Fall Color Aspen Grove Hike

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:27 am

Well, it's fall in the San Gorgonio Wilderness -- time for an annual rite of passage, a fall color hike to Aspen Grove.

First, I'll need some important supplies. Like a good friend.

And for an arduous trip like this I'll need some hard core hiking companions.

The first Aspens!

Welcome to YOUR national forest.

Walking in the upper grove.

Discovering important treasures.

And taking in the fall color

Along the trail

Still in the upper grove

Stopping in the lower grove

Rich colors!

Autumnal gold

A fall picnic

Satisfied customers

Well, it's starting to get a little cold

So it's time to hit the trail.

But not before we take one last look at Aspen Grove as the sun goes down behind the ridge.

Bye, bye!

HJ

longcut · Post by **longcut** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:20 am

i dont think i had any local fall color hikes, thanks Jim for the idea! good TR, some very nice pics in there. Cute kiddo too.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:30 am

longcut wrote: ↑i dont think i had any local fall color hikes, thanks Jim for the idea! good TR, some very nice pics in there. Cute kiddo too.

Aspen Grove is a good one for local fall color. Icehouse Canyon is another one. There's some fall color along the West Fork of the San Gabriel river. I'm sure there are other good spots out there that others can recommend.

HJ

JEFFSCOF · Post by **JEFFSCOF** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:51 am

Jim thanks for posting those pics. I have gone 3 years in a row but missed out this year. Man your kid is cute. Hopefully we'll run into each other soon in the San G!

Yeti

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:39 am

Hey, Jeff,

This was just this past weekend, so there's still time if you've got an opening in your calendar.

Thanks for the comments on my little one. She's a love. You've got a pretty cute little munchkin in your household too.

HJ

mangus7175 · Post by **mangus7175** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:20 pm

Nice TR and what a beautiful girl. I love taking the kids with me when camping. I have yet to take my 5 year old backpacking though...I have to get her interested in that first. Here she is on one of our random trips up the San G's

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:11 pm

Nice! Where was that taken?

HJ

mangus7175 · Post by **mangus7175** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:32 pm

Coldbrook campgrounds this past July

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:32 pm

Beautiful tradition, Jim!

I'd like a hiking coat and hat just like Joyce's!

Suppose i could find that in the Nordstrom/REI winter catalog???

Dave G · Post by **Dave G** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:12 am

The "Bye-bye" pic is priceless!

I saw Kathy W's TR from the Aspen Grove a couple of weeks ago and must admit that it's an area of the SGW I've never explored. Which way to the Grove?

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:23 am

mangus7175 wrote: ↑Coldbrook campgrounds this past July

Nice! Is that the one of of Hwy 39?

HJ

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:27 am

norma r wrote: ↑Beautiful tradition, Jim!

Kind of a fun one.

I really get a kick out of it even though I've been to Aspen Grove dozens of times.

norma r wrote: ↑I'd like a hiking coat and hat just like Joyce's! Suppose i could find that in the Nordstrom/REI winter catalog???

We actually get a lot of compliments on that little outfit of Joyce's. My wife likes to dress up our little girl. Daddy has no objection.

I'm not sure if you were seriously asking, but I could look at the label and see where it's from if you were interested. I don't think it's Dylan's style though.

HJ

mangus7175 · Post by **mangus7175** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:42 am

Hikin_Jim wrote: ↑
mangus7175 wrote: ↑Coldbrook campgrounds this past July
Nice! Is that the one of of Hwy 39?

HJ

Yes it is, just right after the Upper Bear Creek trailhead parking lot. I actually took my daughter to Coldbrook a week after I hiked Upper Bear to West Fork...I figured she would like that area because of the running stream.

My only complaint was the trash people left behind. My daughter and I spent about an hour cleaning our site plus the other trash we came across as we explored. Even found some diapers stuffed into tree roots...I guess the people that left it thought it would be good fertilizer for trees

.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:46 am

Dave G wrote: ↑The "Bye-bye" pic is priceless!
I saw Kathy W's TR from the Aspen Grove a couple of weeks ago and must admit that it's an area of the SGW I've never explored. Which way to the Grove?

Isn't that a cute little pic? I get to have a "bye bye" every morning. Joyce tries to get me to take her with me, but once I'm out the door she kind of gets it and just says "bye bye." So sweet.

Aspen Grove is an extremely easy hike, but it can be combined with other things. I think just getting to the grove is maybe a quarter of a mile from where you park your car. I did a really nice hike last year from Aspen Grove up to 10,000' Ridge. For the Hikin' Fools get together last June, Zip, Ellen, Steve, and Fern did something similar (Lake Peak?) while Joyce and I did a less aggressive loop.

