Heaps Peak Arboretum

I took a walk with the kids to the Arboretum this morning. It was nice and cool about 60 degrees. There wasn't much of a breeze but there often is when you are walking there so it is good to be prepared. The Arboretum is the perfect place to take preschool age children hiking. It is located on highway 18 between Running Springs and Lake Arrowhead. You need to have a forest adventure pass to park which costs $5.00 and can be obtained at the forest service station and at Deer Lick Lumber in Running Springs. The trail is partially paved and mostly hard packed dirt. It is very easy for every kind of hiker. The paved section of the trail goes to the bathrooms and is wheel-chair accessible. (Thanks to an eagle scout project by my mountain man.)

We started the hike by walking around a small loop of concrete at the right of the enterance. In the concrete are the footprints of many different kinds of animals. The kids love to look at all of them. You could bring along paper and crayons and take rubbings of each kind of foot print. There are also picnic tables at the front for bringing lunches.

After walking the small loop we started down the concrete path towards the bathrooms. After the bathrooms the trail is packed dirt. Along the trail there are tons of different kinds of plants including a grove of Sequoia trees that are quite tall and are scarred from the recent fire ('03) and a grove of dogwoods. The dogwoods were starting to change already. There are bridges to cross and a couple of streams that were dry this time of the year but would be wet in the spring. The trail ends where you start and the full loop is 7/10 of a mile.