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Eaton Canyon Park & Nature Center

Information

Eaton Canyon Park & Nature Center

1750 N Altadena Dr

Pasadena, CA 91107

(626) 398-5420

www.ecnca.org/

Eaton Canyon is a major canyon beginning at the Eaton Saddle near Mount Markham and San Gabriel Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest, USA. Its drainage flows into the Rio Hondo river and then into the Los Angeles River. It is named after Judge Benjamin Eaton, who lived in the Fair Oaks Ranch House in 1865 not far from Eaton Creek.

The most well-known portion of the canyon is the Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena, California. The trailhead of the Mount Wilson Toll Road is in the canyon.

Eaton Canyon Natural Area Park

The Eaton Canyon Natural Area Park is located where the mountain stream debouches into the foothill wash at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The park is administered by the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation. The county administers the lower two-thirds of the area below the toll road bridge. Most of the 190 acres (0.8 km2) that comprises the natural area lie on the northern boundaries of the old Rancho San Pascual and Rancho Santa Anita on land designated for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Once the railroad gave up the land, it was opened for homesteading. The nature center is unique in the area because it houses exhibits that educate on the flora and fauna local to the San Gabriel Valley Southern California. The center was rebuilt in 1998 after the 1993 fire destroyed the previous facility.

Eaton Canyon Falls

The falls are where the Eaton Creek has a fifty foot drop and are located north of the bridge in the part of the canyon administered by the US Forest Service.[12] John Muir once described the waterfall as "a charming little thing, with a low, sweet voice, singing like a bird, as it pours from a notch in a short ledge, some thirty or forty feet into a round mirror-pool."[13] Several waterfalls also exist above the first, which are more secluded and difficult to get to without climbing. Until 1979, there was a tunnel which allowed access, but this has been dynamited and filled in. In order to access the area behind the first fall, one must climb and traverse a sheer rock wall to the left of the falls (nicknamed "Razorback" by the locals) 70 feet above the canyon floor. Another, less difficult manner, is to climb the north wall of the canyon (to the right of the falls) following the former access to the tunnel.