As a photography workshop presenter for attendees in late July at Trail Fest , the annual meeting of the Pacific Crest Trail Association, I enjoyed the opportunity to travel from Big Bear Lake into the San Gabriel mountains. These mountains rise above the Los Angeles basin in magnificent form. Shaped long ago as fault blocks, they rise to ten thousand feet above Los Angeles to the south, and slope gradually to the Mojave desert to the north, i near the San Andreas fault. Sand, mud, basalt under incredible pressure was metamorphosed to create much of the incredible ancient look and feel of this range. Deep, steep canyons bring down rock debris into the LA basin, leaving wide alluvial fans that east-west freeways cross.
Although close to twenty million people live in this basin, the backside of the range, which the Angeles Crest highway traverses, is nearly empty. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses this lonely highway in a number of places. Hiking portions of the trail was obviously very different from the trails I had hiked in the Sierras and Cascades. The photographic opportunities presented an entirely new landscape, a landscape that has stayed remote from the incessant traffic and people noises of the Los Angeles area.
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| Inspiration Point Vista. Angeles Crest Highway |
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| one end of the trail to Mt Baden Powell |
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| Looking into the canyon of the San Gabriel river |
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| The trail at Islip Saddle |
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| Mt Baden Powell trail |
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| The PCT near Inspiration Point Vista |
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| Canyons near Inspiration Vista |
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