backbone trail: sandstone peak trailhead to camp danielson

wesweswes · Post by **wesweswes** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:26 pm

Was eyeballing the openings/closures for trails and saw the ventura county side of the santa monicas is open during the week, so decided to see what what I could find out there. Settled on hiking to camp danielson, starting out at the sandstone peak trailhead near circle X ranch. Looked like a promising area, and somewhat novel since it's smack dab in the middle of a 16 mi roadless stretch of the backbone trail.
The parking lots are closed currently, but plenty of parking on the side of the road, and quite a few cars there. We ran into a few parties on the trail itself, but it's pretty wide on the more travelled stretch, making it easy to avoid getting close to others. Once we departed the main trail after sandstone peak, we headed west along the backbone trail past the intimidating boney bluff climbing crag, through a neat little creek area, and then down the west side of the range, following a ridge down to another creek drainage (this one pretty lush). Lots of oaks and sycamores, and quite soothing with the sound of running water. Camp danielson itself was replete with oaks and had some benches (and parrots!). Narry a person in sight since we had departed the sandstone peak loop, though on our way back out, we did run into a lone cyclist doing one of the fire roads. Coming back up towards sandstone was certainly a leg buster, and I'm still recovering! I snapped some pics of the more interesting looking rock walls out there, fantasizing about coming back with a trad rack and doing some first ascents, though if the rock quality nearby is any idication, it's probably pretty loose and sketchy.

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:53 am

Very nice. The climb to Sandstone out of Danielson ain't no joke. I like the Chamberlain Trail. Doesn't see much action.

Post by **dima** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:36 am

Nice. What's the rock-castle-looking thing? Is that Boney Peak?

David R · Post by **David R** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:03 pm

The way I like to do this area is to start from Satwiwa go up the West Ridge which puts you just north of Tri-Peaks. Skip over to Tr-Peaks and then jog down Chamberlain Trail to Ranch and back up Sycamore Canyon.

wesweswes · Post by **wesweswes** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:36 pm

Dima, I think that is the south face of Tri Peaks or something in that general direction. Looks tantalizing to climb...

Post by **Sean** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 5:58 pm

I did my first 30-miler in that area. The ocean views are great. Isn't there a dome around there? Thanks for the report!

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:12 am

Sean wrote: Isn't there a dome around there?

Big Dome.
https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=13495

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:43 am

I did the entire backbone series in 2016 with a group. I love this area, I have been wantting to go back Thanks for the report. Nice pics.

JerryN · Post by **JerryN** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:46 pm

That castle looking thing should be the southwest end of the boney ridge massif. The canyon going down is blue canyon, it was dissed in the backbone trail guide, but I think it is really cool (and remote). I thought the NPS closed the backbone trail and it was only trails controlled by Ventura County that were open. Seems like it you found that not to be the case Wes

wesweswes · Post by **wesweswes** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:01 pm

Thanks for the info... I'm going to look up those up.

The ventura county side of things out there is open on weekdays, including the backbone. They did close off the parking lots at the trailheads, but you can still legally park on the side of the road.

JerryN · Post by **JerryN** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:27 am

that's good to know.

wesweswes · Post by **wesweswes** » Thu May 07, 2020 9:40 am

Hey Jerry, I made it back out in that direction on a bike ride the other day and saw that the state park entrances to the area, such as from mugu are indeed closed. But if you go to camp danielson from the mishe mokwa trailhead it's all legal, and that probably explains why we barely saw anyone on the hike.

Forgot the stats for it when I posted the TR:
lollipop hike, going boney trail to blue canyon trail to sycamore canyon fire road to old boney and back
17mi, 4000ft elevation change

JerryN · Post by **JerryN** » Thu May 07, 2020 4:51 pm

very nice. A strange thing, they are not closed in Ventura, but closed in Los Angeles -- I made it into a couple of parks that way. I think the trails are opening up tomorrow.