On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
About 4 years ago, my stepdaughter in the wanning days of nursing school hiked with some friends up to Sturtevant Falls. After my hikes to Eaton Falls and Brown Mountain Dam, I thought it’s be a nice hike.
About 2 years ago in the early spring I decided to hike up there. The trail starts at Chantry Flats at the end of a narrow road that hugs the west side of Santa Anita Canyon. The trail begins by following a road down into the canyon and then proceeds up the canyon to the falls. Along the wooded trail there are a number of debris dams, not unlike the other canyons in the southern San Gabriels, but there are also cabins.
There were the ruins of cabins on the hike to Brown Mountain Dam, but the cabins here were still in use. Being that it was late April, the falls were not overly energetic so I got some photos and the plan was to double back about a quarter mile and take the trail that went along the hillside south of the falls.
As I headed up the single trak trail with my walking stick leading the way I noticed something move in my path. A small snake was moving into the brush at the side of the trail with a distinctive diamond pattern on it’s back. I decided that I’d turn back to the main trail back to the parking lot.
So why am I recounting a hike from 2 years ago? It’s too hot to hike outside and it’s pretty smoky due to the Bobcat fire. The Bobcat fire started in a day use area on the West Fork of the San Gabriel river near Cogswell Dam and burned both north and south from there. On it’s southern flank, it’s also moved into the Santa Anita Wash where these photos were taken 2 years ago.
A note on the photos, I’ve included both visual and IR photos. The visual photos at the falls have had the sky replaced since the sun was in that portion of the sky.
This is the first in a serries of debris dams along the Santa Anita Wash. The top of the dam was just at the right height to level with the trail to get a reflection. The trail continues around to the left and you can see it just to the right of the cabin.
Debris Dam in IR.
The little creek that flows though the Santa Anita Wash.
These are some nice cabins along the creek in the wash. I shot several photos at different exposure levels and blended in areas that were blown out with a darker exposure. I also applied an Ektachrome-100 emulation on this shot.
There wasn’t a whole lot of water falling over the falls, the sky has been replaced due to the sun washing out the sky.
Side view of Sturtevant Falls.
WaterGirl
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!
Kent
I grew up in Eugene and did a lot of fly fishing along the McKenzie in my youth. I’m dreading driving back through there once these fires clear and the roads re-open.
sempronia
I know this trail well – used to hike there every weekend with my family and lots of other people, as it’s a very popular trail close to civilization. This trail, Hoagee Campgrounds, and the routes up to Mt Wilson were all closed for a few years because of the Station Fire too, as I recall. Hopefully it rebounds as it did then.
opiejeanne
All of that loveliness, up in smoke? This makes me very sad.
My son went to summer camp at Sturtevant, which was only accessible on foot or horseback. All of the materials to build the camp had to be brought in on pack animals. He loved it there, a week in the mountains and the camp had a pool with a slide! I assume it’s all gone now.
Another Methodist summer camp that’s threatened was Sky Meadows, near Angelus Oaks. My adult SS class used it for weekend snow retreats which were lots of fun.
Cheryl Rofer
The Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other government preserves, have been de facto wildlife refuges because so few people are allowed on the property.
When I worked in environmental remediation, one of the cooler things I did was hike down Pajarito Canyon with the ecologists. We found sign from a MASSIVE bear, a historic wooden sign from the time that Pajarito Canyon was the route up to the mesa, and lots of interesting vegetation and potential salamander habitat. Security guards met us at the closed site at the bottom (they knew we were coming) and escorted us through.
During the Cerro Grande fire, I watched the canyons burn. Every one of them. I hoped the bear got out okay.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl Rofer: Wait, bears are putting up signs now?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: This is true.
Cheryl Rofer
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I thought the two uses of the word “sign” were kind of fun but put in “wooden” to distinguish from the other kind
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: The area from the Station Fire in 2009 is still recovering.
@sempronia: Had to look at a map for the Hoagee Camp, it’s up Winter Creek which branches off after you get down the hill from Chantry Flats. I’m not sure that burned in the Station Fire, it was more to the west, I know that Mt. Lowe and San Gabriel Peak burned.
@opiejeanne: I didn’t hike all the way to Sturtevant Camp, but I’ve seen some pics, it was pretty impressive and had been there forever.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Since the 1890s, I think. My son went there at least two summers in a row when he was a kid. I’ve never hiked in there but I’ve seen the photos too. Looked wonderful.
Baud
I wish I were there.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Not now, you don’t.
UncleEbeneezer
Great pix! We did this hike as part of the Hoegee’s Camp loop a couple years ago and really liked it. We are thanking our lucky stars for the Station Fire now, because it helped thin out the fuel in the canyons between us and the Bobcat Fire.
sempronia
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, the campground survived the Station Fire. I’m not sure which parts burned, but I thought the whole Chantry Flats area was closed to hikers not just because parts burned, but because of the risk of mudslides during the winter after the fires. I may be conflating my disasters though…
J R in WV
Nice mountain country, love the photos.
I always thought “debris dams” were dams caused by debris washing down the hollow and piling up on some obstruction.
Now I see that it is actually low dams intended to catch debris rather than to catch water…
wenchacha
Sturtevant was my unmarried name. It’s always interesting to see places with the name. My son and his wife are in Mountain View, CA. Their baby arrives in a month!
Though I want them to live closer to WNY, I am heartbroken for all the loss in the West coast. We have only visited a couple times not enough to take in all the natural beauty, and now so much of it is gone.
I am hoping our country can do more for the environment than we have so far.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: I would have liked to have seen it, I wonder how much they were able to save. Maybe they raked there?.
@Baud: I think I’ve posted pics of burnt out hellscapes before, maybe I’ll try again when things open back up.
@WaterGirl: Actually you can’t go there, the national forest* is closed.
*It’s actually a National Monument(thanks Obama) but it’s still under administration of the Dept. of Ag.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@UncleEbeneezer: Yeah, on the southwestern edge of the Bobcat fire they were relying on the area burnt by the Station Fire 11 years ago as fire break.
@sempronia:
In California? What are the chances of that happening?
@J R in WV: Yeah, we build them intentionally here, the Brown Mountain dam featured a few months ago is also a debris dam, but much higher. We have them in the hills before the waterways get into populated areas and our concrete lined flood control system.
@wenchacha: Those Sturtevants are everywhere! While we’ve lost alot of forest to fire this year(and wait for the mudslides in the Winter), we still have plenty of natural beauty here in the Golden State.
Tehanu
John McPhee wrote about the debris dams in, um, I think it was either The Control of Nature or Assembling California.
Bill, thanks for the great photos!