Distance: 2.8 miles round trip on trail and road
Summit Elevation: 1800' (Falls)
Elevation Gain: 715'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.57
Round trip time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Recommended water: 32 oz.
Parking/Fees: $6 Monrovia Parking Fee
Difficulty: Easy
Leisa and I went for a leisurely hike to Monrovia Falls. We were in no hurry and arrived at Monrovia Canyon Park at 10:00 AM. We parked at the upper parking lot area by the nature center for the short hike to the falls. There were clean restroom facilities and plenty of picnic tables. It was somewhat busy as expected with many families getting outside for the weekend. The trail is well groomed and surprisingly shaded almost the entire way. This time of year is not ideal for a waterfall hike, but Monrovia Falls still ran in a weak but continuous stream. On the way back, I was scouting out areas where I might to go off trail in the future to get above the falls to place a trailcam. The Monrovia Falls area was my 2nd choice for bear camera trapping. We completed the 1.5 mile round trip (330' gain) to the Falls in less than an hour. We decided to walk down to Sawpit Canyon Road and up to the dam. We dropped down, then climbed up the moderately graded paved road to get a good view of the dam.
Start from the upper parking lot
Shaded trail
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Sawpit Dam
When we got back to the truck, Leisa spotted a black bear sitting on the ground, legs spread out in front of him just off the road. I started slowly approaching him while taking pictures and video with my phone. He got up and walked to the turnaround at the top of road, sniffed a tree, then started walking back toward the parking lot. We didn't want to bother him (more than we had) so we left. We informed the rangers at the gate on the way out and they were unconcerned. They said he had been hanging around a couple of weeks. Long term, it is probably safer for the bear if he learned to stay away from people. Some of the pictures are pixelated from digital zoom.
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