Verdugo Mountain Brand Park Canyon Hike

Getting There

Take the San Fernando Exit where I-5 and the 134 freeways intersect.  Take San Fernando Road toward Burbank.  Quickly turn right after about 3 lights on Grandview Blvd.  Take it all the way straight up to Brand Park and park in the upper parking lot near Brand Library.  The hike begins from the parking lot.

Route Description

This hike is approximately 5 miles long, up and back, with a gain of a little over 2,000 feet, 2,060 by my altimeter watch.  It is not on trail.  It is extremely advisable to have long sleeves and pants, poles and water (it is hot, as it is south facing).  I have done it in 2.5 hours.  Figure 60% of your time going up and 40% to return.  One doing this hike should be comfortable with a small amount of bushwhacking and have the confidence to proceed by following geography up and down a ridge.  No permit is required.

The hike begins in the parking lot at Brand Park to the left of the library, starting at a short maintained trail marked with a cross right next to the road.  Follow it a minute or so to the water tower where there is a three way split.  Take the middle, paved trail (the left trail goes down into the wash, the right goes up a different, popular trail).  In a very short distance, maybe a minute, you will pass a reservoir, and then wind down a road left.  You will come to an offshoot gravel road which you will take toward Brand Cemetery (there is a sign at the offshoot).  Take this offshoot which becomes a trail and passes Brand Cemetery (there is a visible obelisk inside the fenced cemetery).  Go up this trail a little bit and you will see a ruined building on the left made of cinder blocks.  Keep going past this structure and follow the creek up at a right turn (the creek has been to the right since coming up from Brand Cemetery).  You will now start encountering some fallen trees and the like, but it is not too hard to navigate.  Just keep going up the canyon and soon you will see some very old stone stairs with severely overgrown brush.  You are to be moving up the canyon on the left.  The turn off point to what I consider the start of the real hike will be just shy of the first damn, up over a stone wall on the left with some old decayed stone stairs, and over a fallen tree.  Here is a picture leading up to the starting point:  

Remember, the starting point is just below the first damn, and very close to 3 tall palm trees that presently are highly visible.  You can see the palm trees in the following picture (in the bottom left hand quarter of the picture) which was taken from a vantage point on up the hill, where you can also see the obelisk at Brand Cemetery with magnification (look at about the middle of the following picture, about 20% from the right border).  

If you are on pace to do this hike in 2.5 hours, the turn off point beginning what I have called the real hike will be anywhere from 7-13 minutes from your car, depending upon how fast you start out.

Once you make this turn off, the rest of the hike will not follow any trail, unless you consider an overgrown use trail from the 2005 Harvard fire or a drainage wash a trail.  I have personally noticed that this trail has become much more overgrown as time goes by.  Hopefully more people will start doing this hike to help keep some of the growth in check.  The basic strategy of the hike, in a nutshell, is to follow ridgelines up to the old Brand Road, a 2000 ft. elevation gain from the parking lot, then cross over that overgrown road and proceed up a hill, to its top, then to the left, until an obvious and small plateau is gained where one has an approximate 360° view.  So, at any time, one just has to keep this perspective and, even if no use trail is visible (which happens now and again), keep proceeding up.  It will pay off nicely in the end.

Getting back to the trip route, once you make the turn off, there is a small use trail that proceeds somewhat up through some small tree like bushes and to the right, until a small hill is gained.  Here is an early picture on this route:

Once this is done, a drainage wash trail up a ridgeline to the left is obvious.  Here is a picture looking up this “path”:

This hill is probably the toughest portion of this hike.  It is not fast.  It is steep in places, and crumbly, requiring planned foot placement.  I always use poles.  (Once a friend of mine did this hike without poles and with poor shoes, meaning shoes that did not grip loose crumbly dirt well, and I had to push him portions of this hill.)  It reminds me of traveling up the first bump on the south ridge heading up to Iron Mountain after Allison Saddle, and this really is like a small section of that hike.  That is what you will be dealing with.  Also, this too is a South ridge, which means sun exposure.  Luckily this is a much smaller gain until you reach the top.  Here is a picture looking at this hill from across the canyon (not a part of this trail)(note also the three palm trees, again, at the bottom lower left part of the picture):

Once you have reached the top of this initial, challenging, hill, you have completed 1/3 of the hike in terms of time to get to the top.  You will turn right and then proceed along a plateau until you start up another hill.  However, remember where you turned right.  If you look across the valley here you should see the top of some excavation and roads leading down the other side.  If you miss this turn off on your way back (it is presently marked with a small cairn) and keep proceeding down the ridge you will eventually end up in a messy situation with cactus and coming into private property, unless you return and go back up the hill to find this turn.  This is picture of the view you will see at this return point:

The next third of the hike going uphill will eventually bring you atop a hill, from which you can start to see the real summit to which you are heading.  Before you reach this point, there will be several small hills.  Some portions of this section will again involve steep, crumbly up-hill slopes.  Just keep your eye on the ridge and proceed up.  Also, don’t worry if you lose the use trail; just keep going and eventually you will regain it, although some small bushwhacking may be required.  I have posted a picture to give some idea of how this section looks.  This section of the hike proceeds along the ridge line between Brand and Childs Canyons.  Here are some pictures along this segment:

 

The last third of the up-hill hike will involve going up more hills and through some small tree patches where no trail is visible.  Keep going. You will come to a steep area with a turn heading up left that will pass a very large rock that is suitable for stopping, should you wish such a stop.  (I call this rock “lunch rock” because my group, which included my then young children, stopped at this rock for lunch the first time I did this hike many years ago.  It is the only rock of its kind on this hike, so it makes a good landmark.)  Once you are above lunch rock, there is not too much further to go.  You will come out onto a plain sloping upward and then the plain will turn flat and you will come up to the abandoned, overgrown road.  But be sure to remember and look around where you came up to this plain so you do not miss it on the return trip.  After you reach the old road, keep going up the hill across the road.  It is not too much further, and this hill is fun.  You have to work your way up it and then start to angle right to an obvious point.  Once you reach this point, you will head left (West) up some gentle inclines looking toward the towers on Verdugo Peak still in the distance.  You will then shortly hit a small plateau with panoramic views which the topo map shows as being above 2960 ft. in elevation.  You will know it when you reach it.  You can look west and see Verdugo  Mountain.  You can look east, and down, toward the towers that one sees from the Glendale Freeway, and also toward Pasadena.  You can look North and clearly see Mt. Lukens and North Glendale, including Montrose.  You can look south and see downtown Glendale and Los Angeles.  And, on a clear day, I have seen Catalina.  It is really quite an amazing view and hike, especially since it is probably only 2.5 miles or so to this point from the parking lot, and Brand Park is so readily accessible to major freeways.  Here are some pictures from this point:

Long pants and sleeves; water; poles.

This trail can be hiked all year, although it gets very hot in the summer, which suggests an early or late start.