Backbone Trail
Point Mugu to Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica Mtns · near Malibu · Los Angeles / SoCal
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- thru-hike
- Distance
- 67 miles
- Elevation gain
- 15,000 ft
- Time needed
- multi-day
- Best season
- Late fall–spring · NOT a summer route — long waterless, shadeless chaparral stretches
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No thru-hike permit, but there are no established through-camps; most people section it or reserve the sparse State Park trail camps (La Jolla Valley, Musch, Circle X area). Dogs barred on most of the route (State Park/NPS land).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- 67-mi National Recreation Trail spanning the whole range · Ocean-to-ridge variety · Links Sandstone Peak / Boney Mtn high country · Point Mugu to the Pacific Palisades
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Almost nobody camps it straight through — plan it as shuttled day sections, or reserve the sparse State Park trail camps in advance and cache water. Go east-to-west to finish at the ocean.
The guide
The Backbone is the marquee long-haul of greater LA — 67 miles of ridge and canyon connecting the wild Boney Mountain high coun…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Backbone Trail — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.08625, -119.03676