Stone Canyon Trail - #StoneCanyonTrail

Socal - Los Angeles County - Tujunga NickNames: #StoneCanyonTrail

Get off the 210 at Sunland, going east. Take a left on
Oro Vista, which becomes Big Tujunga Canyon Road.
Park at the Wildwood Campground site.
Stone Canyon Trail starts from the far east end of the
campground parking. Go 100 yards east of the
pavement, then cross the river (there are plenty of trail
stones except after heavy rain). Then go left another
200 yards until you see a rugged trail on your right with
many loose rocks heading up the east side of the
Stone Canyon wash.
If you want to only bike down Stone Canyon, the top
trailhead is just west of the top of Lukens. When the
Haines Canyon Fire Road makes a u-turn down to the
southeast, Stone Canyon is straight ahead.

5 Review(s)2 Photo(s)Login

• Trail UpdateStone Canyon From Mt Lukens-I rode this downhill on Feb 9, 2014. Trail is in good condition with recent maintenance work. About a dozen short walks are needed to get past washed out sections. One of the steepest descents around. Enjoyed it!
  MarkusM a 53 year old Weekend Warrior

  Posted:02/10/2014

• Trail UpdateFire Damage Fixed-I hiked this trail today to scout it out. Along the way I met a guy named Matt Maxon, who's been working tirelessly to maintain this trail. He's done an excellent job clearing the slides caused by last year's fire and today was out with ax and hoe to clear brush. Thanks Matt. Matt also does work on other trails in the area and runs a site dedicated to them.

  I've gotta ride this one SOON!
  
  SAK a 33 year old Cross-Country Rider riding a Klein Att Comp from Tujunga URL: Trails of the Verdugo Foothills

  Posted:12/06/2003

• Trail UpdateFire Damage-I just returned from looping Stone (Graveyard to
  Haines to Stone, then back down Big Tujunga
  Road) and found that a small fire had burnt out the
  bottom 20% of Stone Canyon trail. Small rock
  slides since the fire have made this part of the trail
  sandy, off-camber and very narrow, in a section
  that was already pretty scary due to exposure. I
  ended up walking about a tenth of a mile.
  Otherwise, the trail is in pretty good shape, a bit
  overgrown and loose for the first 2/10ths of a mile.
  Ride rating: Advanced
  Ride distance: 16 miles Elevation change: 4000'
  Singletrack=25% Dirt Road=50% Paved Path=25%
  LCS a 34 year old Weekend Warrior from LA

  Posted:09/09/2002

• Trail UpdateA Little More Info-As stated by LCS, this an *extremely* difficult trail to access. The climb up Haines cyn fireroad is a nightmare grind, and looping this ride (which is do-able: up haines, down stone, down big T to the baseball fields, up the fireroad adjacent to the fields, down to haines, down haines to your parked car), although under 15 miles total, will unreasonably tax 99% of the good climbers I know (pretty close to 5.5k total climbing). In the summer it is insanely hot and there is no shade anywhere. Carry enough food and water for a 35 mile ride. Expect to get wet crossing the creek at the bottom of Stone.

  Climbing the Stone Cyn. singletrack is not a realistic option- the trail loses about 3300' evevation in 3.5 miles. I had hoped it would be a screamer of a downhill, but while the top half mile is quite rocky and technical, it quickly becomes buffed out, a little off camber, and switches back 36,000 times. In my opinion, there are far more challenging and rewarding rides in the San Gabriels than this one (if you want a similar climb to haines, go to Mt. Wilson Toll rd, if you want a similar DH to Stone, head to Ken Burton or Josephine Saddle).

  My final bit of info is that this trail has been entirely restored and maintained by only *one* very committed volunteer named Matt Maxon. I guess the USFS doesn't have the funds or personnel to maintain the trail. If you do ride Stone be courteous- the trail wouldn't exist if it weren't for his herculean efforts.

  Be the ball.
  
  Ride rating: Advanced
  El Santo

  Posted:04/22/2002

• Trail UpdateStone Canyon Access-Stone Canyon is a great singletrack that gets very little
  use. The reason is that it is tough to access.<
  ce5
  ;br>Going up Stone Canyon is a very steep, technical climb.
  It is about three miles long, with rocky sections at the
  top and bottom, but a fairly smooth and well maintained
  trail for most of the middle 2/3rds. There are few hikers
  and virtually no bikers on the trail.
  Because the uphill is so challenging, a better choice for
  most bikers would be to just descend Stone Canyon,
  using one of the fire roads up Lukens to get to the top of
  the trail. Fire roads that ascend Lukens include Haines
  Canyon in Tujunga (5.5 miles), Earl Canyon in La
  Crescenta (8 miles), and Mt Lukens Rd from the first
  fire station on the Angeles Crest Highway out of La
  Canada (7.5 miles). Unfortunately, none of these fire
  roads make a nice loop with Stone Canyon, meaning
  you will need two cars.
  Another possible loop is to bike up the Grizzly Flat trail,
  which begins just up the road from the end of Stone
  Canyon trail. However, I found this very overgrown and
  too steep to bike for almost a mile.
  Ride rating: Advanced
  Ride distance: 6+ miles Elevation change: 3200 feet
  Singletrack=100%
  LCS a 33 year old Weekend Warrior riding a Cannondale Super V 1000 from Hollywood

  Posted:04/21/2002