The Mt. Wilson Trail in Sierra Madre reopens after Eaton fire closure
Editor’s note: Although there will be references to the Eaton fire in this newsletter, there won’t be any images of active fire or burned buildings.
The Mt. Wilson Trail in Sierra Madre recently reopened after being damaged last January by the Eaton fire and subsequent flooding.
When the city of Sierra Madre announced the trail was fully open again, I was initially eager to return to this stunning trek in the San Gabriel Mountains.
But part of me felt anxious. What if the fire had killed everything I remembered so fondly from time spent on the trail?
Shortly after the Eaton fire, I scoured maps to discern which trails likely burned in the blaze. I remember my heart sinking when I saw the fire had scorched the entire Mt. Wilson Trail. It’s an area of Angeles National Forest with a significant amount of local history.
The first known trail to Mt. Wilson was established by Indigenous people, a trail they used to carry wood down the mountains when Spanish missionaries forced them to build the San Gabriel Mission in 1771, according to the Mt. Wilson Trail Race.
Then, in 1864, Benjamin D. Wilson built the first version of the current Mt. Wilson Trail. He was “following an ancient Tongva footpath,” according to a sign near the trailhead. It is the oldest trail in the San Gabriel Mountains, according to former Times hiking columnist John McKinney.
Water rushes through Little Santa Anita Canyon near the Mt. Wilson Trail north of Sierra Madre.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
The hike from Sierra Madre to Mt. Wilson is a suffer fest: It is a 14½-mile out-and-back journey where you climb just over 4,800 feet in elevation. It’s thrilling, though, once you’ve completed it, because you can look up at the towers at Mt. Wilson from L.A. and know you climbed that whole mountain.
It’s a hike that every L.A. hiker interested in upping their game should try at least once. Pro tip: I don’t consider it cheating if you hike from the trailhead in Sierra Madre to the top — and then get your nonhiker friend to pick you up where the trail ends in the Mt. Wilson Observatory parking lot. If it’s open, you could even treat them to a meal at the Cosmic Cafe!
On Saturday, I had planned to hike to Orchard Camp, a 7.2(ish)-mile journey that gains about 2,200 feet. It is one of my favorite places in the San Gabriel Mountains, and I was eager and anxious to see how it was doing.
Plants with blooms along the Mt. Wilson Trail, including, from clockwise, Menzies’ baby blue eyes, a poppy, longleaf bush lupine, streambank spring beauty and western wallflower.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
The site has a lengthy history. It was first home to Half-Way House, a repair station and rest stop built by the trail’s builder Don Benito Wilson in 1864. He named his establishment as such because Orchard Camp was the halfway point between Sierra Madre and Mt. Wilson.
The site was converted in the 1890s to Orchard Camp, “a resort named after the groves of apples, plums, cherries and chestnuts whose harvest was sold to travelers using the camp and trail,” according to a sign at the site.
In an advertisement published in The Times in 1908, Orchard Camp Resort told prospective guests it offered furnished tents and a “fine stream of water runs through camp.” By 1920, the accommodations had improved mightily, with the camp advertising “tennis, dancing, croquet and hiking,” and groceries, baked goods and meats at the camp store. (I can confirm the stream, hiking and, should you choose, dancing are all still available.)
To begin your hike, you’ll drive north through Sierra Madre. You’ll find the trailhead near the aptly named Mt. Wilson Trail Park, a small stretch of grass with a playground and, a rare luxury for hikers, a flush toilet. You will park on the street, close to the park if you arrive with the early birds.
Next to the park, you’ll find Lizzie’s Trail Inn and Richardson House, which the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society operates as living museums. Inside, you can learn more about the trail and other local history. They’re open most Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon.
Two hikers head up the first mile of the Mt. Wilson Trail near Sierra Madre.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Head north onto Mt. Wilson Trail, a paved road, which will take you behind homes before reaching the large Mt. Wilson Trail entrance sign. It’s only up from here!
The first part of the trail is in direct sunlight until late afternoon and has minimal to no shade. The upside is that it offers incredible views of the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. I quickly spotted Santiago Peak, the highest point in Orange County, which was about 43 miles southeast from where I stood. The snow-covered Mt. San Jacinto, which was 82 miles away, came into clearer view as I gained elevation.
In the first two miles of the trail, I was delighted to discover several blue, purple and pink wildflowers blooming, including wild Canterbury bells, stinging lupine (don’t touch it!) and chia. These plants are known as “fire followers,” as they quickly sprout after an area burns. Later in my hike, I also noticed baby blue eyes, cardinal catchfly, lots of coast morning glory and exactly two poppies.
Two hikers consider the best path across a water crossing along the Mt. Wilson Trail.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
I was also surprised by just how many waterfalls I could see from the trail, including one just under a mile in that was gushing down the rocky canyon.
My first stop was First Water, which you’ll reach at just over 1½ miles in. You’ll find a short path at First Water that will take you off the main trail and next to the Little Santa Anita Creek.
