The Mount Lowe trolley system and resort gets a lot of attention - but I've always been interested in the lesser known camps and resorts that were popular during the "Great Hiking Era" at the turn of the century. Before the San Gabriels were National Forest, there were several "attractions" built all throughout the range, by private landowners. Those wealthy enough to take vacations could spend entire seasons hiking from lodge to lodge, restoring their health and sanity in the mountains.
I'm not sure what my particular attraction is to Switzer. It's always been a favorite hike for me. A beautiful shady canyon, with waterfalls and pools, and even great views down canyon. The ruins of the lodge just above Switzer Falls are almost invisible now - just a concrete slab overgrown with ivy. Most people will never notice the stone arches on the cliffside, the remainder of a tiny chapel built with rocks from the canyon itself.
I've put together an album of the photos I've been able to collect over the past few years. Most of them are photo postcards I've found on eBay. Some were found in online library collections.
http://s484.photobucket.com/albums/rr20 ... =slideshow
The original "Switzer Camp" was started in 1884 by Perry Switzer, a carpenter and resident of Pasadena. He apparently made a decent business out of it, taking care of guests until a forest fire came through in 1896. The camp was rebuilt in 1905 and was named Camp Losa-Dena, a mashup of Los Angeles and Altadena. In 1911, it was sold to Lloyd Austin, who renamed it Switzer-Land, and built the chapel above the falls, with rock from the surrounding canyon, and 5 cent donations from visitors.
The chapel held 200 people, had a piano and a bell in the belltower, and from the photos is appears there were beautiful stained glass windows.
Guests could hike from Pasadena, but many came by car up the Arroyo Seco to Oakwilde, and took horses or mules up the trail from there.
Following is an excerpt from Chapter Two of "The Southern Sierras of California",written by Charles Francis Saunders in 1923.
"...At Oak Wylde, six miles within the canyon, the road narrowed to a trail. In the shadowy coves beside the stream tall leopard lilies bloomed and cardinal mimulus; damp cliffs were shingles with the buxom fronds of teh California polypody, and climbing penstemon drooped graceful sprays of scarlet athwart the path. (snip) Zigzagging up the precipitous side of a ridge, the trail brought me by and by to a view that proved the first of a sort that one finds to be characteristic of the southern side of this sierra. Far below foamed the waters of the upper arroyo, plunging in a series of small falls and cascades at the bottom of a deep, narrow gorge, to whose almost perpendicular walls clung a forest of live-oak, big-cone spruce, bay alder, and mountain mahogany, and from that leafy depth rose he thin, reedy notes of wren-tits in happy antiphony. On every side of my ridge rolled and tossed a sea of rounded, billowy summits and jagged crests clothed with an even, green mantle of flowery chapparal. (snip) Southward the mountains sank gradually away to the great valley of San Gabriel, which that day was blurred beneath a gauzy veil of fog. For half an hour I lay in the shadow of a shrub, surrendering myself to the view and the breeze, in a blessed silence unbroken save by the bees among the pompons of the wild buckwheat bloom.
Down from this sunny height the trail dropped me into the shade of the arroyo's gorge again, and so led me to the gateway of a rustic bridge that spanned the stream to a rustic hotel. A sign at the gate pleasantly blended sentiment and practicality:
LEAVE YOUR CARES AND ANIMALS THIS SIDE THE STREAM
TENTS AND COTTAGES FOR HOUSEKEEPING
I crossed and encountered on the hotel porch a youngish-looking, spectacled man, with a bald head and an alert manner. he extended a hand and said briskly: "Glad to see you, friend. Come in in and register. Austin is mine. What's yours?"
This was Switzer's Camp, and lunch was just going on the table."
