Sunset Ridge

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Angeles National Forest

Locate the trail head.

I noticed that Millard Canyon was open in the latest map of the forest closure due to the Station Fire, and since I think that falls is the best of the little falls you can get to easily in the very local backcountry, I decided to go see it. It's been raining even more since last weekend and so sunny this weekend. The canyon was very frosty and there's still snow on the high reaches. When I got to the trail, it had a fence across it, the creek, the back of the campground host, and up the other side of the creek. There are signs saying it's closed and one implying they're video taping for good measure. Guess I should have squinted more closely at the map because just the campground is open.

I stopped at the top of the canyon where Sunset Ridge hits the road and walked out along it instead. This has been the boundary of the closed area from the beginning, so I was not worried it wouldn't be open. I sketched one of the hillsides along the road.

Burned trees stand to one side of the fire road, green ones to the other.
The edge of fire is marked by the road that blocked its progress.

Looking up along there, the road is unseen. Only a cut here and there in the hillside and a line of bush mark where it is. Both sides of the road are green today, but the far side is only green from grasses and low things while the near side is many shades of green that stand high above the ground. Here, the fire road blocked the spread of fire.




©2011 Valerie Norton
Posted 27 Aug 2011

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