National Trails Day: Historic Photographs From the Homestead’s Collection of Trails in the San Gabriel Mountains, 1900-1930

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

It was a cool, overcast morning, typical of what is commonly called “June gloom,” as the Homestead had a booth at the San Gabriel River Park’s National Trails Day event. The county facility, located on a strip wedged between the watercourse and Interstate 605 and which was long occupied by a duck farm, has hosted a series of community happenings since its recent grand opening and this was our fourth time taking part.

Given the theme, it was obvious that we should cull from the collection photographs, professional and amateur, showing trails in the San Gabriel Mountains, as a good portion of our interpretive period of 1830-1930 constituted what is broadly known as the Great Hiking Era which occurred from the 1890s to the 1930s.

There were many reasons why Americans took to the trails on the coasts, hills, mountains and other natural locations. As the nation’s economy burgeoned in the 19th century, largely driven by industrialization, there was a rapidly growing middle class with more leisure time. The move towards a manufacturing economy meant population shifts from rural to urban areas, but increasing noise and pollution led some city-dwellers to seek respite among nature.

There, however, was also a growing conservation movement, especially as forests were felled to fuel the industrial boom, the increase in population and the massive need for wood for buildings and other elements. In the late 19th and early 20th century, this coalesced into the formation of local, county, state and national parks, with federal leadership peaking with the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, long an advocate for outdoor recreation.

With hiking one of many ways in which people were encouraged to get exercise, as well as fresh air, another component was the establishment of local, state and national agencies to work with natural resources for conservation, preservation and public access, including municipal county, state and national parks. Funding and staffing, while never what was suggested or required, did provide for a modicum of management of these resources, while volunteers became a vital component, including the formation of children’s scouting groups, among others.

When it came to mountains, especially, access to these were mainly confined to hunters and outdoors enthusiasts until the onset of the Great Hiking Era, when many Americans embraced opportunities to camp, fish, hike and hunt in a range of environments from crude and rustic campgrounds to luxury resorts. The rise of state and national parks is also very notable during this period, as was the increasing ease of access with the rise of the automobile, which, of course, facilitated greater use.

More people, of course, meant more maintenance need, though this was often difficult given chronic constraints of funds and staffing. Moreover, what seemed like a laudable conservation goal of mitigating forest fires by limiting logging and other forest clearance turned out, in the long run, to be an unanticipated problem with respect to wildfires, especially with rising climate change—witness what is happening now with massive blazes in Canadian forests with the smoke affecting large swaths of the northern United States bordering these sections.

In 19th century greater Los Angeles, the San Gabriel (long known as the Sierra Madre) Mountains were largely utilized by those who were fishing and hunting. The Boom of the 1880s, which peaked in 1887 and 1888 when William H. Workman was mayor of Los Angeles, brought large numbers of new settlers as well as tourists who introduced leisure activities in the range. Then, the onset of the Great Hiking Era meant an explosion of people flocking to the mountains for outdoor recreation (which started to include winter skiing).

The San Gabriels were first part of a forest reserve, formed in 1892 as this boom in recreational activity was beginning, and then, in 1907, came the national forest designation, two years after the establishment of the United States Forest Service. Access to the range was enhanced by greatly improved streetcar service by the Pacific Electric system, which also, in 1901, took over the operation of the Mt. Lowe Railway and its many attractions in the mountains above Altadena and Pasadena.

From early on, it was clear that the major areas of access to and interest in the San Gabriels were through such places as San Antonio Canyon at the east end, leading to Mt. San Antonio (Baldy) and nearby peaks; the wide expanse of San Gabriel Canyon including the three forks of the river of that name and many camps and resorts; Big Santa Anita Canyon and its remarkable Sturtevant Falls and a variety of camps; Little Santa Anita Canyon and the trail and toll road that leads to Mt. Wilson; and the Arroyo Seco, with its wealth of trails and camp and resort site.

There were certainly many other smaller sections of the range that drew visitors, including San Dimas Canyon; areas above Glendora; Fish Canyon in Duarte, where another remarkable waterfall exists; Sawpit Canyon, where the Monrovia Canyon Park is today; Eaton Canyon, home to another notable waterfall; Rubio Canyon. Once out of the San Gabriel Valley and moving to the northwest, the upper Arroyo Seco; Big Tujunga and Little Tujunga canyons; and other areas are also quite notable.

Prior posts on this blog have covered various aspects of the rise of leisure and outdoor activities in the San Gabriel range, including on Mt. Wilson, the Switzer-land resort and its founder and namesake Commodore Perry Switzer; camps in San Gabriel Canyon; the photographer Ernest B. Gray; and many more. There will certainly be many more to come, but this National Trails Day offering focuses on images from our collection showing trails and those who used them and is more a pictorial than an informational post.

The first photo shown here is of a trio of women hiking along the Arroyo Seco, accessed often from Devil’s Gate above Altadena and Pasadena. One of the first items noted in many of these images is the clothing, denoted as leisure wear, but of a far different style and amount than we are certainly used to donning today. Hiking boots, too, were not the same, many of these fitting much higher on the leg than today’s descendants.

The second image also features three female hikers in the Arroyo, with this striking view showing them in a mostly dry section of a creek that cut through rock, though wood planks were laid to cross the stream at several points. It also looks as if some pipes were laid to divert water for some unknown purpose, while toward the top of the steep hillside in the background is a wood fence along a road.

Switzer’s Camp, also known as Switzer-land, was likely one of the most photographed locales in all of the San Gabriel range because of its lodge and cottages, but also its spectacular chapel and other elements. A view here is labeled “The Switzer-Land Limited,” a play on the description of a train and showing a mule-train with supplies packed as well as riders. The use of such pack mule caravans was very common for overnight visits and was utilized until quite recently.