Take a look at this map of the area. You would head up 38, go through Barton Flats, past South Fork Campground, and then turn right at point "A" as though going to Heart Bar Campground. Go past the campground and then bear right at the fork in the road (point "B"). The road gets a little rougher at "B." You'll cross a normally dry creek bed at "C" (no big deal) and a little rougher creek bed at "D". Around "D" there is one rough spot that is worse right now than I've seen it in a long time. It was not this bad when I was there in June. My Honda Accord scraped a bit. That's the only really bad spot. The other spots can be navigated around with a standard passenger car if you're careful and take it slow. Eventually you get to a saddle ("E") where there's space to park a dozen or so cars. You can take the marked trail that heads almost due west, but this is seldom used and hard to follow. Most people take the old road that heads first SW and then turns SE to follow the contours upstream and down to Fish Creek. The old road kind of peters out around "F" and you just scramble down the bank and cross the creek. Look for a Wilderness sign on the opposite bank of the creek (point "G"). The Fish Creek Trail (not marked on the topo) starts on the opposite bank at point "G". There are aspens right there in what I call the upper grove. This is a mixed grove but has a lot of nice aspens. The best views are had by taking a right and proceeding downstream through the upper grove to the lower grove. The trail will cross over to the east bank of the creek. The best views of the lower grove are from around point "H". The lower grove is on the west side of the creek, but the trail is on the east side. There are aspens further down stream, but not many. The spot marked on the topo map "ASPEN GROVE" is actually a bit too far down stream. The biggest concentration of aspens is best seen from the vicinity of point "H".

HJ

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:52 pm

Hikin_Jim wrote: ↑We actually get a lot of compliments on that little outfit of Joyce's. My wife likes to dress up our little girl. Daddy has no objection. I'm not sure if you were seriously asking, but I could look at the label and see where it's from if you were interested. I don't think it's Dylan's style though. HJ

Of course you get compliments. Joyce is just too cute and then she's dressed like a little lady. Somehow for me, i don't think a coat like that would hold up when scrambling talus.

I agree with your wife, though. I raised two daughters and it was like playing dolls, but way more fun!

simonov · Post by **simonov** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:11 am

We decided on Saturday to take Bella the dog up to Aspen Grove Sunday morning. We got to the Mill Creek Ranger Station before 7:30am and there were NO PERMITS available, for ANYTHING. Even the Momyer Creek permits were all gone.

WTF? No way would all the Momyer Creek permits be used up.

I figured either you still have nimrods who think you need a separate permit for each individual, or the ranger station only puts out the permits on Friday night and they all get taken the previous day. I dunno. But clearly the permit system is broken if there are NO PERMITS available at 7:30 am on a Sunday in OCTOBER, FFS.

I have never been into the Wilderness without a permit before, but we weren't about to drive back to Costa Mesa. We parked at Aspen Grove trailhead and went into the Wilderness just enough to stroll the length of the aspen grove itself (which isn't very big, really). We got to see more more color than Jim got, I think.

Then we drove down to the South Fork Trailhead and took a hike up to Poopout Hill (which is the Wilderness boundary). It turned out to be a very nice day ALMOST on the San Gorgonio Wilderness.

BTW, we saw very few people on the trails, which was not what we expected given the permits were all gone.

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:48 am

We don't need no stinking permit

Sewellymon · Post by **Sewellymon** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:42 am

Anybody notice how aggressive those volunteer rangers are?

ARM · Post by **ARM** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:51 pm

Jim, that's pretty nice, thanks for sharing! I have not been up to the grove for years, time to go again with my important supplies too!

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:33 am

simonov wrote: ↑We decided on Saturday to take Bella the dog up to Aspen Grove Sunday morning. We got to the Mill Creek Ranger Station before 7:30am and there were NO PERMITS available, for ANYTHING. Even the Momyer Creek permits were all gone.

WTF? No way would all the Momyer Creek permits be used up.

I figured either you still have nimrods who think you need a separate permit for each individual, or the ranger station only puts out the permits on Friday night and they all get taken the previous day. I dunno. But clearly the permit system is broken if there are NO PERMITS available at 7:30 am on a Sunday in OCTOBER, FFS.

I have never been into the Wilderness without a permit before, but we weren't about to drive back to Costa Mesa. We parked at Aspen Grove trailhead and went into the Wilderness just enough to stroll the length of the aspen grove itself (which isn't very big, really). We got to see more more color than Jim got, I think.

Then we drove down to the South Fork Trailhead and took a hike up to Poopout Hill (which is the Wilderness boundary). It turned out to be a very nice day ALMOST on the San Gorgonio Wilderness.

BTW, we saw very few people on the trails, which was not what we expected given the permits were all gone.

Yeah, the permit system is kind of screwy -- especially now that there have been budget cuts and ranger stations are closed more. Not sure what the best way to deal with it is. A computerized system that you signed up for via the internet would be nice, but good luck on the USFS getting something like that together.

There are a number of hikes that one can do that are outside the Wilderness but are very interesting:
1. Wildhorse Camp
2. The Trail to Poopout Hill
3. East Barton Flats -- all kinds of old roads and tracks to explore.
4. Santa Ana River Trail
5. PCT east of the SGW
6. The remains of the old road on the East side of Fish Creek

HJ

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:34 am

ARM wrote: ↑Jim, that's pretty nice, thanks for sharing! I have not been up to the grove for years, time to go again with my important supplies too!

The colors look like they were even better last weekend than the weekend prior when I went. Probably better hit it quick before the leaves fall though -- and definitely grab your "important supplies".

HJ