another trail at the top of the waterfall, and we decided to take the trail back to the parking lot.

View from the top of the waterfall

As we predicted, the uphill hike back was certainly a struggle. But we definitely made it back faster than it took to get to the waterfall, and we finished the day off with driving to Honey Boba for some milk tea, and grabbing dinner at Grill'em All, a burger place that was on the way back to UCLA.
Overall, it was a pretty fun day and a cool adventure with my friends!