Proposed expedition inquiry: Pacoima reservoir from the back door?
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2023 12:50 pm
Greetings....This is a route I've wanted to try for a while, but am hesitant from a trespassing perspective, so curious if anyone here has experience, and if its attainable, or if there might be a better route.
Would love to stand on the shores of the Pacoima Reservoir - its the nearest body of water in the mountains to where I live, and I've hiked all around it without ever actually getting to it. Plus old episodes of Zorro were filmed there, which is cool.
With this goal in mind, it seem to me the best way to achieve this would be to start on Little Tujunga Canyon Rd at a big turnout, and follow the Pacoima Wash downstream through what seems to be called Maple Canyon(?) around the North Side of Kagel Mt to where it enters the top end of the reservoir. It looks very navigable on Google Earth, and only a couple miles.
Proposed route. You will notice the reservoir level is a lot higher on Cal Topo than Google Earth with imagery during the drought where I created the .kml file!!
Concerns:
• At this beautiful turnout / starting point on little Tujunga Canyon Rd there are a bunch of obnoxious No Trespassing signs last I checked, (boooo) but is it just my hopelessly optimistic imagination or do they kind of refer to going upstream, when the proposed route would be going down?
street view of this turnout, you can't seem them really in this screenshot but there are some no trespassing signs. They look amateurish, and seem focused on going upstream, but I (generally) treat no trespassing signs with respect..... you just never know how legit they really are.
• Would I encounter LADWP or similar water management reservoir access denial obstruction signage or worse at some point in the canyon that would really force me to turn around? I know reservoirs can be carefully protected like that....
Anyone with experience around this neck of the woods? Or with any reservoir bagging in the Gabes?
Would love to stand on the shores of the Pacoima Reservoir - its the nearest body of water in the mountains to where I live, and I've hiked all around it without ever actually getting to it. Plus old episodes of Zorro were filmed there, which is cool.
With this goal in mind, it seem to me the best way to achieve this would be to start on Little Tujunga Canyon Rd at a big turnout, and follow the Pacoima Wash downstream through what seems to be called Maple Canyon(?) around the North Side of Kagel Mt to where it enters the top end of the reservoir. It looks very navigable on Google Earth, and only a couple miles.
Proposed route. You will notice the reservoir level is a lot higher on Cal Topo than Google Earth with imagery during the drought where I created the .kml file!!
Concerns:
• At this beautiful turnout / starting point on little Tujunga Canyon Rd there are a bunch of obnoxious No Trespassing signs last I checked, (boooo) but is it just my hopelessly optimistic imagination or do they kind of refer to going upstream, when the proposed route would be going down?
street view of this turnout, you can't seem them really in this screenshot but there are some no trespassing signs. They look amateurish, and seem focused on going upstream, but I (generally) treat no trespassing signs with respect..... you just never know how legit they really are.
• Would I encounter LADWP or similar water management reservoir access denial obstruction signage or worse at some point in the canyon that would really force me to turn around? I know reservoirs can be carefully protected like that....
Anyone with experience around this neck of the woods? Or with any reservoir bagging in the Gabes?
Do you know if you can reach the reservoir without walking past any posted or no trespassing signage?