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HIKE 13

Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons

Location: Simi Hills (east of Thousand Oaks)

Highlights: Classic green or golden California grassland dotted with oaks

Distance: 10 miles (loop)

Total Elevation Gain/Loss: 1,200'/1,200'

Hiking Time: 5 hours

Optional Maps: Trails Illustrated Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or USGS 7.5-minute Calabasas

Best Times: October–June

Agency: SMMNRA

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous

Trail Use: Suitable for mountain biking, dogs allowed

The Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons park site, a unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, serves as an important wildlife corridor between the interior Transverse Ranges in the north and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south. Self-propelled travelers by the thousands have discovered the place, but there’s plenty of room for visitors to spread out. The long, leisurely loop route described here visits the two canyons, both surprisingly serene and pristine despite extensive suburban development in the surrounding region. Deer, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits, owls, and various birds of prey can be spotted in both canyons, especially in the early morning.

Valley oak

Without question, the period between the emergence of tender green grass (December or January) and the shift from green to gold (April or May) is the very best time to visit Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons. July through September brings midday temperatures in the 90s, making this area unpleasant for all but perhaps mountain bikers, who may enjoy the benefit of evaporative cooling if they move fast enough.

To Reach the Trailhead: From US 101 at Exit 35 in Agoura Hills, take the Chesebro (sic) Road exit, go north about 200 yards on what is signed Palo Comado Canyon Road, then turn right on Chesebro Road. Drive 0.7 mile north to the main entrance to the Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons site, on the right. Gates to the trailhead parking lot swing open at 8 a.m.—often earlier on weekends, when volunteers sometimes staff a National Park Service information booth here. A fenced trail into Cheeseboro Canyon bypasses the parking area, and hikers, bikers, and equestrians use it even when the gates are shut. Be aware that soggy trail conditions may close the park.

Description: From the trailhead parking lot, follow the wide Cheeseboro Canyon Trail, which goes briefly east and then bends north up along the wide, nearly flat canyon floor. Stay on the broad main path; disregard narrow trails branching off either side. Two kinds of oak trees dominate the Cheeseboro landscape: evergreen coast live oaks cluster along the canyon bottoms, and deciduous valley oaks, widely spaced, strike statuesque poses in the meadows and on the hillsides. It looks like typical California cattle-grazing land, and indeed it was for a period of about 150 years. Now that the cattle have been removed, oak seedlings are taking root in increasing numbers, and native spring wildflowers are returning to the hillsides, creating splashes of color across the grassy hillsides.

At 1.6 miles on Cheeseboro Canyon Trail, near the Palo Comado Connector joining from the west, you come upon a pleasant trailside picnic area. Stay on the main, wide trail going north through the canyon bottom. At 3.0 miles you pass Sulphur Springs. Let your nose be your guide for locating the springs. There’s not much to see—mere seeps if they are flowing at all.

As you continue, the oaks clustering along the canyon bottom thin out, and you can gaze upward, to your right, at the whitish sedimentary outcrop known as the Baleen Wall. The trail narrows and becomes rocky in places. At 4.1 miles, reach a T-junction at Shepherds Flat. Pause here for a picnic, perhaps, before resuming your trip.

From the corral continue west on the narrow Sheep Corral Trail through the brush. This is a segment of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, a 1,200-mile trail commemorating the Spanish captain’s famed 1775 expedition leading 240 people across the desert to found San Francisco. You pass over a saddle and briefly descend to meet the graded-dirt Palo Comado Canyon Trail (5.2 miles). Turn left now, and commence a short mile of crooked descent on the wide dirt road. You look down on a lovely tapestry of canyon-bottom woods and slopes adorned with dense patches of chaparral and sandstone outcrops. Soon you are amid those woods, which are mostly live oaks and sycamores. The going is easy for another 2 miles as you proceed almost imperceptibly downhill along the canyon bottom.

At 8.2 miles, there’s a forced left turn out of the canyon (off-limits private land lies ahead) and onto the Palo Comado Connector. You meander uphill and across two minor canyons for 1.0 mile to a rounded ridge, where you meet the Modelo Trail on the right. It and the Modelo Spur Trail are the most expeditious route back to the trailhead.