Brown Mountain Road

Dogs Unknown

Features Birding · River/Creek · Views · Wildlife

Watch for mountain bikers, especially between the Brown Mountain saddle and El Prieto.

You can access the Brown Mountain road by parking at Millard Campground and heading past the campgrounds and up the obvious dirt road, or by parking on the East side of JPL in the parking lot on Windsor Avenue. From here, follow the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail for about a mile, then stay right and take either the Fern Truck Trail or El Prieto until it joins with Brown Mountain.

Brown Mountain fire road contours along Brown Mountain, providing views of Pasadena and LA. Although it's never too steep, it gains considerable elevation. Overall it feels quite remote for how close it is to the city and makes a nice connector between other trails in the area. Past the Brown Mountain saddle (where the trail meets with Fern Truck Trail), the terrain gets a bit rougher and after a few miles, it ends on a ridge.

The Ken Burton Trail connects this point to the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail, making a nice loop back towards JPL.