River Emerging from the Wilderness
Upper San Gabriel
Long and challenging, especially along with the rest of the San Gabriel Trail.
This is the upper third of the San Gabriel River, where it first emerges from the Angeles National Forest (which is where the West Fork of the San Gabriel is, but that’s way further north than this). The northernmost end of the trail The northernmost portion of this bike path recently had a mile or so added, reaching to a new housing trace. South of that is the well-developed recreation area around the Santa Fe Dam. Here you’ll find picnic areas, sports fields, and all the facilities you’d expect. (Parking is $6.)
Thos. Guide pp 568, 597, 598, 637.
Current weather conditions (click for full weather report):
This is the upper third of the San Gabriel River, where it first emerges from the Angeles National Forest (which is where the West Fork of the San Gabriel is, but that’s way further north than this). 
The northernmost portion of this bike path recently had a mile or so added, reaching to a new housing trace. South of that is the well-developed recreation area around the Santa Fe Dam. Here you’ll find picnic areas, sports fields, and all the facilities you’d expect. (Parking is $6.)
Above: Sand, scrub, and desolate beauty. And watch out for flash floods.
Left: The charming little Historical Museum, just off the bike path, in Duarte. (See Duarte Bike Trail.)
Below the park area is the Santa Fe Dam itself; a high, wide, bike highway. Negotiate a few turns down the south face of the dam, and then follow the river (and the 605
Fwy) downstream about 6 miles to the even better developed Whittier Narrows Dam Recreation Area. (See Legg Lake.)
Above: top of the dam. Right: Looking down from the top of the Santa Fe Dam, southward toward Whittier. (See Mid San Gabriel Trail.)
There is a nice lake, with snow covered mountains in the distance.
The San Gabriel Recreation Area Park may not be lush and jungly enough for some tastes, but it does have quite a few serene and lovely spots to relax. The ducks seem to enjoy it.
A nature walk, and relics of bygone days add a bit of interest to what basically seems to be old abandoned property.
- Be sure to check out Dan Slater’s stunning photos of the San Gabriel River Trail, Upper and Lower, on his Southern California Bicycle Paths web site.
I bike the Duarte Bike Trail beginning at Buena Vista Rd. and Orange St. all the way to the end, at Vineyard approx 2.8 miles and then take Royal Oaks on the street until I hit Encanto Parkway. I see bikers coming off the San Gabriel Bike Trail but I don’t see where they get on, where the entrance is. I’ve tried to find a detailed map of the upper San Gabriel bike trail that would give me entry and exit points as I don’t want to ride the full 38 miles and I can’t seem to find anything like that. Are there any detailed maps out there for the San Gabriel River Bike Trail?
entrances are on sante fe dam wall and at the top of azusa ave just befor the canyon mouth
does anyone know the length of these trails that go around the dam and up the river towards the canyons
There is also a trailhead on Todd ave. & Sierra madre blvd. in Azusa.
From the entrance To the trail at the bottom of Arrow Highway to the end at San Gabriel Canyon Rd. Is 8 miles long.
Took the trail from the beginning from Azusa all the way down to the beach. The entire thing took us 5 hours but we were not totally in the proper gear. First, the entire path is paved so speed or road bikes are more appropriate. We had mountain bikes and that made the journey really hard. Second, although by laws of physics we should have been going downhill the entire time, (from the mountain down to the beach) but it felt that the entire time we were on the flat road and sometime even going uphill. This was really tiring. I think maybe the wind was against us and made it feel that way.
Found a nice parking lot near the top of the trailhead, where the housing tracts end near the mouth of the canyon. The parking lot was full of bicyclists. I had my two young sons with me. In the past few weeks we have hit just about every bike path path east of the Arroyo Seco path. I would not recommend this path for extremely young children. Unlike the Duarte trail and the Arroyo Seco (which are too short for serious bikers to get a good workout) this path had a lot of fast bikers coming south from the top. Could be dangerous for them and for any children or riders who are unstable or not paying attention. We only rode down to the 210 and back (about 5-6 miles total) but I plan to come back and ride faster/longer down this path. It’s really beautiful and well maintained.
Okay so my wife and I have started up this trail a few times from the south end, we live in Long Beach. I have heard a fabled public transit route back if we were to start from Long Beach and end in Azusa, but all routes seem full of interconnects and stops… Google says the route on public transit takes 3 hours, and we could probably just bike back in that time. Any thoughts? How can we get from Azusa to LBC with public transit? I’d love to do this route completely but doing a biking round trip might be too intense… Thanks!