Angeles National Forest Closures: Which Trailheads Are Open

Trailhead by trailhead

Status as of October 17, 2026, from the Forest Service page for each site unless noted. "Open" here means the agency lists the site as open. It says nothing about whether the road up is open that morning or whether the lot has space.

Echo Mountain and the Sam Merrill Trail (Altadena): closed. All three Sam Merrill segments, the Echo Mountain Trail and both Mount Lowe trails are on the order's closed list. That covers the climb from Lake Avenue and Loma Alta Drive and the route on to Inspiration Point. Echo Mountain parking guide

Eaton Canyon Natural Area (Pasadena/Altadena): closed by L.A. County. The natural area, nature center and parking lot are county land outside the national forest. The county's park page reads "closed until further notice due to the Eaton Fire" (L.A. County Parks), and its trails alert lists the Eaton Canyon Trail and waterfall closed until December 31, 2027. The canyon above it, inside the forest, is in the federal closure area. Eaton Canyon parking guide

Mount Wilson Toll Road and Henninger Flats: closed. The order closes the toll road below the Mt. Wilson Trail junction and below Henninger Flats, plus the Henninger Flats spur, so the Altadena gate on Pinecrest Drive is not a way in.

Mt. Wilson Trail (Sierra Madre): sources disagree. The order does not list this trail as closed; it forms the closure's eastern edge, and L.A. County's trails alert lists it as reopened by Sierra Madre. The Forest Service's Chantry Flat page, however, lists the "Sierra Madre section of Mt Wilson Trail closed below Upper Winter Creek Trail." Until those agree, call the Sierra Madre Police Department at (626) 355-1414, which the city lists for trail closure information. Mt. Wilson Trail parking guide

Chantry Flat (Big Santa Anita Canyon): open, with a road caveat. The Forest Service lists the picnic area open, day use 6am to 8pm, and names First Water, Sturtevant, the Gabrielino Trail and both Winter Creek trails as open. It asks hikers to stay off the Zion Trail for now, because post-fire flood damage still needs volunteer work. The road up can close for safety even while all of that is open; Sierra Madre controls the gate and L.A. County maintains most of the road (Forest Service). Chantry Flat parking guide

Switzer Picnic Site (Switzer Falls): open. Listed open, day use 6am to 10pm. It sits on the open western stretch of Angeles Crest Highway, well short of the Highway 2 closure (Forest Service). Switzer parking guide

East Fork (Bridge to Nowhere): open. Listed open 24 hours. East Fork Road leaves Highway 39 south of the Crystal Lake closure, so that closure does not block it (Forest Service). East Fork parking guide

Icehouse Canyon (Mt. Baldy): open. Listed open. The free wilderness permit for the Cucamonga Wilderness is still required past the boundary (Forest Service). Icehouse Canyon parking guide

Vincent Gap (Mt. Baden-Powell): approach from Wrightwood. No current Angeles closure order covers the lot, but we did not recheck its own status for this update. Caltrans lists Highway 2 closed from Islip Saddle to Vincent Gulch, so if you go, the way in is from the Big Pines side, not La Cañada. Vincent Gap parking guide

Manker Flats and Devil's Punchbowl: neither appears in a current Angeles closure order. We did not recheck their own status pages for this update; see each guide for its last verified date.

What the Eaton Fire order closes

Forest Order 05-01-26-04 was signed January 6, 2026 and runs from January 7, 2026 through December 31, 2027. It prohibits going onto National Forest land, roads or trails inside the closure area (signed order, PDF; closure map, PDF).

The written boundary starts where the Mt. Wilson Trail meets the forest boundary above Sierra Madre, follows the forest boundary west, climbs the Chaney Trail and Mount Lowe Road (2N50) to the Mt. Wilson Road, runs east along that road to the Winter Creek Trail, and comes back down the Mt. Wilson Trail: the front range above Altadena, between the Chaney Trail and the Mt. Wilson Trail.

Closed roads: Mount Wilson Toll Road below the Mt. Wilson Trail (2N45.2) and below Henninger Flats (2N45.3), and the Henninger Flats road (2N45B0).

Closed trails: Idlehour, Castle Canyon, Sam Merrill lower, middle and upper, Echo Mountain, Mount Lowe West and Mount Lowe (East). The alert page also lists Idlehour and Millard trail camps as affected sites.

Residents reaching private land, officials on duty and holders of a specific Forest Service exemption permit are exempt. Everyone else faces a fine of up to $5,000, up to six months in jail, or both.

An order's end date is a ceiling, not a promise. The Forest Service can lift it early, shrink it or extend it, and when it lapses the trails don't automatically reopen. Watch the Angeles alerts page for a replacement order before planning a 2028 hike here.

Roads and the other Angeles closures

Caltrans road information on the evening of October 17, 2026 (roads.dot.ca.gov, or call 1-800-427-7623):

Highway 2 (Angeles Crest): closed from 3.3 miles east of Newcomb's Ranch to Islip Saddle, and from Islip Saddle to 5.4 miles west of Big Pines at Vincent Gulch, both for emergency repairs. Trailheads west of Newcomb's Ranch, including Switzer, are reached normally from La Cañada.

Highway 39: closed from 2 miles north of Crystal Lake Road to Highway 2, around the clock, for construction.

Three other Forest Service orders were in force when we checked:

Williamson Rock, order 05-01-24-04: closes the Pacific Crest Trail from Highway 2 to the Burkhart Trail, plus the Williamson Rock area, to protect the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog. It runs through December 31, 2026 (alert). If no replacement order appears, check again before assuming it reopened on January 1.

Rincon-Redbox Road (2N24.3), order 05-01-26-13: closed between Pine Mountain Road and Highway 39 after a rock slide, through December 31, 2026. The segment from Angeles Crest Highway to Pine Mountain is reachable with a free permit from the monument district office (alert).

San Dimas Experimental Forest: closed to public recreation because it is a research forest.

Where the official sources disagree

Mt. Wilson Trail from Sierra Madre. Not on the order's closed list, drawn as an open trail on the order's map, and listed as reopened by L.A. County, but listed as closed below Upper Winter Creek on the Forest Service's Chantry Flat page. We have not resolved this and won't guess.

Mt. Wilson itself. The Chantry Flat page says Mt. Wilson "is in the post-Eaton Fire closure area." The order's map draws the closure's eastern edge along the Mt. Wilson Trail and shows the summit outside the hatched area. If the summit is your goal, ask the Los Angeles Gateway District, (818) 899-1900, which route it considers open.

Millard Canyon is not a contradiction once both sources are read: L.A. County says Millard Canyon's trails are open while the campground stays closed, which matches the Forest Service listing Millard Trail Camp as an affected site.

Checking a trailhead yourself

Permission to be there, the road up, and the facility at the end are three separate facts, and each has its own source. For Forest Service land, read the alerts page and the order's map, then the site's own page, which carries an "open" or "closed" line near the top. Highways come from Caltrans. County parks such as Eaton Canyon and Devil's Punchbowl come from L.A. County Parks.

A hiking app marking a trail open is not evidence. Neither is an order disappearing from the alerts page: reopenings are announced, and an expired order is sometimes replaced weeks later.