Nathan and I headed out on a great fall day to go on a hike. Driving straight up Lake Avenue from Pasadena into Altadena, we parked, and kept heading up the hill to Echo Mountain. So far, this was a hike I had done a couple times before. From there, however, after taking a bit of a break and enjoying the view, we kept going up the hill, and took the Castle Canyon Trail up to Inspiration Point. There were some wasps along the way, and the last bit was a bit of a slog, but overall it was a pretty great hike. 9.4 miles RT, with 2800′ of gain. Overall Pics.
There are a lot of fixed viewing tubes up at Inspiration Point.
We started out on a nice fall day, and drove up to the trailhead for Echo Mountain. It was reasonably warm and a little hazy, but overall not too bad. I enjoyed the ~straight uphill drive up Lake Street, as I always do. The trip up to Echo Mountain proper was fairly conventional; I’d done it a few times before, and as it is a huge hacked trail, with lots and lots of foot traffic, there was nothing too notable about heading up that portion. It did help to cleanse some of the slight fear I’d felt at that trail since I’d gone up in at the midnight hike with Sonja, though.
Framed view of hazy downtown Los Angeles
When we got to the top of Echo, we did spend some time looking at the various ruins there, including some parts I had seen pictures of but somehow had actually never seen while up there. The hotel and train remnants really are quite fascinating. We even got to see a few fall leaves 🙂
Bent nail from the old hotel site
Fall day framing some of the gears from the old cog train
From there, we took the Castle Canyon trail and started heading up to Inspiration Point. This section of trail is a lot more rugged and challenging than the trail just up to Echo Mountain (it adds about the same amount of elevation, in just under the same distance (1400′ in 2.2 rather than 2.5 miles), but is just overall more strenuous. For bonus fun, as we went up, there is a dank wooded area where we disturbed a wasps nest in the roots of an oak. Nathan got a few stings.
Approaching the ramada at Inspiration Point
The climbing was definitely starting to get a bit annoying – this part of the trail is much more challenging! Finally, however, we broke out of some of the cover and could see the ramada up at the point, above us. (Hah – fun to learn that “ramada” has a real meaning!). It was still a bit above and in front of us, but seeing our target in sight really helped a lot. From there, I was just able to power through until we actually reached the building. Once up there, I just kind of passed out for a little bit , catching my breath. This is right up at the edge of the burn zone, so there are lots of good (well, “good”) views of some of the areas that had burned, right up against the areas that hadn’t. Nathan took a bit of a walk around to grab some pictures, and I managed to get together enough to hunt down a geocache that is located right up there. I was also amused by the viewing tubes up there, including the mirrored angled one that gave you a “good view” right back to the building, but otherwise, it was mostly too hazy too see very much.
Nathan and I up at the point
burnt and unburnt areas; separated by trail
After relaxing for a bit, we went down the way we came, and I have to admit, by the end it wasn’t overly pleasant. I do wish there were more loop hikes in the san gabriels (though the next time I did a one-way trip, I still hurt by the end). Also, we didn’t get overly bothered by the wasps on our way back down.
Very inspiring!
Nathan, a large burnt plant, and the towers of Mt Wilson in the background, all against the blue blue sky
Glowing in the sunlight
