Sunday, June 29, 2025

Cerro Noroestre and Grouse Mountain

Hiked: 6/27/2025
Distance: 5 miles round trip on trail
Summit Elevation: 8291' (Noroestre), 8593' (Grouse)
Elevation Gain: 1650'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.3
Round trip time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 32 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Cerro Noroestre Road
Difficulty: Easy

Continuing east on Cuddy Valley Road, I took the paved Cerro Noroestre (HPS #61) Road and parked just outside the Campo Alto campground. Then, it was a about a 300' walk to a small rise in the forest that was the high point. No register or marks. I dropped down the south slope to catch the single track Mount Pinos trail to Grouse Mountain (HPS #45). The trail was in great shape and descended about 600' to a saddle between Cerro Noroestre and Grouse. I couldn't see the summit of Grouse along the trail since it wasn't on the visible part of the ridge. It was a pleasant walk up through pine forests before intersecting the trail running to Sawmill. A side trail continued up to the Grouse summit, which was just the highest point on the trail as far as I could tell. A couple of small boulder piles made up the summit. No register or marks that I could find. This was another summit with no open views due to large surrounding trees. I took a longer break on Grouse after completing the fourth peak of the day. It was about 11 AM and I had time to press on before facing the soul crusing traffic back through LA. Next up was San Emigdio.
Parking for Cerro Noroestre

Cerro Noroestre high point


This young bird was upside down in distress, but righted itself without assistance.


Grouse Mountain



Grouse summit


No comments:

Post a Comment