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california, climbing, hike, Hiking, hiking group, los angeles, mount baldy, mountain, mountain range, Mt. Baldy, peak, san antonio peak, San Gabriels, snow, summit, trail, Trails, views
- Plaque on the top of Baldy
This past April our group decided to hike up to the summit of Mount Baldy (officially Mt. San Antonio). There are 4 ways to reach the peak. With Mt. Whitney just a few months away, we decided to challenge ourselves and take the Old Baldy Trail which is 6.4 miles long and has a gain of about 5,800 ft making it a very challenging and difficult hike.
The parking lot for this hike is located right next to the Mt. Baldy Village Church. A forest adventure pass is required.
After a quick bag check we started up Bear Canyon Rd for about .4 miles to the trailhead.
Trailhead at the end of Bear Canyon Rd
After enjoying the the sounds of the creek and sights of the cabins for .4 miles we left the paved road behind and continued on the dirt single-track trail that is Old Mt Baldy Trail. Our next destination was Bear Flat (1.8miles) here we regrouped and took a short break before continuing on for the remaining 4.6 miles.
The First 1.8 miles are the easiest…
The rest of the hike has a gain of 900 feet per mile making it very difficult. As soon as you leave Bear Flat you start to switchback up the south side of the mountain leaving you exposed to the sun , so bring a hat and pack on the sunblock! Views of Ontario Peak are all you can see from here.
Ontario Peak
After about 2 miles we hit the end of the switchbacks and continued up the ridge. This is where SoCal began to reveal itself.
getting higher and higher.. The Santa Ana Mountains are starting to reveal themselves!
If you make it here.. Just keep on going as the hardest part is now over. My favorite part of this hike(other than reaching the peak) was when we I reached the Narrows Ridge This was an Amazing experience with awesome views!
My Wife making her way up Narrows Ridge
View of Mt Baldy from Narrows Ridge
When we reached the top of the ridge my jaw dropped!
Jaw is Dropped! top of the Narrows Ridge
Up until here we were on a dirt trail which was easy to follow and easy to walk on.. This was a first for me.. hiking in the snow.. it sounds nice in ones head but the fact of the matter is this stuff was slushy and knee deep in some places.. With Baldy in our sights we had no choice but to fuel up and keep on trekking!
Once we hit the saddle between West Baldy and Baldy we had a choice to visit WB but we were just too drained, so we continued to the right and made the final push up to Baldy!
WE MADE IT!!!!
My krew and I on the highest peak in LA
Happy Trails,
Alex G.
- 12.8 round-trip
- 6.4 miles to the top
- 900 ft of gain per mile
- 5,800 ft of gain
- 10,834 ft peak
- Tallest peak in LA
- 3rd tallest peak in So Cal
- adventure pass required
- Difficulty– Very Strenuous
- start early to beat the heat 6 or 7am
- total hike time 7-11 hours depending on pace
Your Favorite Hiker 
Definitely one of my favorite trails.
Yeah mine too, can’t wait to go back when there is no snow.
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Great post! Love the hike description and all the photos! I’ve done Baldy via the Bowl Trail twice, but still have to do it from the Bear Canyon (Old Baldy) Trail. Was this a good training hike for Whitney?
Thanks James. This is an excellent training hike. I did it before whitney also. The 6000ft is challenging. If you can do this hike then you can definitely do Whitney.
Thanks for the reply Alex. And the encouragement! A lot of my friends are doing Whitney in just a couple weeks. It will be their second time and they’ve been doing training hikes like Baldy, San Gorgonio and San Bernardino Peak while I’ve been nursing a couple of tweaked ankles. Will shoot for the Bear Canyon Trail when the ankles heal up. Cool blog by the way..
Thank you James and thanks for reading. Whitney sounds intimidating but it’s no harder than Baldy via bear cnyn. It’s just a longer journey. I’ve only done it twice and both times started early to give myself time to complete it. Did it as a day hike both times.
Thanks again Alex. My friends did Whitney this weekend, this time over two days with an overnight stop at Trail Camp. I got the impression they were more wore out by doing it in two days than when they did it as a day hike, probably due to the humongous backpacks they had to carry this time. I’m hoping to do Whitney in 2015 and will make the Bear Canyon Trail one of the training hikes. Great blog by the way..