Mount Waterman Trail • Hike • California • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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Jun 11 2025

DixieFlyer

Guides 99
Routes 1,485
Photos 16,072
Triplogs 1,375

male

Joined Jan 07 2017
Fountain Hills,

Waterman Mountain and Sierra Pelona, CA

Hiking		Jun 11 2025
		DixieFlyer • Triplogs 1,375

Hiking	9.05 Miles	1,621 AEG

Hiking	9.05 Miles	4 Hrs 11 Mns	2.36 mph
	1,621 ft AEG	21 Mns Break

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Mount Waterman Trail

Waterman Mountain Trail

Sierra Pelona

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Route Recorded on Route Scout | Pop | Map | Popup | MapDEX

On this day I hiked to two different peaks, with each one being a P1K peak in LA County:
1) Waterman Mountain (elevation of 8,039 feet and prominence of 1,397 feet)
2) Sierra Pelona (elevation of 5,225 feet and prominence of 1,864 feet)

Note that Waterman Mountain has a couple of variant names: Lady Waterman Mountain and Mount Waterman. However, the BGN lists the official name as "Waterman Mountain", so that is what I have used (https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz- ... ary/255859)

Waterman Mountain
(6.34 miles with 1,285 feet of AEG)
Waterman Mountain is in the San Gabriel Mountains. It was originally called Lady Waterman Mountain, being named for Liz Waterman, who along with her husband Bob made a traverse of the San Gabriels from the LA Basin to the desert and back in 1889. She was believed to be the first white woman to make the traverse, so the peak was named in her honor. When the USGS mapped the area the "Lady" was inadvertently dropped from the name. Bob Waterman tried to get the error corrected, but to no avail.

I did a loop hike CCW. The ascent was mostly on roads, while the descent was on a trail. The entire hike was through mixed conifers with some nice views, so this was an enjoyable hike. There were some nice wildflowers, including some lupine that was every bit of 6 feet tall.

Sierra Pelona
(2.71 miles with 236 feet of AEG)
Sierra Pelona is a ridge in the Traverse Ranges of Southern California. The ridge is bordered on the north by the San Andreas Fault and is within the Angeles National Forest.

The hike was mostly a drive-up. I drove up on the ridge on a narrow paved road. It was steep in places but I believe that a decent sedan could make the drive. I could have driven almost to the summit, but decided to park and walk a bit. I did not get there until early afternoon, and the temperature was in the low 90's. Fortunately there was a decent breeze blowing.

I walked on the road to the high point of the ridge, at a spot for the Odell BM that is shown on topo maps. There was not a standard benchmark there; instead there was a cylindrical road about one inch in diameter that was driven into a rock outcropping.

There were some nice views up on the ridge, but this is not a hike that most people would want to do unless you are wanting to tag P1K peaks. On the way to the high point, I almost stepped on what I believe is a Great Basin gopher snake, which was the most exciting part of the hike.

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Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there

May 19 2013

slegal

Guides 77
Routes 106
Photos 2,987
Triplogs 57

63 male

Joined Jan 27 2007
Thousand Oaks, C

Mount Waterman Trail

Los Angeles, CA

Mount Waterman Trail

Los Angeles, CA

Hiking		May 19 2013
		slegal • Triplogs 57

Hiking	7.00 Miles	1,239 AEG

Hiking	7.00 Miles	4 Hrs	1.75 mph
	1,239 ft AEG

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My son and I hiked Mt. Waterman today. He graduates from high school next month and I know that there won’t be many more opportunities for me to do things like this with him once he heads off to college, so I cherished the opportunity to head up to the mountains with him.

It’s been 4 years since I last hiked Mt Waterman. Two months after my last hike up there, the Station Fire which burned 336,020 acres, broke out and closed access to the area for two years. We drove through much of the devastation before arriving at the trailhead. We encouraged when just 5 miles from the trailhead we started seeing mostly unburned forest. It wasn’t until we got high up on Mt. Waterman that we realized how much damage the fire had caused.

The hike itself isn’t that difficult. It’s just great for us low land Southern Californians to be able to drive just over an hour and be able to hike up to the 8,000 foot elevation.

I knew that the Station Fire had burned up to the western slopes of Mt. Waterman, based on the fire maps to I had viewed several years ago. Most of our route is on the eastern and northern slopes. However, when we reached the summit we saw many more burned tress than expected. In fact, as we headed east down the southern ridgeline of Mt Waterman we continued to see many burned trees.

All in all Mt. Waterman is in great shape considering how many of the surrounding mountains have been scorched bare of all tree cover.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Giant Redwood Manzanita Snow Plant Sugar pine Western Wallflower

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Cliff Chipmunk

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Mount San Antonio Mount Wilson Twin Peaks

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WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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