"It's easier to go down a hill than up it. But the view is much better from the top"
Making a list and doing a number of hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains was on my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77. I have hiked in Eaton Canyon to Henninger Flats previously, with Donna in October 2012 and with Tracy and Jen in March 2016, but I wanted to do it again in my Year 77. I had initially planned to do this hike in January and I recruited Espi to join me. But we had a schedule conflict in January, and couldn't work things out in February or March either. We finally agreed on Thursday, April 5 and met at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena.
There are two primary routes to Henninger Flats. One is to begin at the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Trailhead which sits in a residential neighborhood in Altadena. This is a round trip distance of 5.4 miles with an elevation gain of 1,240 feet. The second route is to begin at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center Trailhead in Pasadena. This is a round trip hike of 7.4 miles with an elevation gain of 1,670 feet. We chose to begin at the Nature Center, but then I created a third "non-primary" route by deciding to leave the main trail and climb a Horse Trail at Walnut Canyon. On the rough map I had seen, this route looked to be a little shorter, but shorter or not, it was much steeper and wore me out. Espi could have ran to the top, but she kindly stayed at my slower pace. The photos below are at the Nature Center Trailhead. You can see the low-level fog bank, but it was clear a little way up the mountain.
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The photos below are where the Horse Trail finally joined the Mt. Wilson Toll Road (this is about 1/4 of the way to Henninger Flats). The middle photo looks back at the Nature Center, the last photo shows Espi being the business woman she is, although I must say she almost never interrupts a walk or hike using her cell phone.
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A little further up the Toll Road we came upon a bench. I used it as an excuse to rest a minute and take a couple of photos. The second photo in the 1st row is another view of the Nature Center from a little further up the mountain. The first photo in the 2nd row is a view of the switchback road coming up the mountain. The last photo is looking up to our destination - Henninger Flats is at the top of the mountain where you can see the trees against the skyline. It's difficult to know just how much further it was, but to make our cut-off time we needed to turn around and get back down the mountain.
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We got a late start, Espi had an important business appointment at noon, and I was hiking slow -- so, we had to turn around before actually arriving at Henninger Flats. Our round trip mileage according to my Strava App was 4.7 miles and we were on the trail a little over 1 1/2 hours.
Although we didn't make the original planned destination, it was fun to get out in the mountains. Espi is an interesting conversationalist and always fun to talk with. She is a successful business woman with her own real estate company and always has an interesting perspective on what is happening in the real estate market, both residential and commercial. She is also a cyclist, runner and hiker, so we don't bore each other when talking about those subjects. The temperature was mild and, although there was a layer of fog in the valley, the scenery was still wonderful. It was a fun hike (and for me, a nice warm-up for my Grand Canyon hike next week).
The Eaton Canyon Nature Center is a 190-acre zoological, botanical, and geological nature preserve situated at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Visitors can enjoy its hiking trails, equestrian trails with a staging area, picnic areas, seasonal stream, rocks and minerals, various natural habitats, native plants, and wildlife.
The Center has many programs that are interesting, regular, and free to the public. They have weekly Docent-led Family Nature Walks described as a leisurely walk, about 2 hours, through the native plant garden that surrounds the Center and into the nearby wild areas. The walk is different each time — what's leafing out, flowering, in seed, etc., determines what the leader will talk about — and different leaders bring different points of view. They have similar weekly Bird Walks and Plant Walks. They have a regular Nature Tails Story Hour, which is a program to read animal and nature stories to children visiting the Nature Center. They also have regular meetings led by various groups and societies such as the Sierra Club, Eaton Canyon Gardening Group, Pasadena Audubon Society, Southwestern Herpetologists Society, and California Native Plant Society.
We made a brief stop at the Nature Center before leaving the area. The photos below are at the entrance to the Nature Center and of a few of the exhibits inside the Center. Everything at the Center is well-presented and it looks like it would be an interesting place to spend some time.
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A Little History of Henninger Flats: Above Altadena, the scars of the old Mt. Wilson Toll Road are clearly visible, zigzagging sharply up the Chaparral-covered mountainside from the mouth of Eaton Canyon. The toll road's history dates back to 1891 when it was just a four-foot wide foot trail to Mt. Wilson. Over the years it was widened to 12 feet to accommodate truck traffic to take construction materials and supplies to the Mt. Wilson Observatory. The Angeles Crest Highway was constructed in the 1930s, and with that superior access to Mt. Wilson, the Toll Road was closed to public transportation in 1936.
About a third of the way up the mountain is a forested bench, which is Henninger Flats, home of the Los Angeles County Experimental Forestry Nursery. The Flats have a rich history. They were originally homesteaded by William Henninger, who grew hay, corn, vegetables, fruit and melons on his "farm in the clouds." In the early 1900s the flats were leased to the Forest Service and the first scientific reforestation experiments in California were conducted there. Thousands of seedlings from the nursery were transplanted to fire-blackened slopes all over Southern California.
Since 1928 Henninger Flats and the surrounding slopes have been under the administration of Los Angeles County foresters. A new administration building with a museum on the ground floor, open to the public on weekends, displays reforestation and historical exhibits. A Visitors Center, restrooms, water, picnic area and public campgrounds are maintained by the county.
The first time I hiked to the flats with Donna the Visitors Center was closed (it was a weekday) but when Tracy, Jen and I went on a weekend in 2016 it was open and had a number of interesting exhibits; primarily photos and a collection of stuffed animals native to that area of the mountains. The photos below are from my hike in 2012 and the one with Tracy and Jen in 2016.
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