By This hike is located in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve in West Hills, CA. Although the trails are open year-round, the best time to hike it is spring when the rolling hills are green and wildflowers are blooming.
Here is another hike from February a few years ago. You can see what it looks like in spring after rain. The rest of the year, it makes a great neutral backdrop for photos. Not surprisingly, this location is popular for wedding and engagement photoshoots.
With private trails and unmarked trails, it’s not easy to provide the hiking route. I will leave our route below for anyone who wants to follow this hike.
We began the hike from the Victory Trailhead and hiked the loop clockwise via E Las Virgenes Canyon Trail.
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If you make the loop counterclockwise (start via Hunter Allen Trail), your second half of the hike after Castle Peak will be longer and more challenging than the first portion. I like to do the challenging portion first if I can help it.
No name trails
After 2.2 miles, we came to a fork. I thought this might be the peak ahead with the rock walls and all, but it wasn’t. So I took some photos and continued.
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After 3 miles, we reached Castle Peak.
The last portion of the hike to the top is the steepest climb. If you want to go to the highest point, you will need to climb rocks. The trail ended right after I took this photo. After that, it was all rock climbing.
I didn’t go to the highest point because I felt uneasy with the heights, and to make it more adventurous, not all rocks were stable. Yeah, no thanks. But, some people were standing on rocks to get the best views.
There wasn’t much room to move around. Without getting a panic attack, these were the best pictures of Xena I could get from the peak. Ha! I had to twist my body to take these photos.
When we returned to the loop portion of the hike, we’ve hiked 4 miles so far.
This time, we took the Hunter Allen Trail to complete the loop. This last portion of the hike to the trailhead is 0.8 miles and a gradual uphill.
Good to Know:
- Hike Date: 1.21.21
- Distance: 4.8 miles RT
- Elevation Gain: 1,089 ft.
- Difficulty Level: Moderate-Challenging
- Fee/Permit: None
- Trailhead/Parking: Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (Victory Trailhead)
- Download this route
- Exposed, overgrown, lightly trafficked, bouldering and scrambling
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Happy Hiking!
Hiking Girl with Dog 
Your dog looks like he enjoyed the hike.
Every time! 🙂