Hiking the Verdugo Mountains via the Beaudry Motorway Loop Near Los Angeles CA

To celebrate the end of 2013 I decided to hit the trail in an area I don’t typically hike that much, Los Angeles and the Verdugos. I frequent the San Gabriel’s but don’t typically make my way that far east of the Inland Empire to areas north of LA. I picked this hike on a recommendations from East / West Hike and SoCal Hiker and on a day that I had off and enough time to drive out there decided to hit the trail.

Getting there is pretty easy, while being a decent drive from where I live, it was mostly freeways and the trail head is just off a residential street with plenty of parking. You almost don’t even feel like you are heading out on a hike as its practically in the middle of suburbia but you quickly leave the paved road, pass a gate and head up on to a fire road, the Beaudry Motorway North.

We headed up the trail with our trusty trail dog Hermione (its a dog friendly trail) and really only passed a handful of people which was nice. We climbed the fire road which snakes up to the ridge line, along the way you catch views of Glendale, Pasadena and the San Gabriel’s. As we followed the fire road along the ridge, you start to get some great views of downtown LA, Santa Monica and the ocean, just great views north of LA. As we continued on the trail some of the peaks are marked with radio antennas and when you reach the tallest mountain on the hike you start to wind down to via Beaudry Motorway South back towards the trail head.

This was a great hike, even with the drive I was happy to be able to explore a new area and find a great area to hike in. It was short and had a great trail (fire road) which made it easy to follow, I can only imagine what hiking this at night would be like.

My biggest regret of the day is that it was a pretty hazy day in Southern California, even with the haze I could see downtown LA, Santa Monica and the ocean but I can only imagine how beautiful it is on a clear day, it must be amazing.

Beaudry Motorway Loop at EveryTrail