Through the Clouds and Back
Over the course of three hikes into the Topatopa Range outside Ojai, I've discovered that the toughest part of hiking these mountains is getting to them . If you have a four-wheel-drive vehicle and can get National Park Service to let you through the gate onto Nordhoff Ridge Road, visiting the peaks is easy. You can do several of them in a day. But everyone else has to hike up several miles of canyon - which can be nice, but it takes a lot of time and can really wear you out. Back in April , I made my first trek into the area, going up Nordhoff Peak. Then last month , I hiked up Chief Peak, which was longer and tougher than I expected, but that was a good thing. It prepared me for the main event - Topatopa Bluff, a massive mountain with large, prominent rock outcrops, visible from thirty miles away in Oxnard where I work. I've looked at Topatopa on my lunchtime walks for years, and I've been thinking about hiking it since last spring. But it's a tough challenge...