Backpacking Review #2

Winter Creek Loop to Hoegees Campground

Address: Chantry Flats Rd, Arcadia, CA 91006

For this trip, all of the trails begin at the Chantry Flats picnic area. The image above is the designated backpacking trail. There is a decent sized parking lot, but it fills up fast on the weekends. So unless you don’t mind parking on the main road and having to walk to the entrance, I would recommend going early in the morning. I saw parked cars as far as a mile, it’s a very popular location. The main attraction is the Sturtevant Waterfall, which is about a 3 mile hike and is in the opposite direction of the campground. This area has many intertwining trails, rentable cabins, a few mountain tops (Mount Zion and Wilson), a couple of waterfalls, and multiple campsites.

My friend and I went on a Friday and arrived around 4 pm. There was plenty of parking at that time, but the worker said any overnight stays you have to park in open areas along the main road. The parking lot is for daytime use only, overnight is NOT allowed. All you need is an adventure pass, which they sell at the main convenience store in the picnic area. We bought our annual pass at our local REI for $30 dollars.

From the Chantry Flats entrance, taking the Lower Winter Creek Trail to Hoegees Camp is about a 2 1/2 mile hike. It took us less than 2 hours to get there. Giving us just enough time to sent up our tents and collect firewood. There are 14 campsites to choose from but not all have a campfire pit. If you want to go further to Spruce Grove, that spot is a bit nicer since it’s closer to the river, but there are only 7 campsites.

You can find the interactive map here: https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/hoegees-camp/

Spending the night at Hoegees was amazing, around 10 pm we saw multiple deer stopping by the river behind us, and one even walked through the campground. I found out that deer were nocturnal animals, who knew? Saturday morning, we decided to take the long way home stopping by Mount Zion, Spruce Camp, and Sturtevant Falls. Getting to Zion was much faster than I thought, just a little over an hour.

The view from Mt Zion

From Zion to Spruce was incredibly scenic and much less strenuous than going up the mountain. It was a bit confusing finding the campsite though. When you reach the crossroads leading to Mount Wilson don’t go the opposite way, walk towards the cabins in Sturtevant Camp instead, that will lead you to the correct path. Between Spruce and Sturtevant Falls there is a secluded mini waterfall. The climb down is a bit sketchy, but it was well worth the isolation.

Mini Fall

Sturtevant Fall

Just letting you guys know Medium shrunk the waterfall images. I will be posting these on my Instagram for a better perspective.

Anyway, as you can see the mini fall is much more empty than the main attraction. Taking a dip in the ice cold water was insanely refreshing and was exactly what I needed to finish the rest of the hike. The water was crystal clear and you could see fishes swimming around underneath you. Highly recommend stopping by here on your way back to the Flats from Spruce like we did or if you want to continue hiking past Sturtevant.

The entire round trip is about 10 miles and took us about 6 hours to finish. Great place for beginners (Winter Creek Loop) and experienced backpackers (Hoegees to Spruce through Falls back to Flats). It was in the high 80s, but the entire trail was entirely covered by forest, providing plenty of shade. The only time where the sun beats down on you was when we were climbing Mount Zion. Other than that, there’s tons of drinking water from the river, just make sure to treat it first. We got there late afternoon on Friday and left Saturday at the same time. If you guys decide to go on Saturday go as early as possible. When we left, the parking lot was beyond crowded. Overall, I would definitely come back for a day hike or to camp at Spruce Grove next.

Another epic endeavor in the books! I will be publishing more reviews about future backpacking trips here on Tonic Media. If you guys want to see more photos from my 2nd backpacking trip, I’ll be posting them soon on my Instagram. Check it out!

Stay curious, peace.