Hiking In California

Distance: 5.8 miles / 3 hours
Difficulty: Easy (2 out of 5)

in Angeles National Forest at Mount Waterman

The peak of Mount Waterman (at 8,038 feet) is a fine destination for a moderate day hike in the San Gabriel Mountains, and the view from the summit is one you won’t soon forget. The only problem that awaits is figuring out which peak is really the peak, because the top of Mount Waterman is so wide that there are three summits. From the trailhead (elevation 6,700 feet), bear left off the dirt road and head uphill on remarkably smooth, well-graded single track.
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Distance: 5 miles / 3 hours
Difficulty: Moderate (3 out of 5)

in Angeles National Forest near Islip Saddle

This summit trail feels a bit rougher and more remote than those to many other peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, and it’s famous for its steep drop-offs. But the trail’s total elevation gain is only 1,600 feet, and the visual rewards are tremendous. Mount Williamson is on the north side of the Angeles Crest Highway, which means that although you’re hiking in a mountain environment, you’re on the desert side of the mountain. The forest on this slope is more sparse, the trail is more exposed, and many of the best vistas are of the western Mojave Desert, to the north. .
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Distance: 8 miles / 4 hours
Difficulty: Difficult (4 out of 5)

in Angeles National Forest near Big Pine

Like the climb to the summit of Mount Baldy, the climb to the summit of Mount Baden-Powell is something of a requirement for Southern California hikers. Luckily, this requirement is a little easier to attain, because the trail up to Mount Baden-Powell is a mere eight-mile round-trip with a 2,800-foot elevation gain. The summit of Baden-Powell is at 9,399 feet and is directly across from San Gabriel Basin from, and slightly north of, Mount Baldy. As you might guess, the views from the summit are extraordinary.
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Distance: 3 miles / 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy (2 out of 5)

in San Bernardino National Forest near Hesperia

This trial is not the highlight of this trip, but its destination is. Deep Creek’s hot springs are well known, well loved, and heavily visited. Although there are few ways to hike to them, this route is the most popular simply because it’s the shortest. It’s called Goat Trail for a reason – this is a no-nonsense path that leads straight down from the trailhead to to the creek, and straight up in return.
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Distance: 9.4 miles / 5 hours
Difficulty: Difficult (4 out of 5)

in Angeles National Forest near Duarte

If you want to see Fish Canyon Falls, you have to sign up for a difficult hike. Sure, there is a trail that travels all the way to the 90-foot falls, but it has a grade that will leave you begging for mercy. Still, the situation is better now than it was for most of the 1980s and 1990s, when there was no public access at all to the Fish Canyon Falls area. The waterfall lies on Angeles National Forest land, but the trail to reach it was blocked by the expansion of a private quarry. In 1998, a three-mile-long bypass trail was created to solve the problem, but unfortunately the trail is steep, loose, far too narrow, and riddled with poison oak.
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Distance: 1.5 miles / 1 hour
Difficulty: Beginner (1 out of 5)

on Mount Baldy

Mount Baldy is that big mountain that you can see from almost everywhere in the Los Angeles Basin (on a clear day), and if you hike the trail to San Antonio Falls, you’ll be able to see almost everywhere in the Los Angeles Basin. Trailhead elevation is 6,160 feet, a fine elevation to start at if you like clean, fresh, mountain air. For the best waterfall show, you’ve got to time your trip carefully for the first warm days after winter, sometimes as early as March, when the snow melts off the mountain and pours into 80-foot San Antonio Falls.
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