Cucamonga Peak Trail #7W04

Dogs Leashed

Features Views · Waterfall

The San Sevaine Road is only open to vehicles from after Labor Day to March 1. Call the Lytle Creek Ranger Station (909-382-2851) for current road and trail conditions and wilderness permit availability. High clearance vehicles strongly recommended.

Adventure Pass required to park at the Icehouse Canyon Trailhead. Lot fills early on weekends.

You can access the eastern trailhead via the San Sevaine Road #1N34. There is a small pull-off with space for a handful of cars, but there's not an official parking lot. You can also access this trail from the Icehouse Canyon Trail #7W07A (from the West), where you'll meet the Cucamonga Peak Trail at Icehouse Saddle.

The most popular section of the trail is from Icehouse Saddle to the high point where there is a junction with the Cucamonga Peak Spur that leads to the summit. The trail goes around the east side of Bighorn Peak in a nicely forested section then reaches a saddle with good views in one mile. From there, it steeply switchbacks another mile up the north side of the peak to the trail junction.

The section of trail from the Joe Elliot Tree Memorial on the San Sevaine Road to the high point is less frequently used due to the difficulty of getting to the trailhead on a long dirt road with summer closure. Trail condition may be poor in places and hard to find. It is not maintained. But this section offers some of the best uncrowded running in the Cucamonga Wilderness.

During this run you'll have plenty of time to look around at the views, as much of the trail follows the top of a ridgeline. Gaining the ridge is the most difficult part of the trail, and you'll pick up about 2,000 ft. of elevation along the way. The grade is consistent on the way to Cucamonga Peak, but you'll drop elevation quickly on the way down.

From the summit, visitors have two options: they can descend the route that they just took up, or they can drop down the other side of the peak, which leads to another parking lot. This is only recommended if you've already arranged a shuttle, or if a car is waiting at both trailheads.

High alpine forest of Jeffrey pines, sugar pines, lodgepole pines and white fir. Manzanita, buckthorn and chinquapin are common groundcovers. Watch for bighorn sheep.