A great shot shows a scoutmaster, known only by his surname of Trapier, as he treaded a trail from Switzer’s Camp to Opid’s Camp, five miles northwest of Mt. Wilson and northeast of Mt. Lowe north of the west fork of the San Gabriel River. Here, obviously, is a backpacking trip with Trapier’s bedroll on his back and above his pack. Notice, too, his outfit and footwear, as well as his hat, while the background is also quite striking.

Speaking of Mt. Lowe, this very popular resort, which opened in the early days of the Great Hiking Era and was famous for its very steep funicular and its winding streetcar route high in the mountains as well as its lodging and spectacular views, a photo here shows a septet post there, though it is interesting to see the varied clothing. The couple at the left wear hiking boots and have other items indicative of that activity, but one gent is smartly dressed in a three-piece suit and tie, so maybe some of the party went up by rail and didn’t hit the trails?

Northwest of Opid Camp is Strawberry Peak, on the other side of Highway 2, and a great image shows seven hikers atop it, having come up from Switzer’s Camp, which is south of the highway (which did not exist when the picture was snapped.) See how two men are at the ends and a third in the middle while pairs of women stand in between and all hold on to a rope as the group stands on sharp rocky outcroppings.

Next is a photo of a pair of female hikers on a wide stretch of the Mt. Wilson Trail, or Road. Notice the similarities in their clothing, with white blouses, khaki-looking long skirts, sweaters tied around their waists, knapsacks around their shoulders and the necessary headgear as sun protection. They were obviously at a high elevation given the expansive views of nearby peaks.

Eaton Canyon has long been a favorite hiking spot, especially because its falls are easily accessible, though the locale was the origin site of the horrific fire that ravaged Altadena at the beginning of this year. The featured photo here shows a man and two women perched along a rock ledge along the trail—see how the gent wears a tie as well as high-top lace-up hiking boots.

Most of the photos shown so far have been “amateur” snapshots, but the professional photographer par excellence of the San Gabriels for many years was Ernest B. Gray, of whose work we have a few dozen fine views. One here is labeled “Big Santa Anita Canyon” and is somewhat unusual in that it shows two children following a woman along a trail in that very popular section of the range. Notice that tall, thin tree trunks, the rock outcropping and, especially, the graffiti on a tree at the left!

At the west side of the wide mouth of San Gabriel Canyon and north of Duarte is Fish Canyon and its waterfall. A snapshot here shows a large group of hikers heading up the trail toward the canyon and falls, though the route is currently closed because of fire damage, a condition that, sadly, has affected more of the range with greater frequency and intensity because of the mounting effects of climate change.

Another interesting view shows San Gabriel Canyon and a man apparently dismounted from his horse and looking at something (a map?). While it looks as if he might be on a trail, that might well by the canyon road that is now State Highway 39, obviously long before it was widened and paved. The exact location is not known, though someone who knows this area well might be able to tell is by leaving a comment?

At the eastern end of our range for this post is San Antonio Canyon, where F.P.F. Temple ran a sawmill in what is now Icehouse Canyon. The view here is of a trail around the Hog’s Back area and may be somewhere close to the Barrett-Stoddard Road near some falls that are off San Antonio Creek as it heads down from the upper elevations towards the valley floor.

Given that it is summer, we’ll save some of the few winter hiking images we have for a future post dealing with that time of year in our local mountains. There is one last photo, however, to share here and it is rather remarkable one because of the lushness of the forest landscape, including a towering pine tree growing from the side of the hill right off the trail, as a lone hiker passes along it. Note, too, that it looks like rock was used as a retaining element for the trail as there is a steep drop below.

We don’t know the exact location of the image, though the photo came from a great album of 50 views and might well be in the Big Santa Anita Canyon area, as the album is filled with wonderful pictures from camp sites and other locales that were generally identified as being in Sierra Madre, the city just outside the canyon. Again, if a reader knows the spot, please let us know by leaving a comment.

If you didn’t get out to hike on a trail today, you’ve got a whole summer to enjoy the wonders of the San Gabriel range, now part of a national monument, not to mention other remarkable spots in greater Los Angeles. While we have “June gloom,” moreover, an early morning start is always an excellent idea to avoid as much exposure to heat, as possible. Maybe these photos are some sort of inspiration?

UPDATE, 25 June 2025: Reader Paul Ayers left a comment with his identification of several of the images at the beginning of the post:

Photo No.1-My best estimate of the photo’s location is generally looking west just below the current Paul Little Picnic Area. Arroyo Rd. is seen at left.

Photo No. 2-This photo was taken looking generally north at Devil’s Gate, Pasadena, CA, ca. 1900. The rock formation which forms the devil’s head is seen at right.

Photo No. 4-This photo was almost certainly taken on Switzer’s Trail between Oakwilde and Switzer’s not between Switzer’s and Opids; I have multiple photos taken at or near this spot which confirm this. The decisive factor is that the ridgelines seen behind the man in Photo No. 4, which separate the Arroyo Seco from the Big Tujunga watersheds, are identical to ones seen in my photos. Further, the trail to Opids from Switzer’s travels through the Upper Arroyo Seco and Red Box and there simply aren’t any views like this.

Photo No. 5-Based on the disparity of dress, the rock formation, and the steepness of the background, I would estimate this is on the Mt. Lowe East Trail or at the summit, a common trip for those coming to the Mt. Lowe Tavern.

Thanks, Paul, for these additional remarks!