On the trail: Upper & Lower Winter Creek

In February, I first posted our review of the Upper Winter Creek trail, which you can find here. When I first hiked the trail, Koa and I stopped at the creek right before Hoegee's campground, and just hung out and splashed around. Assuming that there was nothing too interesting at the campground, we just turned back from there and went back the way we came. However yesterday my housemate and I went back to the Upper Winter Creek Trail — we had originally planned on hiking Sturtevant Falls, but it's still Spring Break for some people so that trail was super crowded.



When we reached the stream, we hung out and cooled off once again. I recently purchased a 30ft leash which has been awesome for practicing Koa's recall and giving her more room to explore. I obviously don't hike with it, but when we are resting somewhere and I want to give her more freedom, I'll switch her over. But after resting at the creek, we decided to keep going a little further in case there was anything of interest, and low and behold, we found a trail marker leading us back to Chantry via the Lower Winter Creek trail. I felt rather silly for not having realized that this existed, but we decided to check it out!

The lower trail was about the same length as the upper trail. The only tiny downside is that you do have to go through the campground, which isn't the prettiest part of the hike. The upside is that there is more water and stream crossings, and of course, some new scenery for the hike back, so taking the Lower Winter Creek Trail turned it into a nice 6-ish mile loop! The lower trail brings you back to the trail heads for Sturtevant, etc, at the bottom of the 1/2 mile paved road from the parking lot. The Lower Winter Creek Trail is mostly shaded, which is nice, as well (the Upper Winter Creek Trail has a good amount of shade but also has a few more exposed areas). Bring some bug spray, because now that the weather is heating up the pests are out in full effect!

Here's the basic info, for those of you who who just want a quick summary:

Location: Chantry Flat Recreation Area in the Angeles National Forest (near Sierra Madre/Arcadia)
Length: 6 mile loop
Difficulty: Moderate
Parking: There is a small parking lot, it fills up FAST on the weekends and people park alongside the road.
Fees: Forest Adventure Pass required. $5 for the day or $30 for a year pass that also grants you access to all of the Southern California National Forests (totally worth it). Available at the Pack Station (only open Friday- Sunday).