(Partially Closed, due to trail damage) La Jolla Valley Trail Camps Loop(edit)

Overview

This is a difficult loop trail to La Jolla Valley Trail Camps in Pt Mugu State park in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

This trail goes by Mugu Peak

Getting Started

The initial part of this hike the La Jolla Canyon trail is closed as of 2015 because of heavy rains and a fire preceding it. There are no estimates when this part of the trail will reopen. There is no easy work around.You can either start on Ray Miller do the trail backward and turn around at some point. Or you can continue out to the Mugu Peak area and down the Chumash trail to the Pacific Coast Highway, but you'd be several miles from your starting point.

There is a parking lot for the the La Jolla Canyon and Ray Miller trails. The day use fee is $8: http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/737/files/Current_web_day%20use.pdf, however you can park on the Pacific Coast Highway for free (but very carefully read the parking control signs).

There used to be restrooms at the trail head however the fire destroyed it.

Dogs are not allowed on the trail: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=630

The trail starts with a climb up the La Jolla Canyon trail which is a climb through a canyon up to the La Jolla Valley plain. Take the La Jolla Vally Loop Trail to the Mugu Peak trail to the Chumash trail to the La Jolla Valley Loop trail to the Overloop trail and then finish with the Ray Miller trail back to the La Jolla parking lot. When in the plain it mostly just brown grassy area that is mostly flat. When you are near the ocean you will have a view of the ocean from about 1,000 feet. Otherwise you'll views of the plain the hills and surrounding mountains. In the plains there a lots of crisscrossing trails and not necessarily a lot of great signage so having the GPS with a downloaded map, or printed map would be helpful. Once you are to the Overlook part of the hike you will have views of Sycamore Canyon and the mountains on the other side. The final trail is Ray Miller which is a set of switchbacks which wind down to the parking lot. The trail can be extremely windy at this point, also it can be very foggy depending on the weather. Because of the elevation drop on the switchbacks hiking poles might be beneficial. Although Ray Miller is a good quality single track trail.

Taking Children

Because this is a long hike, without facilities preparation is required with children. Most of the hike is pretty easy. The hardest parts are La Jolla Canyon climbing in and Ray Miller ending.