Running with Painted Lady Butterflies on the Sandstone Peak Trail, Santa Monica Mountains
The Painted Ladies are back in a big way. Everywhere I look…in the backyard, driving, on the trails….I see them. I enjoyed running with them this morning on the Sandstone Peak Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.
As we know, the Santa Monica Mountains were severely torched in the Woolsey Fire of November 2018.. The Sandstone Peak Trail gives you some perspective on the burn, while presenting plenty of regrowth and spring colors.
Other than the blackened trees and shrubs surrounding the trail, the only noticeable change is that the somewhat iconic “Sandstone Peak: Highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains - Elevation 3111 feet” sign at the base of the final ascent up to Sandstone Peak - is gone. Disintegrated. Perhaps it will be replaced.. The wooden staircase along the lower portion of that trail is also gone, and a new trail, just west of where the staircase used to be, has been cleared , leading to the top.
This is where the final ascent up Sandstone Peak began before the Woolsey Fire of 2018 destroyed the staircase and sign.
The iconic sign at the base of the staircase, before the Woolsey Fire destroyed it.
Fire or no fire…the views from Sandstone Peak have not changed.