Two landmarks along the trail: Balancing Rock, which lives up to its name, and Chamberlin Rock, also known as Split Rock because you can walk inside its walls. Waycott likens the rocky landscape to sculptures worthy of an art gallery. Yep, volcanoes erupted millions of years ago and left much of what you see on this route. Spoiler alert: The peak isn’t made of sandstone but rather volcanic igneous rock. The Mishe Mokwa takes you to Sandstone Peak at 3,111 feet. This is one of the most dramatic parts of the Backbone Trail, placing you at the highest point in the mountain range with views in all directions. One-way distance: 8.3 miles, 4,500 feet of gain/loss strenuous After three miles, you approach the Overlook Fire Road at the top, where you’re about as far from the hum of the city as you can get. Look for sagebrush, buckwheat, ceanothus, monkey flowers and coastal sage scrub, the only place on the Backbone Trail where these plants thrive. The higher you get the more you see - first the Channel Islands and then, inland, jagged Boney Ridge. “Exactly where you are standing, Indigenous people have been living for tens of thousands of years,” Waycott tells hikers. The native Californians traded food and tools with others, used shell beads as currency, and often paddled to the Channel Islands. It rises from Pacific Coast Highway and climbs gradually above the coast and into the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains where Chumash villages once stood. The western end of the trail starts at its wildest part. One-way distance: 8 miles, 1,975 feet of gain/loss easy Start: Ray Miller Trailhead, west of Malibu in Ventura County
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