An accounting of the damage caused by the Eaton fire is still underway. Since it began in early January, it has burned more than 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in Altadena and, as of Friday, killed 16 people.
Now that the fire is 65% contained, we can begin examining damage and trail closures in the surrounding mountains as well. The fire is believed to have started in Eaton Canyon, a popular hiking area, before spreading east and west into the Angeles National Forest.
More than two dozen trails, many of them popular and interconnected, also appear to have burned. Many of them were favorites among locals who could walk a short distance from their homes in Altadena to the trailheads. Last week I visited Eaton Canyon and looked at the blackened manzanita and other chaparral. Even though the Eaton Canyon Nature Center burned, the oaks and plane trees surrounding it appear to have survived, some just being burned by the fire.
The Rubio Canyon trail was burned in the Eaton Fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
To better understand where you can hike responsibly (and what areas you should avoid), I put together the list below. To get a better picture of the damage, I consulted the CalTopo mapping tool, matching its maps and fire footprints with lists of local hiking trails to determine which trails were in the burned area.
That being said, just because there is a trail in the burned area doesn't mean it was destroyed. We will learn more about the specific conditions of each trail in the coming months. Trails burned in wildfires often remain closed for several months or years to allow the forest to recover and trail maintenance crews to repair routes and infrastructure.
Please note that hiking (and any other activity) is temporarily prohibited in the Angeles National Forest through Friday, even off the burned trails listed below. Officials said this move to temporarily close the forest was necessary because the fire risk is “critical,” the highest level of danger on the graduated scale used by the U.S. Forest Service.
The 700,000-acre area will reopen at midnight Saturday unless officials extend the closure. The trails below will likely remain closed even as the Angeles National Forest remains open.
Trails burned in Eaton fire
Part of the Eaton Canyon Trail after the Eaton Fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Burned cacti along the Eaton Canyon trail.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
- Middle Sam Merrill Trail northeast to Muir Peak Road: This trail is also known on some maps as the Upper Sam Merrill Trail. There is another trail northeast of this route that some maps refer to as the Upper Sam Merrill Trail.
- One Man & Mule Trail (or Muir Peak Road), including Inspiration Point and Muir Peak
- Mt. Lowe Railway Trail to Mt. Lowe Road, including Echo Mountain: The first 1.4 miles starting from Rubio Canyon Trailhead are sometimes called Old Echo Mountain Trail.
- Mt. Lowe East Trail: Sometimes called the Upper Sam Merrill Trail on maps, the first 0.8 miles of this trail appear to have been burned. The rest of the trail, whether you take it 0.6 mile to Mt. Lowe or continue northeast about a mile to Markham Saddle near the San Gabriel Peak trailhead, appears to be outside the burn zone. (Mount Lowe itself may have burned. It is on the edge of the fire's northern perimeter.)
Eaton Canyon as seen from Eaton Saddle Trailhead in 2021.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
- Mt. Lowe West Trail: The first two-thirds of a mile of this trail appears to have burned, while the last half mile appears to be outside the fire perimeter.
- Sunset Ridge Trail: The first 1000 feet of this trail are in the burn zone. The next 0.8 mile isn't, but the last mile appears to have been burned.
- Dawn Mine Trail: Outside of the first 1000 feet following the Sunset Ridge Trail, most of this trail is unburned. A mile after starting from the Sunset Ridge trailhead, there is a small section, about 450 feet, that has burned. The area around Dawn Mine appears to have not burned.
- Millard Canyon Falls Trail: Starting at the parking lot, the first half mile of the trail was burned. The area around Millard Canyon Falls does not appear to have burned.
- Lower Millard Canyon Trail: Also known as the Millard Canyon Crest Trail, just over half of this short trail from the Millard Canyon parking lot southwest to a residential area in Altadena appears to have burned.
- Tom Sloane Trail to Saddle: The first mile heading west toward Tom Sloane Saddle is burned. The remaining 0.8 miles to Saddle are not burned.
- Chaney Trail
- Mt. Lowe Motorway to Mt. Lowe Trail Camp: Most of this five-mile trail is burned, including Mt. Lowe Trail Camp.
