backbone trail: sandstone peak trailhead to camp danielson
Posted: 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.
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.