By 1990, 43 miles of the route had been constructed, and then the project stalled. The concept was approved by the California legislature in 1974, four years before the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area was created by an Act of Congress.īy 1983, there were ten miles of trail. The trail has a history as convoluted as any of the parkland it crosses. The Backbone Trail was first proposed more than 50 years ago, but it only began to become a reality in the 1980s, when the National Park Service, California State Parks, and the newly formed Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy began piecing together the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. This is a path that even in the dull, prosaic 21st century has the potential to lead to adventure. The Backbone Trail winds along the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains for nearly 70 miles, from Point Mugu in Ventura County to Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the RingĪnyone who has ever taken a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area backcountry has a good chance of having traveled part of the Backbone Trail, possibly without realizing it. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. The nearly 70-mile-long route traverses some of the most dramatic, remote and beautiful parts of the local coastal range. Each part of this deep gorge is extraordinary and worth checking out, even if you only see a bit of it.The backbone trail traverses the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains, from Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County, to Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades.
If you want to shorten to just one section of the hike (making it less of a big-time undertaking), you could start the hike at the trail’s confluence with the Escalante River, hike north till you’re tired, and return the way you came. You’ll need to very carefully prepare and research before undertaking it, but it’s a jaw-dropping narrows hike you’ll never forget. The trailhead lies 24 miles up Hell’s Backbone Road from Escalante. This one isn’t exactly beginner-friendly, but if you’re an experienced backpacker with some canyoneering experience, and you have waterproof dry bags, give it a go. It features hiking, scrambling, wading, and roped canyoneering. If you want to make it an overnight backpacking trip to the campground and back to your car the way you came, you could.Īs an alternative, Death Hollow is a far more demanding hike that qualifies as a strenuous multiday backpacking trip. The Box canyon tops out with an Upper Box trailhead farther up Hell’s Backbone Road near Blue Spruce Campground. The rambling Pine Creek follows alongside you for the journey, offering a life-giving vein in this dry desert scene.
More intrepid hikers can hike the entire length, ascending through layers of rock, and differing types of plant and animal life as you hit higher elevations. You can continue up this trail for about 8.5 miles if you like, although many people just get a sampling of the lower few miles before turning around. It’s marked by a sign you’ll just turn off to a short spur road to find the trailhead parking. You’ll find the Lower Box trailhead about seven miles outside Escalante. It doesn’t see a lot of tourist traffic, but it’s a mysterious, multicolored sandstone canyon carved by water into the rocks. One highlight along the way is a canyon trail known as The Box. The entire way, you’ll bask in breathtaking views - and may dab your brow while peering into the plunging depths below. Occasionally you’ll peer over significant drop-offs at the edge of the road, and halfway through you’ll cross an old wooden bridge spanning a deep chasm. The high-point of the road is at about 9,000 feet above sea level from there it drops down into the twists of rock canyons, changing from higher-elevation forest to rocky desert inferno over the course of dozens of miles. If you leave from the outskirts of Boulder, you’ll descend into the depths of where The Box and Death Hollow lie.
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