Description :
This is with out a doubt one of THE best hikes in Simi Valley. You’ll start off by hiking down into Las Llajas Canyon where you’ll find an abundance of plant life, including oak trees, native shrubs and grasses. There are a few water crossings here but the start of this trail is well traveled and several people have placed rocks and gratings in key locations that you can use to keep you dry. About 1.75 miles into the canyon you’ll catch a switch back trail on the left side of the canyon trail will start leading you up and out of the canyon. This is one hike that you’ll definitely want to bring your GPS and download our GPX file to keep you on the right path. You’ll walk along the ridge line where you’ll have some fantastic views of Las Llajas Canyon and the Santa Susanna Mountains in the distance.
The Las Llajas and Chivo Canyons have an interesting history within Simi Valley. There was once a large oil drilling operation here in the early 1900’s and you can still see abandoned wells, large sections of 10 inch steel pipe, and even oil coming up from the ground in a few sections. In the 1920’s this area was owned by Howard Marr (the inventor of the Gillette razor) and was part of the failed Marrland Ranch subdivision.
There was also a large limestone mining operation here and there are still remnants lying around. One of the highlights of this hike is the fossilized sea shells that you’ll find as you get closer to the top of the ridgeline. On your way to the peak, you’ll run into an old rusted out steam shovel. From there you’ll cross the ridge line and begin your descent down in the Chivo Canyon. Chivo has a seasonal creek running through it and all that water makes this canyon very lush and green.
I’ve been hiking in Simi for years now and have run across numerous fossils of sea shells, but on this particular hike I was rewarded with my greatest find. I found a perfect fossilized shark tooth of what I believe was from a Great White Shark! Be sure the checkout the
|