This was Barbara's and my third, maybe fourth, hike on one of the dozens of trails in the 8-thousand-acre Malibu Creek State Park tucked in the western Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu. Located just north of our Reagan Ranch hike back in January 2021, today's thread of trails was easy, grander, and even more beautiful. The trickiest part was locating the small, unassuming Cistern Trailhead at the side of Mulholland Highway! We couldn't believe SIRI when she said "arrived" in the middle of nowhere, but we spotted another car parked at the roadside next to the trailhead. The view from the road is a wow, and it only got better as we trekked deep into the mountain valley, often passing trees that remained blackened by the devastating 2018 Woolsey Fire. Our goal: Century Lake along Malibu Creek in the midst of flora, wildlife and sandstone and volcanic formations. While the hike looked formidable from the top of the Cistern Trail, it was easy going and the CA Department of Parks & Rec did an excellent job of marking each trail. Seven-acre Century Lake was formed in the early 1900s by the dam Crag's Country Club built across Malibu Creek to create a fishing and duck-hunting spot for its members. A decade after the club closed in 1936, 20th Century Fox bought the club property for film settings—famously, as noted by a sign along Crags Road, as the primary location for 1968's Planet of the Apes. Barbara and I followed the rocky Cistern Trail down to Lookout Trail which led us down to Crags Road. From there we followed the Forest Trail, doing some creative hopping over Malibu Creek (the bridge was down) to reach the other side and the path to the lake. Surrounded by plants and rock formations, we came upon a small group of deer brunching on chaparral, and a raft of ducks busy on a small cay in the creek. Century Lake, small on our side of the dam, had a tiny beach surrounded by bulrush—but the impact was lovely. We stopped for a snack, sitting at the edge of a boulder, and retraced Forest Trail to Crags Road and then a new route back up the Cage Creek Trail to Cistern and the trailhead. As remote as it is, the trails were busy, the birds were loud, and we stopped several times to chat with locals or help outsiders with directions. A great morning on a great trail.