Big Santa Anita Canyon: 6.0 miles

LOCATION/DIRECTIONS: In Angeles National Forest near Arcadia. Here is a map (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chantry+Flat+Parking+Lot+and+Trail+Head/@34.196239,-118.02269,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x80c2dc28e939a681:0xdcce48d25795edc9) to the trailhead. We will meet in the parking area. the trail begins across the road from the first parking area. Call or text Jenny -- if you are having trouble finding us.

PERMITS: No permits are required. A national recreation pass is required for each vehicle; fees are $5.

TRAIL NOTES: (From California Hiking:) Big Santa Anita Canyon is probably the top easy day-hike destination in all of the Arroyo Seco District of Angeles National Forest. It's easy to reach, and provides a short, simple, and sweet escape from urban life. The shady, overgrown, magical gulch is just a handful of miles from the Pasadena freeway. Day hikers can't help but covet the adorable summer cabins in the canyon, which you walk past on your way to see 60-ft Sturtevant Falls, the canyon's showpiece. The cabins are what remains of Roberts Camp, a popular weekend resort from the early 1900s. The hike begins at Chantry Flat, elevation 2,200 feet, and you follow the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail downhill. It's paved for the first 0.6 mile heading down into the canyon. When you reach the bottom, you cross Roberts Footbridge and head to the right not he dirt pathway. Traveling under the shade of oaks and alders and along Big Santa Anita Creek for one mile upstream leads you to Sturtevant Falls. The artificial waterfalls you see are small check dams, designed (poorly) to keep the creek from flooding. Where the Gabrielino Trail forks left and heads uphill, continue straight along the creek, admiring ferns and vines as you walk another quarter mile to Sturtevant Falls. It drops 60 feet over a granite cliff into a perfectly shaped rock bowl. Retrace your steps to the junction and follow the Gabrielino Trail uphill. Take the lower trail (the upper trail is safer for horses), which clings to the steep hillsides as it climbs above Sturtevant Falls to Cascade Picnic Area, a shady spot alongside the fern-lined creek. Take a break here before leaving Big Santa Anita Canyon and heading back uphill to the real world.