Having visited Wind Wolves Preserve several times before, we’re very familiar with the various trails in San Emigdio Canyon, and we’ve often talked about how they should open up other areas of the expansive property to the public. The foothill areas of the preserve are crisscrossed by ranch roads, and a glance at the most recent version of the Wind Wolves trail map revealed the addition of the Tule Elk trail that follows some roads west of the main canyon – it looked like we could hike south up the canyon, then follow a tributary creek up a narrower ravine to the southwest, emerging atop the bluffs to the west. Then, we’d trek northward back to the prominent hilltops at the mouth of the canyon before dropping back to the trailhead – just scaling from the map, the loop appeared to be 7+ miles with about 1,000′ of total gain (it turned out to be 8+, according to the GPS). We wanted to get out early, and we managed to get on the trail by about 8:30am, making good time through the valley to The Willows campground about 2-1/2 miles in. The forecast was for partly cloudy skies and temps in the 60’s, and as we walked south toward our exit canyon the skies clouded up solid and it looked like rain ahead. It was cool and breezy as we headed up the side canyon, but we never had to use our rain shells or pack covers – the breeze died down and the skies stayed dry, and we were soon headed north on the extremely straight trail (road, really). We had encountered a handful of other hikers to this point, but we suddenly found ourselves in heavy foot traffic as we met more than a dozen folks headed south (apparently, we were bucking convention by hiking the main canyon first – we didn’t see another soul walking the same direction as us). After about two miles northbound, we found a eastbound spur trail that looked like it would access the canyon rim – Chris remembered seeing such spur trails on the map, so we followed this one in hopes of a nice view over the canyon. That we found, but we also reached a dead end and had to backtrack to the main road, adding about 0.7 miles to the total distance. Not far from the spur trail we reached the crest of the hike as we traversed around Pt 2,420+ above the canyon mouth – some stacked materials here indicate a future sunshade or some such structure 800′ above and 1-1/2 miles from the main trailheads, which will be a nice spot indeed. The descent followed the familiar ramp down into the bowl at the mouth of the canyon, and we arrived back at the parking lot just after 12:00 noon. While we generally don’t like road hiking (it just doesn’t have the same feel as a narrow single-track), the walking was easy and scenery pretty, despite the mostly dry grass along the route. A visit earlier in the season would no doubt yield greener views and wildflowers as well, although the going would likely be more muddy given the firm roadbeds that looked to just recently have dried. A great 8-mile loop hike that adds variety to the familiar environs of San Emigdio Canyon.