Mount Pinos & Frazier Park
Los Padres (Grapevine) · near Frazier Park · Los Angeles / SoCal
Gravel & Bikepacking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- advanced
- Best season
- Late spring–fall (snowbound in winter)
What is here
- Terrain
- mountain
- Amenities
- Highest Los Padres peak (Mt Pinos) · Remote high pine-and-fir forest · Frazier Park base · Forest campgrounds & dark skies
- Best for
- Remote high-country riding above the Grapevine
- Features
- Near 9,000-ft Mount Pinos · Remote high forest roads · Dark-sky stargazing · Cool escape above the desert
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- High altitude, thin air · Remote, limited water/services · Rough forest roads · Winter snow, fire closures
- Good for a first timer
- No
Gravel & Bikepacking detail
- Ride types
- day-gravel · adventure
- Surface
- rough
- Remoteness
- 3
- Riding
- Remote, high forest-road riding around the tallest peak in Los Padres — rough roads through pine and fir near 9,000 ft, cool solitude above the Grapevine and desert edge
- Terrain note
- 5,000–8,800 ft; rough remote forest roads; thin air; snow up high in winter
- Camping
- Yes
- Intl tip
- Mount Pinos (nearly 8,850 ft — the highest peak in Los Padres NF) rises above the I-5 Grapevine: a cool, remote, pine-and-fir high country where valley, mountains, and desert meet. Rough forest roads around Pinos and little Frazier Park offer big climbs, deep solitude, and some of SoCal's darkest skies (great stargazing). Real altitude: thin air, rough roads, limited water, snow-free late spring–fall. Forest campgrounds. An overlooked, lofty, wild escape.
- Trip lengths
- day
The guide
Mount Pinos, at nearly 8,850 feet the highest peak in the Los Padres National Forest, presides over a remote, high, pine-and-fi…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mount Pinos & Frazier Park — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.82, -118.94