Hiking & Exploring Ojai

As you can imagine, there are countless hiking trails here.  We didn't do much prior research on hiking this trail in Ojai, but just knew we wanted to return and explore more of Ojai and its mountains.  We literally looked at our phone in the car and chose the shortest hike.  We came across MANY avocado trees at the beginning of the trail!  You can see a glimpse of it here in this first photo on the left side.

We hiked for about 3 miles and reached this water trough that even horses drink out of!  Yup, people can ride their horses on this trail!

At this point we decided to hike back due to lack of time and having to go another 3-4 more miles to reach the peak.  It was still worth it and I enjoyed the beautiful wildflowers along the way!

But...not everything was as peaceful and beautiful as it seemed on the way in as it was on the way out!  I was following closely behind Justin as we were trekking along a narrow path with a drop off to our left and the mountain to our right.  All of a sudden he stopped and pushed me to go back.  A SNAKE was in his path!  I was beyond scared and I could tell he was panicked!  I don't ever recall seeing him that frightened as he was, so it made me even more afraid!  He started calmly telling me we have to run as fast as we can past it!  I refused, but he kept reassuring me it was going to be okay and we just have to do it.  As  much as he was telling me those things to calm me down I know he was also speaking it to himself! Hahahaha! He also didn't give me much time and just started running, so of course I couldn't let him leave me and RAN for my life, all the while praying I don't trip and fall!  I didn't dare look to get a glimpse of it, but I did hear it slithering in the grass!

That night he learned all about snakes and concluded that the one he saw was a garter snake.  He even made me listen to a clip of a rattlesnake so I will know of one!  Hahaha! Hopefully that was the first and last time I heard a rattler.

We did score a few perfect avocados though!

After all that excitement, we walked around the little town and enjoyed an annual art show that was going on in the park.  We never really went to one of these before and was amazed at the creativity.  These life-size steel animals were our favorite!  We overheard the artist saying he's selling that flamingo for $24K!