If you’ve hiked this trail before, you will notice substantial differences in the trail to reach First Water. It is steeper and a bit more technical, but still an easy enough jaunt down to the creek.
The Little Santa Anita Creek at First Water.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
One of the starkest differences, though, comes about half a mile north when Mt. Harvard comes into view. I was expecting more healthy green slopes, and instead, I spotted rows and rows of burnt, dried-out trees. As I neared Orchard Camp, I passed burned manzanita and other trees with blackened bark, but the majority of what I observed was nature in recovery.
One hiker had told me there wasn’t any shade at Orchard Camp, and while I was skeptical, I was prepared for the worst. Instead, I arrived just before 2 p.m. and found several oaks and other trees, still healthy and growing, and thick green grass and other plants. I laid down on a boulder near a wooden bench and basked in the sun like the happiest fence lizard in all of the forest — although there were plenty of shady spots where I could have laid down.
Orchard Camp, a shady stop along the Mt. Wilson Trail.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
I didn’t go past Orchard Camp because I knew I’d hit snow. I don’t own crampons, which are needed to hike safely in the snow on any sort of incline. (That said, Luis De La Cruz, the Vamos Hiking Crew leader, whose group hiked to the top Saturday, told me that the trail is in good condition from Orchard Camp although there is some erosion.)
Leaving the trail just before 5 p.m., I felt immense gratitude for the hundreds of hours that volunteers with the Mt. Wilson Trail Race put into restoring the Mt. Wilson Trail to its current glory. I spoke to several folks along the path who felt similarly.
A trail recovering.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
It’s a feeling this trail elicits. As a Times story noted in 1915 about this hike, “Once this trip is taken, a desire for a repetition clings to the lover of the outdoor life.” May we all be so lucky!
3 things to do
Attendees of a full moon hike at Elysian Park hosted by We Explore Earth.
(Chiara Alexa / For The Times)
1. Marvel at the moon in Elysian Park
Outdoors nonprofit We Explore Earth will host a free sunset hike Tuesday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in Elysian Park. After the hike, guests are invited to participate in yoga, a sound bath and music, all as the full moon rises over L.A. Register at eventbrite.com.
2. Connect with fellow humans in Ascot Hills Park
Intermission, a community-focused wellness company, will host a free sound bath at 11 a.m. Sunday in Ascot Hills Park. Guests will need to take a short hike to reach the hilltop where the sound bath will be offered. Learn more at Intermission’s Instagram page.
3. Crunch along the trail in Orange
Save Orange Hills, a local advocacy group, will host a bilingual 3-mile hike from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday through Irvine Regional Park in Orange. Barefoot Joel and Scott Keltic Knot will guide hikers along the Horseshoe Loop Trail, observing wildflowers and wildlife along the way. Guests might spot the locally rare Catalina mariposa lily. Tickets for participants 12 and older are $12.51 while children younger than 12 are free. Park entry is $5. Register at eventbrite.com.
The must-read
Ed LaRue, a longtime desert tortoise advocate and surveyor, looks for tortoise burrows in Johnson Valley.
(Ethan Swope / For The Times)
Desert tortoises are what scientists categorize as a “keystone species,” meaning other animals depend on them for their survival. In this case, it’s for the burrows that tortoises dig. Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth wrote that that’s a key reason why U.S. District Judge Susan Illston recently ordered the federal Bureau of Land Management to shut down 2,000 miles of off-roading trails, saying the vehicles are “a significant ongoing cause of harm” to the tortoise population. And although climate change-supercharged droughts and large-scale solar development across the Mojave also threatened the tortoises and their habitat, off-roading trail use is different, biologist Ed LaRue said, because it’s “one of the threats that we could ostensibly control.”
I am not an off-roader, but I do want to acknowledge the outcome of this ruling: It is heartbreaking whenever you lose access to an outdoors space you love. “The vastness and the quiet and the peace you get here is unlike anywhere else you can find in California,” said Lorene Frankel, an off-roader who’d planned to launch an off-roading business with her husband. “It is devastating to realize a massive amount of land will be completely inaccessible.”
Even if you agree with the closure order’s purpose — protecting precious habitat for a critical species — it is important that we remain sympathetic to each other’s reasons for loving the outdoors.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
Have you ever tried to reach Griffith Park without driving there? You probably discovered it wasn’t a straight-forward journey. Metro, our local transportation agency, is developing a plan to make it safer and easier to reach Griffith Park and the L.A. Zoo by transit, on foot and by bike. And you can give feedback on how to make that happen. Streets Are For Everyone will lead a workshop from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Autry Museum of the American West where the organization will gather feedback on these proposed improvements for reaching Griffith Park. Participants will discuss a proposed transit route to Griffith Park as well as pedestrian and biking connections between the Hollywood Bowl and the Ford. As a bonus, attendees will get free museum admission after the workshop. Register using this Google Form.
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
