Souvenir shops lining along Venice Beach hawk postcards showing the city of Los Angeles at the foot of snow-capped mountains. The first time Wet Boots and I saw this, we were sure it was fake. (With the smog, one cannot see anything from LA on most days.) But just north of Los Angeles lie the San Gabriel Mountains, principally within Angeles National Forest. ANF’s canyons, trails, and 9,000+ ft. mountains cover an area two and a half times the size of Rocky Mountain National Park.
I recently traveled to LA for a friend's wedding, with the intention of hiking Throop Peak and Mt. Hawkins in ANF on a side trip. More flight trouble meant I had to abandon those plans and come up with a Plan B en route to LA. (Review of that trail coming next.) Nevertheless, the diversity and size of Angeles National Forest merit a blog shout-out for having some worthy “wild” outside the national parks.
If you want to explore the ANF, here are some tips I picked up during my pre-trip research.
Mountains. Mt. Baden-Powell is the most popular peak to bag in the ANF. However, I targeted Throop Peak and Mt. Hawkins because I wanted to hike a portion of the fabled Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that had other selling points and could be done in an afternoon. Modern Hiker described the 6-mile out-and-back trip as having “a stretch of spectacularly-designed trail, lots of shade, and phenomenal scenery.” If you have the time, there are ways to include Mt. Baden-Powell in the trip.
Snow?! It may be hot downtown, but in the winter months you should expect to encounter snow at the higher elevations within the ANF. Call the Forest Service offices or check recent trail reviews for conditions if you are going in the winter.
But I don’t like elevation gain. The ANF has more to offer than just peak-bagging. I did not focus my research on those trails, but this hike sounded intriguing.
