Tree Hazard On The Monrovia Canyon Park Waterfall Trail

The waterfall trail in Monrovia Canyon Park is closed at least through the weekend.

The park itself and other trails are open but check with the park or city first if you plan to hike the waterfall trail.

A very large tree tipped over onto the trail, but didn't fall past the trail when one of its branches wedged against another tree.  

The first 2 photos are the tree as we found it.  

Since this was a very difficult and dangerous situation, experts from West Coast Arborists were called in to get the tree down.

Here are a couple of time lapse videos of the guys from West Coast Arborists (WCA) cutting the tree loose. 

In the first, things come to a stop when the chain breaks on his chainsaw:

In the second, he cuts away the branches and gets the tree to fall.

Unfortunately, the tree got hung up and the base of the tree only made it to trail level.  When the tree fell, it brought the slope above down with it (we knew that would happen) wiping out the trail for the time being.

The next photo is pretty much the condition the trail will be in until (hopefully sometime) Monday.  You can see the trail is gone in this section:

The guys from WCA did a great job.  Working hard and safe.  They'll be back Monday to finish off the tree so the trail crew can get the trail open again.

The waterfall trail is closed until further notice from the park / city. Please stay off the trail.  The tree could give way at any time.  You don't want to be climbing over the roots when it happens.