hikespeak

Baldy Bowl - Ski Hut Trail climbs 3,900 feet over 4.5 miles to the highest summit in the San Gabriel Mountains. The trails ascends the southwest side of the mountain and is the shortest route to the top that does not involve the use of a ski lift. Expect an aggressive climb for most of the hike rewarded by views over San Antonio Canyon. Halfway up the mountain, the trail passes a Sierra Club... Read more.

San Antonio is a 75-foot tall multi-tier year-round waterfall carrying water off Mount Baldy. The waterfall swells in late winter and early spring when snow melt increases the flow. The toughest thing about getting to San Antonio Falls isn't the hike, it's the long drive to the base of Mount Baldy. The hike to San Antonio Falls is easy. Simply march 0.6 miles up a paved road to a dirt... Read more.

Manker Flats Campground is perfectly positioned to be a base camp for hikes up Mount Baldy, the highest summit in the San Gabriel Mountains. The 11.3-mile loop hike up Mount Baldy is a full day affair, so if you would like to camp out before or after, claim one of the twenty-one sites at Manker Flats Campground. Campers looking for a shorter hike near Manker Flats may enjoy the 1.4-mile round... Read more.

Diminished by drought and tarnished by wildfire, Crystal Lake is not the glistening destination it once was. Crystal Lake is the only naturally occurring lake in the San Gabriel Mountains, cradled by granite summits north of the San Gabriel River Valley above the city of Azusa at 5,500 feet. It is a 1 1/3-mile round trip paved hike to Crystal Lake with 150 feet of elevation gain. The 2002... Read more.

If someone wrote a book about hiking Smith Mountain, it would be called A Tale of Two Trails. It was the most gradual of times, it was the steepest of climbs... This classic hike in the San Gabriel Mountains begins with three miles of single track that easily gain a thousand feet to Smith Saddle. What follows is an 800-foot scramble to the summit in less than half a mile. The two segments... Read more.

Coldbrook Campground is a small 20-site campground on Coldbrook Creek, which feeds into the North Fork of San Gabriel River. From Azusa, it is an 18-mile, roughly half hour drive up Route 39 to the campground in Angeles National Forest in San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. At Coldbrook Campground, all sites are first-come first-serve for $12 per night (price as of 2018). Sites... Read more.

If you have hiked Santa Anita Canyon Loop, you probably wondered, were can I find more great trails like this? The answer is Upper Winter Creek Trail, a 2.75-mile track on the east wall of Santa Anita Canyon with 600 feet of elevation change. Upper Winter Creek Trail can be used to replace Lower Winter Creek Trail on Santa Anita Canyon Loop to create a slightly larger ten-mile loop that... Read more.

For outdoor-loving Angelinos, Bridge to Nowhere is the affectionate name of a local treasure, an abandoned bridge on a washed-away road in the San Gabriel Mountains that spans across the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. You'll find excessive fun on this 10-mile round trip hike with 900 feet of elevation change. The trail uses several river fords to reach the Bridge to Nowhere, adding... Read more.

For the last year and a half, an immense area of the San Gabriel Mountains has been off limits. Now it's back! Incredible news from the US Forest Service who announced: Effective May 16, [2011] the Angeles National Forest will reopen about half of the areas that have been closed due to the Station Fire. Hikers have battled stunning crowds in pockets of the forest that remained open,... Read more.

Long ago, back in the 90s - that is the 1890s, the resort built on Echo Mountain was one of the largest tourist draws in California. Thaddeus Lowe's resort, known as the White City, was perched at an elevation of 3,200 feet, overlooking the city of Pasadena and a grand stretch of Southern California. The resort was long ago destroyed by wildfires, leaving fascinating ruins for present day... Read more.