Jan 27 - Simpson Park, Hemet, California

  I spent the morning doing laundry, but after lunch, we drove east, over to the next town of Hemet.  This area is the San Jacinto Valley, surrounded by mountains, west of Mt. San Jacinto, a tall, snow covered majestic mountain.  The Valley is densely populated with lots of new subdivisions.  It is a very pretty area, with all of the mountain views. 
  We were looking for a nice place to hike, so we first drove over to the Diamond Valley Lake. To our surprise, this is the location of the newest big dam in California.  It has a large visitor center, Museum, and the Western Science Center.  Along with a marina, and many hiking trails.  Unfortunately, it was all closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  So, we'll go back again on Wednesday.
  Since we just wanted a nice place to hike, I put "parks near me" into the GPS, and came up with Simpson Park, a few miles away.  I'm really glad we went there!  The Park has a main road that climbs up into the mountains, and has many vistas overlooking the city below, the snow-covered mountains nearby, and the Diamond Valley Lake.  We drove to the top, which had a picnic area and wonderful vistas.  We walked a bit, but the gate and park closed a 5pm, so we couldn't spend much time hiking.  Oh well.  I loved the views.

Simpson Park, Hemet, California photos: