Date Hiked: March 5, 2026
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Hiked from Lost Valley Camp to Escondido camp. From lost valley to Fish camp the trail is sometimes brushy and sometimes has fallen logs on it but is not hard to hike or follow. Both Lost Valley camp and Fish camp are pretty nice spots. East of Fish camp the trail is much more faint with the trail hard to find after you cross the creek. Head north and once you hit the marshy spot you'll see the trail ascending to the east. The trail can be faint and there is much brush that I did some work trimming. The waterfall is pretty gorgeous. As you near the saddle the trail gets worse but east of the saddle the trail is easier to follow as it descends a south facing slope covered in flowers. The trail gets hard again as you reach the riparian corridor that drains into Arroyo Seco. East of Arroyo Seco the trail is pretty easy minus a few spots with exposure.
Lost Valley Trail
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casperp123
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: December 12, 2025
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Hiked from Santa Lucia Memorial Park to Lost Valley Camp. Hiking up from Arroyo Seco over the ridge was pretty difficult with a lot of bushwacking with a few washed out sections. Down from the ridge into Lost Valley was also fairly difficult requiring frequent use of my GPS to find the trail. First time doing this trail so it is doable but have a GPS and be prepared for bruised shins.
Gorgeous area and well worth it. Very cold at night, however.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Hiked from Santa Lucia Memorial Park to Lost Valley Camp. Hiking up from Arroyo Seco over the ridge was pretty difficult with a lot of bushwacking with a few washed out sections. Down from the ridge into Lost Valley was also fairly difficult requiring frequent use of my GPS to find the trail. First time doing this trail so it is doable but have a GPS and be prepared for bruised shins.
Gorgeous area and well worth it. Very cold at night, however.
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Matt16
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: November 24, 2025
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
This trail was pretty overgrown. The section from aroyo seco river to fish camp was pretty rough. A lot of dead falls and poison oak. The trail can be hard to follow at times
Lost valley was beautiful but there was evidence of wild pigs in the area.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
This trail was pretty overgrown. The section from aroyo seco river to fish camp was pretty rough. A lot of dead falls and poison oak. The trail can be hard to follow at times
Lost valley was beautiful but there was evidence of wild pigs in the area.
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dougmajor
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: July 5, 2025
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
An update over the 4th of July weekend.
I had a few hours, so I worked on the more bushed over trail entrance as you leave Escandito Camp. The spring area is well cleared and flowing nicely. So well that it bypasses the old access pipe.
This part was a push through; many ribbons marked the way. The track was enlarged so that the way is evident, and the removal of poison oak was the goal. Now, this part is cleared (not up to Betsy's standards!) to the more exposed, less brushy section as it goes around the point to the first waterfall/trickle drainage. More work will be needed to keep the trail passable beyond the river.
There were three camps in use at Escandito, and all were filled at the Indians' camp. Took a group of kids down from Roosevelt Creek, which stopped flowing 3 weeks ago, down to the impressive waterfall cave. The Arroyo Seco's water is always warm compared to any other flowing rivers, and we spotted a lot of fish as well as water snakes. Met some travelers from Germany, who were going over the boulders and were amazed at the solitude and beauty. Keep the Arroyo Seco Wild!
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
An update over the 4th of July weekend.
I had a few hours, so I worked on the more bushed over trail entrance as you leave Escandito Camp. The spring area is well cleared and flowing nicely. So well that it bypasses the old access pipe.
This part was a push through; many ribbons marked the way. The track was enlarged so that the way is evident, and the removal of poison oak was the goal. Now, this part is cleared (not up to Betsy's standards!) to the more exposed, less brushy section as it goes around the point to the first waterfall/trickle drainage. More work will be needed to keep the trail passable beyond the river.
There were three camps in use at Escandito, and all were filled at the Indians' camp. Took a group of kids down from Roosevelt Creek, which stopped flowing 3 weeks ago, down to the impressive waterfall cave. The Arroyo Seco's water is always warm compared to any other flowing rivers, and we spotted a lot of fish as well as water snakes. Met some travelers from Germany, who were going over the boulders and were amazed at the solitude and beauty. Keep the Arroyo Seco Wild!
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: May 24, 2025
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Traveled from Escondido Campground to Lost Valley Camp. The trail is overgrown with Chamise, deer weed, ceanothus, scrub oak and POISON OAK that is 5ft+ tall. Lost the trail on several occasions. Little to no water between the Arroyo Seco river crossing and Lost Valley Creek. The trail improved to "Passable" after Fish Camp. Great new sign at the Lost Valley Trail and Lost Valley Connector Trail junction. After the jct, headed down into Lost Valley, trail is in decent shape, some bushwhacking. Trail through the meadows, wear gaiters or tall boots with pants lots of burs/stickers. Water flowing in the creek next to Lost Valley Camp.
Found a green foam sleeping pad on the Lost Valley Trail, probably got pulled off while navigating the thick vegetation. Packed it out.
