Slide Mountain Lookout

Angeles National Forest, CA Los Padres + Santa Monica Mountains

Trip stats

Distance
10.9 mi
Net Gain
2,600 ft
Time
4-6 hrs
YDS Rating
Class 1
Route
Out/Back
Peaks
1

Ratings out of 10

Effort
4.1/10
Personality
5/10
Beauty
6/10
Solitude
3.2/10
What do these mean? →

Peaks on this hike

Summits listed in route order

  1. Slide Mountain
    4,631′ elevation · 631′ prominence

Route map + Trailhead

Trailhead Coordinates

34.616340, -118.743620

The directions link below drops a pin on the trailhead coordinates and lets Google Maps pick the route. If the drive has rough roads or access issues that GPS nav might get wrong, I cover that in my trip report.

Get directions (opens Google Maps in a new tab)

Trip report

May 1, 2023 — Slide Mountain Lookout is a peak with a fire tower at its summit and an excellent trail leading the entire way up. It has nice views down toward Pyramid Lake and into the Los Padres National Forest to the south. Google will try to navigate you to an illegal road in order to reach the trailhead, so instead navigate to this exit from Interstate 5 (34.56909, -118.68874) and then follow the old paved road to the trailhead. The trailhead is located at the Frenchman's Flat Day Use Area, a day use fee or pass required.

The first few miles of hiking is along a closed-off section of road (the old highway before I-5 was made). It's still used by workers to access the Pyramid Lake Dam, but hikers can't drive to the start of the trail. Piru Creek was flowing next to us as we walked, and nobody else seemed to be hiking the peak today. Austin commented he felt like we were in a post-apocalyptic world due to the cracked pavement along the road as we headed through Piru Gorge. After about 1.6 miles we located the start of the Slide Mountain Lookout Trail on the left, the dilapidated remains of an old road marked by a closed gate. We started up, the road winding around the slope at a fairly gradual grade for a few miles. The views down into Piru Gorge improved and Pyramid Lake came into view. Portions of this section traveled through trees, while the majority was through chaparral.

The road narrows into singletrack about 1.5 miles after leaving the old abandoned highway, and wildflowers hugged our legs as we continued ascending. One big switchback along the slopes and we were on the southeast ridge of Slide Mountain. The views south became amazing into the Sespe Wilderness, Lake Piru seen in the distance. We continued along the trail, which followed the ridge for a while. To keep the trail grade a more reasonable angle, it was built to switchback away from the steepening crest. Here we got views down toward Pyramid Lake. The trail then wraps around the southern slope of Slide Mountain before spiraling up and around to the fire tower on the summit. Our views were obscured by low-hanging clouds, but we managed to get down before the rain hit.

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Photos

23 photos

  1. The trailhead.
  2. A bit over a mile and a half along this old road.
  3. The start of the Slide Mountain Trail, marked by a white gate.
  4. View back as we ascend the Slide Mountain Trail, which begins as an old road.
  5. Progress to the ridge seen above.
  6. Another shot back, Pyramid Lake seen on the left.
  7. The road is sometimes a little overgrown, but not enough to be annoying.
  8. View back.
  9. The road eventually becomes a singletrack trail. The trail makes one big switchback in order to reach the ridgeline seen above.
  10. View back along the singletrack.
  11. Pretty wildflowers along the way.
  12. View back along the Slide Mountain Trail.
  13. Nearing the ridge crest.
  14. At the ridge, view south.
  15. Continuing along the ridge, Slide Mountain seen ahead in the clouds.
  16. View back, gorgeous scenery.
  17. The trail wraps around the ridge crest to keep the grade more low-angle. Slide Mountain seen above.
  18. Wider shot of the ridge past Slide Mountain.
  19. Another shot back before the trail wraps to the north side of the peak.
  20. On the north side, view down to Pyramid Lake.
  21. View back along the crest.
  22. The trail then spirals around the south, then west side of Slide Mountain. We had only clouds, but were happy we got views lower down.
  23. Slide Mountain Lookout fire tower at the summit.

Photo 1 of 1

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Hire or refer me as a web developer, or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so it's funded by yours truly. It also takes a ton of work to edit photos and write these reports. I really appreciate it!

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GPX track

Slide Mountain Lookout GPX route and driving track

The complete GPX track is available to download, so you can load the route straight into your navigation app or device. The trip report, route info, photos and planning details stay free.

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