Las Flores

CHAPTER TEN

Crossing Las Flores Canyon

Publicist George Wharton James inspects the newly graded section of the Alpine Division of the railway leading from Echo Mountain toward Mount Lowe and Crystal Springs where the Alpine Tavern was to be located.

This division of the railway crosses the face of Las Flores Canyon, which is laterally the broadest canyon along the foothills of Altadena. The terrain is rugged, unattractive, hot, covered with harsh dry brush most of the year, and is otherwise characterized by the decomposed granite which comprises the hills of the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Along the Las Flores we come upon the third in a series of nicknamed bridges. This one to the right is called High Bridge, for obvious reasons. It traverses one of the deepest crevasses of the Alpine Division, and is rivaled only by the Macpherson chasm on the Incline side. Note a couple of abandoned footings under the bridge. These are the original rock pilings of Lowe's construction. Sometime after which the railway was acquired by Huntington and the Pacific Electric RR, concrete pilings were poured to provide a more stable piering.1 These double sets of footings can be seen along the entire right-of-way. see map

What most characterizes this leg of the Mount Lowe Railway are its curves and bridges. Some 138 curves, some 22 bridges and trestles helped the tiny trolleys negotiate the craggy faces of the canyons as they make their way along a three and one half mile trek to the tavern.

In the photo to the right we can see the top of High Bridge. These photos come from the Pacific Electric era as can be seen by the style of car and by the fact that the trestle ties on the bridge have been filled with gravel ballast, possibly to make walking along the bridge easier for all. Many people who couldn't afford to ride the train would hike along the rails

Looking back across Las Flores Canyon shows a hard scar from the grading. The White City is very visible from here too. This scar was visible from the valley for years and is a prominent feature in many photographs taken in its direction. The brushy hillside and erosion have all but reclaimed the harsh cut and only those who know where to look can point out the foot trail that it is reduced to toda

The right-of-way traverses the canyon for about 8/10 mile before arriving at the cape of Good Hope, seen in the photo to the left. It marks the transition of the right-of-way from Las Flores Canyon (the greener part) to Millard Canyon (the bluer part.) A white flag marks the tip of the point more than likely used as a land marker for photographers who shoot down the hillsides.

The arrows denote the right-of-way's four cuts and the directions in which the train travels toward Mt. Lowe. What is indicated is that the railway travels deep into Millard Canyon, comes back out to the face and then goes back in one last time. see map

1. In the first few years that the Pacific ElectricRailway owned the Mount Lowe Railway, they had performed several structural upgrades the more important of which were obviously the replacement of the trestle piers. Though Lowe's design has the river rock appeal enjoyed in the architectural styles of the Craftsman movement, PE's reinforced concrete applied a little more assurance to the support of a railway which had yet a lot of use to be seen. This would include larger cars with larger loads. It is equally important to note that the quality of mortars prior to 1900, as used in the case of Lowe's rock piers, deteriorate more quickly than those of later years. This is evidenced in many of the brick buildings which still stand after 100 years. At the same time it is interesting to see that both sets of these piers are still standing in their original places on these hillsides respectively over these past 110 and 100 years, despite rains, earthquakes, natural erosoin and landslides.