Odd observation, didn't encounter any ticks on the trail.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Traveled from Escondido Campground to Lost Valley Camp. The trail is overgrown with Chamise, deer weed, ceanothus, scrub oak and POISON OAK that is 5ft+ tall. Lost the trail on several occasions. Little to no water between the Arroyo Seco river crossing and Lost Valley Creek. The trail improved to "Passable" after Fish Camp. Great new sign at the Lost Valley Trail and Lost Valley Connector Trail junction. After the jct, headed down into Lost Valley, trail is in decent shape, some bushwhacking. Trail through the meadows, wear gaiters or tall boots with pants lots of burs/stickers. Water flowing in the creek next to Lost Valley Camp.
Found a green foam sleeping pad on the Lost Valley Trail, probably got pulled off while navigating the thick vegetation. Packed it out.
Odd observation, didn't encounter any ticks on the trail.
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Jim Ringland
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Sat May 07, 2011 12:02 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: April 26, 2025
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
I only walked a short section, from the Marble Peak Trail junction down to the Indian Valley Trail Junction. This mixes meadows -- nicely clear -- with more wooded sections that were a little congested. In some cases, it was just the familiar poison oak or Ceanothus leaning into the trail, but more amusing was a field of chest-high snowberries engulfing the trail at one point. No problem ploughing through them – snowberry is pretty flimsy -- but I had to do it by feel. I couldn’t see my feet. Upper Higgins Creek Falls was running nicely. Do take the time to walk over to the pool at the bottom.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
I only walked a short section, from the Marble Peak Trail junction down to the Indian Valley Trail Junction. This mixes meadows -- nicely clear -- with more wooded sections that were a little congested. In some cases, it was just the familiar poison oak or Ceanothus leaning into the trail, but more amusing was a field of chest-high snowberries engulfing the trail at one point. No problem ploughing through them – snowberry is pretty flimsy -- but I had to do it by feel. I couldn’t see my feet. Upper Higgins Creek Falls was running nicely. Do take the time to walk over to the pool at the bottom.
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tedmerrill
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:37 am
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: April 9, 2025
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Be sure to bring GPS mapping app!
We hiked this trail as part of a loop; we went on this trail from the junction of the Lost Valley Connector east to Escondido Camp.
Much of the way, the vegetation was fierce requiring frequent pushing through, and often difficult to see what we were stepping on; occasionally looking to see what happened to the trail; the going was very slow.
Fortunately there were a number of seasonal water sources along the way.
The one time we really felt lost was after leaving Fish Camp.
From Fish Camp, the trail immediately crosses (to the north) a substantial creek.
Beyond that is the delta of this creek and another creek, and the trail was obliterated.
Our digital map showed us going directly up a very steep hillside with no obvious trail... after wasting a lot of time probing around, we followed the unlikely seeming route from the digital map and after a few minutes found the well established tread of the trail, high up on the hillside.
I've since looked at several digital maps and I doubt that any of them are correct in this area.
In retrospect, perhaps if we had probed to the west we would have found the tread more directly???
If anyone is out that way with some flagging tape, perhaps they could flag the correct route...
Anyway, in spite of it all it was an awesome hike.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
Be sure to bring GPS mapping app!
We hiked this trail as part of a loop; we went on this trail from the junction of the Lost Valley Connector east to Escondido Camp.
Much of the way, the vegetation was fierce requiring frequent pushing through, and often difficult to see what we were stepping on; occasionally looking to see what happened to the trail; the going was very slow.
Fortunately there were a number of seasonal water sources along the way.
The one time we really felt lost was after leaving Fish Camp.
From Fish Camp, the trail immediately crosses (to the north) a substantial creek.
Beyond that is the delta of this creek and another creek, and the trail was obliterated.
Our digital map showed us going directly up a very steep hillside with no obvious trail... after wasting a lot of time probing around, we followed the unlikely seeming route from the digital map and after a few minutes found the well established tread of the trail, high up on the hillside.
I've since looked at several digital maps and I doubt that any of them are correct in this area.
In retrospect, perhaps if we had probed to the west we would have found the tread more directly???
If anyone is out that way with some flagging tape, perhaps they could flag the correct route...
Anyway, in spite of it all it was an awesome hike.
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jacobfr104
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: March 23, 2025
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Hiked this trail from Escondido CG up to Indian Valley camp, at the marble peak junction. Overall this trail is passable; I agree with the current coloring on bigsurtrailmap. The ribbons help where they are, but there are additional places where they would useful.
From Escondido to Lost Valley camp, the trail is generally passable. You'll push through some brush, encounter a couple annoying blowdowns, and occasionally question where exactly the tread is, but it is manageable. As others have commented, the most challenging part here is leading into Fish Camp, where some ribbons would be helpful to guide hikers through the brush near the creek.
From Lost Valley camp until the trail ascends away from Higgins Creek is passable-difficult. The first 1.5 mile stretch of this mostly involves hiking through meadows with inconsistently defined tread (be careful not to mistake the game trails for human trails!). This is fun, easy hiking until you get to a creek or gully choked with brush and realize you have no idea where the trail is supposed to pass through it. Fortunately, these difficult areas are usually marked with ribbons. You might have to look harder for them than you'd hope, and you'll push through some brush, but it's manageable. I agree with Rob that the stretch between lost valley creek and higgins creek involves some backtracking to figure out where the trail should be, and additional ribbons would be helpful here too.
