Horse Flats Bouldering

bouldering, botany, wildlife, and more

Horse Flats offers excellent granite bouldering in the San Gabriel mountains north of Los Angeles. It’s located on Mt. Hillyer, and is named for the nearby Horse Flats campground. An Adventure pass or National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Pass is required to stop there if you want to avoid a ticket.

Most of the problems at Horse Flats are included in the guides listed under “Guidebooks” below, but a few areas haven’t been covered (or covered in depth) in any printed guides yet. I’m working on topos for these areas--so far, there are tops for the Pie Slice, Titanium Man, and Far Side areas.

New! AFCTrailMap brings Tom Harrison Maps’ Angeles Front Country Trail Map to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Also check out SMMPlants is an iPod Touch/iPhone guide to plants of the Santa Monica mountains, and includes many of the wildflowers and shrubs you’ll see at Horse Flats.
This site is under development--check back soon for more photos and information!

Photo Tour - Photos of many of the problems at Horse Flats. Not a complete guide, but helpful for recognizing problems, getting motivated, or gleaning beta.
Teflon President - just outside the campground, home to several classic B1s and the Gymnasium traverse
Main Area - Highest concentration of problems.
Barndoor Arete/Orange Flambe Areas - Must-do problems in this area include Barndoor Arete, Glitter Gulch, and Orange Flambe
The Far Side (with topo) - Rarely visited, but with several quality lines
High Chaparral - A lonely outlier with three hard problems and two harder projects
The Pie Slice (with topo) This pillar offers one bolted and 2 TR routes, plus a handful of standout problems.
Titanium Man (with topo)- Beyond the Pie Slice, this secluded area has a dozen or so problems and great views
Plants - Photos of some of the plants you’ll see at Horse Flats
Landscapes and Wildlife - Some of the views and critters you might encounter here.
Videos - Just a test here now, but I’ll add some for those times when you really need beta.
Feedback - You can leave questions or comments at this blog.

Guidebooks

Craig Fry’s Southern California Bouldering covers the classic problems and is easy to get your hands on. This is a great guide covering many areas throughout SoCal, but it was last updated in 1995 and doesn’t include the newer problems at Horse Flats.
James March, who put up many problems at Horse Flats in the mid to late 1990s, wrote an article and guide for Rock & Ice issue #90.
Five Star Bouldering (Joan Bertini, Paisley Close, Charles Newell) is a more recent guide covering Horse Flats, the Tramway, Black Mountain, and Culp Valley. Basically includes the two guides above, with plenty of photos for orienting yourself. Doesn’t cover the Far Side, High Chaparral, TR Wall, Pie Slice, or Titanium Man areas.
Wills Young’s Escape to LA in Climbing #174 included some information on newer (for the time) routes at Horse Flats.

Online Resources
The Mountain Project’s Horse Flats page also has information on bouldering here. Check it out and submit any new problems or other information there.
The UCLA Towercam on Mt Wilson is a good way to see the weather in the mountains. This site has prompted me bail out of work early several times. The camera is often pointed at Mt. Waterman. Horse Flats is just to the left of Waterman, on the skyline.
The Chilao weather station, operated by the California Department of Water Resources, has hourly temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind, and other data collected at nearby Chilao.
Mt. Wilson forecast from Weather Underground
Angeles National Forest website. Check here for forest and road closures due to fire, season, and other conditions.
Tom Chester has a plant guide to the Mt. Hillyer Trail, starting at the west end of the trail (where it meets Santa Clara Divide Road, past the Horse Flats campground). I used his guide to get species names for many of the plants on the Plants page.
SMMPlants is an iPod Touch/iPhone guide to plants of the Santa Monica mountains, and includes many of the wildflowers and shrubs you’ll see at Horse Flats.
Dan Simpson’s Mount Hillyer via Horse Flat hiking page
Roy van de Hoek’s compilation of Terry Vaughan’s 1954 “Mammals of the San Gabriel Mountains of California” is a list (but no photos) of mammals found in the San Gabriels.

Thanks for visiting--I hope you find this site useful, or at least entertaining!
Questions or comments? Click here.

Apple, the Apple logo, and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc.