Thank you for hiking with us in Placerita Canyon State Park!

On Saturday morning, about 35 hikers and at least three dogs joined Times and Zócalo Public Square staffers for a history lesson and trek through Placerita Canyon State Park near Santa Clarita.

We gathered on a beautiful winter day outside the Placerita Canyon Nature Center, starting our adventure with gentle stretches led by Times wellness writer Deborah Vankin, who has written extensively on how to stay limber long into adulthood. We were soon greeted by Jack Levenberg, a docent and naturalist, with Sierra, a great horned owl, perched on his gloved hand. The raptor serves as an animal ambassador at the center.

We started our hike by heading to the Oak of the Golden Dream, where gold was first discovered by colonizers in 1842.

Tataviam Land Conservancy board member and Cultural Bearer Kevin Nuñez led a historical discussion, explaining that his people of the village Japchibit are the original Indigenous people of the San Gabriel Mountains, and his family has a traceable lineage with Japchibit traceable through 1765.

“In the 1770s, the Spanish-made presence made land and began to build missions in the Los Angeles County area,” said Nuñez, the captain of Japchibit. “My family was impacted heavily because Japchibit was the political center of the Vanyume or Serrano people of the Antelope Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains.”

Tataviam Land Conservancy board member Kevin Nuñez shares about how Spanish colonizers discovering gold harmed Indigenous people in the L.A. County area. He also spoke about the broader harm and violence that came to Indigenous people with colonization and the construction of missions.

(Brittany Levine Beckman / Los Angeles Times)

Afterward, our group headed to the Canyon Trail, a 3.6-mile out-and-back hike through a lush oak woodland alongside Placerita Creek.

We paused to smell the zesty aroma of California sagebrush, which grows all along the Canyon Trail. We also passed dense stands of thick-leaved yerba santa, California buckwheat, sugar bush and chilicothe vines and we were treated to the squawks of California scrub jays and a red-tail hawk flying overhead. A variety of hawks call Placerita Canyon their home.

Our group deftly made it over multiple water crossings and shared trekking poles and shoulders to ensure we all could make it safely through the creek. None of us left the canyon with dry feet, but we did end up with new friends.

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About 1½ miles in, we started to smell a sulfur-like aroma and knew we were close to one of the most interesting features of this hike. We trekked up a steep incline to quickly discover signs for white oil bubbling out of the ground.

“This very rare geologic feature of translucent petroleum has been filtered by nature,” the sign read. “This special resource originates from deep within the earth in the Placerita Schist basement complex of rocks.”

Soon after, we gathered under the shade of old oak trees at a large clearing with several picnic tables.

Just under two miles in, we rested at a large picnic area under the shade of old tall oak trees. A stone fireplace and concrete foundation were nearby, the last remains of a house that Frank Walker started to build but never finished. The Walker family lived on the land starting in the 1920s. We sat together for about 20 minutes, sharing our favorite local hikes, including the Gabrielino Trail that runs through the San Gabriel Mountains.

The hike was part of California 175 — What Connects California?, a suite of free Zócalo events and essays, bringing together leaders and thinkers from all walks of life to envision California’s next 175 years.

Please keep an eye out for the next Times subscriber hike, which will be sometime in the spring. In the meantime, want to learn more about the L.A. outdoors? Subscribe to The Wild, our (free!) weekly outdoors newsletter, where I provide you with the best places to hike around L.A. County. See you out there!