The next ~0.75 miles along Higgins creek are difficult, lots of brush and I struggled to consistently keep the tread. In a drier season you could just walk up the creek, but in March that wasn't appealing! I second Betsy's advice to follow the tracks from bigsurtrailmap.net as both GAIA's standard map and Caltopo's mapbuilder topo have a trace that is not accurate and ascends from the creek earlier than the actual trail does. However, that trace still takes you through a couple spots with some serious bushwacking. I wound up crossing the creek back and forth several times, following whichever side had less brush.
Once the trail ascends from higgins creek, heading towards Pelon Camp, conditions improve to clear-passable, and the smooth hiking continues until the junction with the Marble Peak trail. Tread is sloping in places and the brush isn't wilderness-freeway level, but it's pretty good.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Hiked this trail from Escondido CG up to Indian Valley camp, at the marble peak junction. Overall this trail is passable; I agree with the current coloring on bigsurtrailmap. The ribbons help where they are, but there are additional places where they would useful.
From Escondido to Lost Valley camp, the trail is generally passable. You'll push through some brush, encounter a couple annoying blowdowns, and occasionally question where exactly the tread is, but it is manageable. As others have commented, the most challenging part here is leading into Fish Camp, where some ribbons would be helpful to guide hikers through the brush near the creek.
From Lost Valley camp until the trail ascends away from Higgins Creek is passable-difficult. The first 1.5 mile stretch of this mostly involves hiking through meadows with inconsistently defined tread (be careful not to mistake the game trails for human trails!). This is fun, easy hiking until you get to a creek or gully choked with brush and realize you have no idea where the trail is supposed to pass through it. Fortunately, these difficult areas are usually marked with ribbons. You might have to look harder for them than you'd hope, and you'll push through some brush, but it's manageable. I agree with Rob that the stretch between lost valley creek and higgins creek involves some backtracking to figure out where the trail should be, and additional ribbons would be helpful here too.
The next ~0.75 miles along Higgins creek are difficult, lots of brush and I struggled to consistently keep the tread. In a drier season you could just walk up the creek, but in March that wasn't appealing! I second Betsy's advice to follow the tracks from bigsurtrailmap.net as both GAIA's standard map and Caltopo's mapbuilder topo have a trace that is not accurate and ascends from the creek earlier than the actual trail does. However, that trace still takes you through a couple spots with some serious bushwacking. I wound up crossing the creek back and forth several times, following whichever side had less brush.
Once the trail ascends from higgins creek, heading towards Pelon Camp, conditions improve to clear-passable, and the smooth hiking continues until the junction with the Marble Peak trail. Tread is sloping in places and the brush isn't wilderness-freeway level, but it's pretty good.
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bespus
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: March 4, 2025
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Day hiked from Memorial Park to Lost Valley Camp and back. Did not encounter any “bushwhacking” conditions, thankfully. Plenty of spring brush growth and occasional deadfall, none that required much effort to get around. I averaged about 2.5 miles an hour through this section. With minimal impediment to hiking speed, I believe this warrants a blanket description of Passable/yellow. Ticks were out in great numbers in the morning.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Day hiked from Memorial Park to Lost Valley Camp and back. Did not encounter any “bushwhacking” conditions, thankfully. Plenty of spring brush growth and occasional deadfall, none that required much effort to get around. I averaged about 2.5 miles an hour through this section. With minimal impediment to hiking speed, I believe this warrants a blanket description of Passable/yellow. Ticks were out in great numbers in the morning.
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NGeddes
Re: Lost Valley Trail
Date Hiked: February 15, 2025
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
First time hiking the hiking the Lost Valley Trail from Escondido campground to the junction with Lost Valley Connector, getting down to the river was OK, bit hard to find the trailhead after crossing but there is a cairn. The rest of the trail was in pretty rough shape, there were many downed trees and long overgrown stretches that were difficult to navigate and required some thorough bushwhacking. Strongly recommend GPS as it's easy to get off track in the valleys and more dense brush areas. The trail coming into Fish Camp was very difficult to navigate and we ended up off trail and bushwhacking to get through to the camp. We originally planned to go all the way to Higgins Creek then up to Marble Peak but ended up doing the connector as the bushwhacking took its toll.
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
First time hiking the hiking the Lost Valley Trail from Escondido campground to the junction with Lost Valley Connector, getting down to the river was OK, bit hard to find the trailhead after crossing but there is a cairn. The rest of the trail was in pretty rough shape, there were many downed trees and long overgrown stretches that were difficult to navigate and required some thorough bushwhacking. Strongly recommend GPS as it's easy to get off track in the valleys and more dense brush areas. The trail coming into Fish Camp was very difficult to navigate and we ended up off trail and bushwhacking to get through to the camp. We originally planned to go all the way to Higgins Creek then up to Marble Peak but ended up doing the connector as the bushwhacking took its toll.
