Attention fellow trail freaks and nature nerds! We’re once again closing a calendar year and honoring the winter solstice with a group stroll to the highest point of the Santa Monica Mountains - Sandstone Peak.
From hawks to mountain lions, Chumash to Micqanaqa'n, these lands have been lived in and loved among for thousands of years and it is an absolute gift to share this gorgeous trail in community. Last year we gathered with our friend Justin Rimon of Just Trek to guide us along the beloved Mishe Mokwa loop & this year we’ll be doing the same, with our naturalist-in-residence (and Backbone Trail alum) Noah Klein chiming in, to both share care and knowledge of lands and peoples along the way.
The microclimates are in abundance so please come as prepared as can be with plenty of water, warm clothes, a flashlight, and wear very comfortable hiking shoes for our 7-mile day! While it may be sunny and warm in the parking lot it could be windy and drizzling at the peak. There is a bathroom at the trailhead, a google map pin drop for our meeting location will be emailed with your RSVP, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Big love for Justin & the Just Trek community for guiding this one with us once again!! ⛰
Reminder: Check the drive time nice and early and leave room for traffic. We’re on a tight sunset schedule so hope to begin our hike by 1:15p sharp. If you’re feeling antsy in the morning we recommend leaving early and grabbing breakfast somewhere iconic like The Rock Shop.
After living in LA for 15+ years and working deeply within nightlife, dance, and event production, the one thing that Justin Rimon never had time to experience was our great outdoors.
In April of 2017, it was a sunset trek to Sandstone Peak that transformed his life and motivated Justin to work towards building an inclusive and accessible outdoors community. Since then he’s launched a prolific outdoors podcast, has led dozens of hikes throughout Southern California, has completed Mt Baldy more than 20 times along with summiting Mt Whitney, Half Dome, Cactus to Clouds, and has been featured by the LA Times, Parks Project, and Cotopaxi.
He aims to inspire, motivate, and elevate others to a higher state of well being through adventurous conversations and intentional outdoor experiences. Elevation is his new recreation.
Born and raised in the Los Angeles Basin, Noah Klein has built their life exploring the sonic interconnectedness of all beings. Whether plants or people, deep time or shared space, they fundamentally seek to share stories of resilience and self-determination.
A lifelong organizer of many community-minded projects, they co-steward Living Earth, host a seasonal show on dublab, occasionally tour with the band Mutual Benefit, and in 2022 received their California Naturalist certification in 2022. At this moment, they’re probably playing flute in your local park.
As a hiking enthusiast, Noah has summited Mount Whitney, backpacked through much of the Southern California wilderness, and is one of a handful to have thru hiked the entire Santa Monica Mountain Range.
Sandstone Peak is not made of sandstone, but is actually made out of an igneous rock or magmatic rock called andesite. Before the Santa Monica Mountains formed, most of the rock in the area was sedimentary in origin. That is to say they came from the land or the ocean, not from a volcano.
Starting about 24 million years ago during the Oligocene, a geologic epoch, the Farallon Plate, an ancient oceanic plate, began to subduct beneath the North American Plate. This occurs when two tectonic plates meet at convergent boundaries. This process known as subduction was a catalyst in the driving force that created our mountains.
As the volcanoes began to erupt, due to subduction, new land squeezed its way through the existing rock while at the same time uplifting the range to thousands of feet high. You can actually see the different eruption events and ancient lava flows as you make your way up to Sandstone Peak.
Along the Mishe Mokwa Trail (White Man’s Trail) we’ll walk along the gaping chasm of Carlisle Canyon, stop for a long view of Balanced Rock teetering on the opposite cliffside, wander through Split Rock, and really get a feel for the eons of erosion to stretch across our footsteps.
This hike travels through unceded lands of Chumash and Micqanaqa'n peoples. To learn more about the pictographs, trade routes, and stories of these lands we highly encourage visiting the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center.