North Arroyo Seco Trail

The Arroyo Seco is a familiar river that runs through Pasadena, practically through my late grandfather’s backyard. I spent years driving past it without ever stopping. This weekend, I finally brought my family for a visit.

There are a lot of different spots along the river where you can hike. After some investigation, this seemed like the best place to bring our four-year-old as we worked on getting him interested in hiking. The hikes we choose need to be simple, accessible, and not overly challenging. He will be on my shoulders for some portion of the hike, accompanied by my photo gear.

This trail follows the northern part of the golf course and the riverbed, up toward a dam and two very large bridges: the 210 freeway and Oak Grove Drive.

I would describe it as a popular trail, but not overly crowded. We passed—and were passed by—many people, but we were not bumping shoulders or squeezing past anyone at any point.

We saw a lot of coast live oaks, toyon, lemonade berry, golden currant, laurel sumac, and some willow down by the riverbed.

There was an impressive amount of golden currant, and we planned to return in a couple of months to see whether it had fruited.

It was a little tricky finding the right spot. We found a small parking lot across the street from a golf course, just north of the Rose Bowl.

Once we parked, we were not quite sure where to go to reach the trail. We ended up going uphill on a paved path surrounded by oak trees, wild roses, and a sizable ceanothus. At the top, we realized we were just on the neighborhood walking path, so we went back and took a side trail along the hill.

That side path had opuntia, datura not yet in bloom, sunflowers, and more oak trees. It was short but interesting as it wound around the hill. At the end, we found the crossing to the actual trail. It was fun exploring that little micro-trail, but in the future we would simply take the street to the trailhead.

Native plants observed included coast live oak, toyon, lemonade berry, golden currant, laurel sumac, willow, wild rose, ceanothus, opuntia, datura, and sunflowers.

The riparian vegetation becomes more apparent closer to the riverbed, while oak trees and chaparral shrubs occur along the higher parts of the route.

We chose this trail specifically because it seemed simple, accessible, and not overly challenging for our four-year-old.

The main trail worked well for a family hike. The narrow hillside side path we accidentally took was different: it had a steep drop toward the street, so I held my son’s hand for most of that section.

The route from the parking lot is not immediately obvious. The small lot is across from the golf course, just north of the Rose Bowl. From there, the most direct approach is to use the street to reach the actual trail crossing rather than climbing the paved neighborhood path.

Invasive plants observed included wild radish, dwarf nettle, and castor bean. Avoid touching dwarf nettle.