Mt. Lowe Railway

October 12, 2017 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Los Angeles Area → Mt. Lowe Railway

Location: San Gabriels front range, Northeast of Los Angeles

Distance: 11.4 miles (roundtrip to Inspiration Point via the Sam Merrill trail from the old Cobb Estate)

Elevation Gain/Loss: 2800 feet (to Inspiration Point via the Sam Merrill trail from the old Cobb Estate)

Time Required: 5 – 6 hours

Red Tape/Notes: No fee or permit required; there are lots of route descriptions online, but most of them only discuss going to The White City. Good beta for the full route to Inspiration Point can be found on Nobody Hikes in LA’s post and the Modern Hiker summary. Both of these describe a popular loop route which involves returning from Inspiration Point via the Castle Canyon Trail.

What’s Nearby?: The Huntington, Allison Mine Loop, Eaton Canyon (Hike), Eaton Canyon (Technical), Little Santa Anita Canyon, Bailey Canyon, Rubio Canyon, Millard Canyon/Dawn Mine Loop

There are numerous ways of exploring this area, since it is criss-crossed with trails and fire roads. We like to make it into a loop, detouring down to the Dawn Mine and exiting via Millard Canyon, but you can also begin and end at the Cobb Estate, visiting only the railway related sites. For many years, the railway was the most popular tourist attraction in Southern California, and it carried over 3 million visitors until its eventual demise in the 1930’s (the high costs associated with constantly combatting the ravages of nature made the venture grossly unprofitable, despite its popularity). The full railway ran in three stages, the first of which was a tramway from Pasadena to a pavilion in Rubio Canyon, where visitors could explore the lovely waterfalls up canyon (and which you can visit today, if you have the technical skills to complete the Rubio Canyon top-down route). From the pavilion, a cable railway ran to the top of Echo Mountain, where a resort was built called The White City; there are fairly extensive ruins of The White City left that you’ll see on your hike. The final stage of the route was a tramway from The White City to Crystal Springs, at the base of Mount Lowe, where another inn and resort, called Ye Alpine Tavern, were constructed (the ruins here are somewhat less extensive than at The White City, but are still quite interesting). The tavern became a fancy hotel, from which people could hike up to Inspiration Point or the top of Mount Lowe. There are various points of interest along the route between ruins of the The White City and Ye Alpine Tavern, some of which have information signs at them, and others which don’t. If you’re interested in these sites, try to get one of the self-guiding brochures from the Forest Service.