Day Hikes in the San Gabriel River Canyons as of 06/Oct/2020 -- The CAMPGROUND ARE OPEN
There are three possible half-day treks I can think of immediately that
you might consider which would be good for a backpack trip with maybe a
lunch at the end of it. They're not too difficult and wouldn't last too
long, one of which is good for smaller children to enjoy.
The first possible place would be a hike along
West Fork Road. This
is a closed water company paved road which follows Bear Creek for eight
miles and is an easy, safe hike which also has a lot of cool shade where
hikers and bicycle riders may rest. This is a good day hike for
small children in that it's not at all difficult and the road is paved
the whole way.
Take the Azusa /
Highway
39 exit off of the
210 freeway then drive North through
Azusa, enter the
base of the
mountains
(you'll pass a Forest Service visitor center on your right at the base of the
mountain) and then about 12 miles of winding road later you'll drive pass
East Fork Road (that's the bridge on your right.)
If you keep going North on Highway 39 for another 500 feet you'll pass the
Off Road Vehicle Area, and then another 500 feet you'll pass the
Environmental Education Center on your left and the Rincon Fire Station on
your right (there's a small street sign which shows a fire truck. The
fire truck sign isn't easy to see but the Education Center sign is easy to
see.)
When you top the very next hill there's parking on the right in a wide
paved parking area. (An
Adventure Pass parking
permit is needed for that parking area. Permits are sold at the Off Road
Vehicle area for $5.)
If you park there and walk down to the bottom of that hill there's a
bridge and on the left hand side where there's a little gate and the start
of the 8-mile-long hike which leads to
Glenn Camp and
Cogswell Dam.
There's fishing (catch and release) along the way. There's litter and
garbage usually for the first mile or two but then the garbage abruptly
ends and the remainder of the hike is a good, clean hike.
There's no drinkable water along the way (there actually is water and I
often drink it however the USFS warns people not to drink the water
because it really is unsafe) so you'd have to pack in your water. About
the midpoint four-mile-marker there's the only toilet available until you
reach Glenn Campground - which has ten camping sites.
The second possible hike you might consider is the
Rincon Shortcut.
This is a dirt road that is immediately on the left after you pass the
Rincon Fire Station. A small dirt parking area is available and a white
metal Forest Service gate blocks cars from driving in to the Shortcut
unless they have the combination number to the lock. (That dirt parking
lot also requires an Adventure Pass parking permit.) There are Forest
Service signs offering a map of the Shortcut there at the dirt parking
area.
The Rincon Shortcut is not the best hike when there are people driving on
it. My experiences are that SUV / clown pickup truck drivers on the dirt
road invariably drive recklessly on the road without much concern for
joggers, hikers, bicycle riders and the like which use the road for
exercise. I encounter drunk drivers and people shooting firearms into the
canyons along the road from time to time so I avoid the Shortcut during
daylight hours. When people are not permitted to drive on it, however,
the Rincon Shortcut is an excellent hike.
The Rincon Shortcut isn't something you would hike from one end to the
other in a day because it meanders through the mountains for some 32 miles
or so before it reaches
Angeles Crest
Highway (Highway 2) and that's a pretty exhausting hike (there's water
along the way during some months of the year but again, the Forest Service
recommends that people do not drink the water in streams unless you treat
the water.)
If you're willing to hike up the Shortcut for about six miles or so you
can get to the top of Pine Mountain, one of the higher peaks along the
road, have lunch, and then hike back down - and the hike down is far
easier than the hike up. There's not much shade along the way, however,
and though there are trees, few actually reach the dirt road.
A third possible hike is the one that I would recommend the most.
Bear Creek Trail was recently restored by a professional trail crew -
at least the first three and a half miles of it were. Unfortunately
the trail head is two miles beyond where the Forest Service has closed
the road, adding two miles of hiking along the highway to a day trip.
For Bear Creek Trail you would continue to drive North along Highway 39,
winding further up the mountain until you reach the Forest Service gate
that blocks the highway (past mile marker 29.) There's parking along the
dirt shoulder there at the gate and, like everywhere else, an Adventure
Pass parking permit is required. (This is the gate that will be moved
further up the road some time soon.)
If you park where the gate closure is, you can hike North about two more
miles until you get to around mile marker 32 or so. Hike over a bridge
that's fairly long, swing around the curve, and toward the top of a hill
there's a very large dirt parking area on the right and about 500 feet
further there's an even larger paved parking area on the left (this area
is called the Valley of the Moon.)
At the crest of that hill there's a new toilet on the left and there's an
area where the gate that you parked at will be moved to (the old gate will
be disassembled, get moved up to this point, and then get re-installed.)
Behind the toilet building is the trail head to Bear Creek Trail. This
runs through the mountains for about 3 miles before attaining the Smith
Mountain Saddle and the edge of the designated Wilderness Area. You know
you're at the saddle when you reach the top of the mountain and find that
if you continue to hike you start to lose altitude.
If you continue on Bear Creek Trail past Smith Saddle you'll be hiking
through the Wilderness Area and the quality of the trail will be poor -
and at times dangerous. The Curve Fire went through parts of it and
currently the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders and other volunteer
organizations have a lot of work to do to make the hiker safer.
There are mile markers along the trail to let you know approximately where
you are when you hike. If you reach marker number 4, you're a half mile
or so into the Designated Wilderness. (There are bears in this area all
months of the year though they'll work hard to avoid you if they hear or
smell you coming.)
If you're really in for an adventure, Bear Creek Trail continues all the
way back down to West Fork Road, meeting up eventually with the paved
water company road that leads to Cogswell Dam. That remaining section of
the Bear Creek Trail hike is about three or four miles from the crest of
Smith Saddle however if you continue on you will wind up walking in the
middle of the creek for a mile or so - getting wet -- and nobody I know of
has surveyed that section of the trail since the fires so I don't know how
safe it is.
The hike to
Smith Saddle
along Bear Creek Trail is the best day hike I can think of. The hike to
Glenn Campgrounds is second best, and a hike to Pine Mountain comes in
third.
This web site is not operated or maintained by the US Forest Service, and
the USFS does not have any responsibility for the contents of any page
provided on the http://CrystalLake.Name/ web site. Also this web site is
not connected in any way with any of the volunteer organizations that are
mentioned in various web pages, including the
San Gabriel Mountains
Trailbuilders (SGMTBs) or the
Angeles Volunteers Association
(AVA.) This web site is privately owned and operated.
Please note that information on this web page may be inaccurate.