Welcome to the Mountains

Forest Falls

So if you start going west on California State Highway 38, past Mentone, Yucaipa and a little town called Mountain Home Village, you'll reach the town I grew up in. Forest Falls has a population of 1,103 people. According to the sign that is, in reality only about half of them stay there year round. It's actually kind of funny, all the different scenes and sounds you can find in a 5 mile long town. The gentle whisper of the creek, the obnoxious roaring of the waterfalls it's born from, and most pleasant of all, the deafening silence and stunning beauty found only at the jump-off.

I remember one night in particular at the moment. It was Valentine's night 2007, when Michael, Randy and I were out on one of our many adventures. Having fun and running rampant through the forest. After walking about half the towns' length uphill, we decided to take a break at the parking lot up top. I think it was a new moon. There might have been a little sliver, but after hearing a marvelously deep rumble behind us, the moon was the farthest thing from our minds and we did the stupidest thing imaginable. We ran as fast as we possibly could, each thinking the same thing. "Don't be the slowest, don't be the slowest, DON'T BE THE SLOWEST!!!!" After making it through bushes, over logs and under low hanging branches, we stopped at the edge of the creek and turned around. What we saw behind us made us double over and clutch our sides with boisterous laughter. Apparently even the animals knew that love was in the air. If the image of a Great Dane and a Doberman making puppies isn't hilarious after thinking you're about to be a black bears dinner doesn't make you laugh, maybe you need a new funny bone.

Shifting gears here, imagine a beautiful view where you can see the line of the desert melt into the greenery of the mountains, look at a winding river