Hike 2011.097 -- Jones Peak

Hiked Sunday, December 25. Another relatively short hike, nearby. This trailhead is at Bailey Canyon Park, 451 W. Carter Ave, Sierra Madre, CA. To get there, take Baldwin Avenue north from the 210 Freeway (Baldwin makes a little jig to the west as it crosses Foothill Ave., so you need to make a left on Foothill, then a quick right). Continue north, past downtown Sierra Madre and a whole slew of churches. As you near the foothills, you'll reach Carter. Make a left there. Shortly after Lima, there's an entrance to Bailey Canyon Park, on your right.

The lot's a little small and short, so be careful when pulling in and pulling out. I backed into my spot so it would be easier to get out if there were lots of cars in the lot. Apparently, someone who came after me wasn't quite so farsighted, and headed in. Then she backed into my car when she left.

Fortunately, she left a note. I haven't called, yet, but hopefully everything will be fine. It looks to be mostly just my hood, so maybe the repair will be quick and cheap.

There's a flush toilet at the trailhead, which is kind of unusual for most trailheads.

Head west from the lot and the trail soon passes through a boundary fence. Head right (up the hill), and go past the monastery. (As of today, there's a mountain lion poster on the boundary fence for the monastery). As the pavement ends and you go past the detention basin on your right, you'll soon come to a bridge, which would require a right turn, over a small gully. There's a short nature loop if you cross the bridge. The waterfall and trail to Jones Peak is straight ahead, however.

Also down in this area are periwinkle, which are pretty common in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. I never really noticed if this is common, but some of the periwinkle here had only four petals.

If there's no water running down near the bridge, there's a fairly high probability that the waterfall is dry. The trail you're on also crosses where the outflow from the waterfall would run a bit further up. Again, if there's no water running there, the waterfall is probably dry. Some pictures of when the waterfall was actually flowing are here. Previous write-ups of hikes around Bailey Canyon are here and here.

If you want to visit the waterfall, turn left at the fork. If you want to go to Jones Peak, head right. The path to Jones Peak is supposed to be 3.3 miles each way. There's a small cabin foundation about 2.2 miles up. It's right near where the trail heads into a narrower section of the canyon, right after the trail makes a brief descent.

Otherwise, this trail is pretty steep and full of switchbacks. It's also pretty shadeless, so you don't want to do this hike in high summer.

You reach a saddle about 1/10th of a mile form the top of Jones Peak. At the saddle, you go right to get to the top of Jones Peak.

If you had, instead, gone left, you'd have a trail heading up towards Hastings Peak. If you continue up that route (really, a firebreak), you'd reach the Mt. Wilson Toll Road in about a mile. The picture here is looking north from Jones Peak, with the fire break crossing from right to left, and Mt. Wilson in the background.

Also, just as you start going up the path towards Hastings Peak, there's another trail, which heads down and to your right, towards the Mt. Wilson Trail. It intersects with that one just after First Water.

From Jones Peak looking south, Santa Anita racetrack is down and a bit to your left. Looking east, Mt. San Antonio (Baldy), San Gorgonio and the Santa Ana mountains were easy, looking left to right.

Total mileage for the day was just 6.6 miles.