East Fork Road, located in the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Tr ...

above the city of

Azusa, California Azusa (Tongva language, Tongva: ''Asuksa-nga'') is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located 20 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles. ...

, is a road that gives access from State Route 39 into East Fork and other small

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

s, including Camp Williams, and Julius Klein Conservation Fire Camp 19, a minor offender prisoner housing complex where "LACO fire personnel provide training, which prepares inmates to safely conduct wild land firefighting operations." The road begins at Route 39, passing over the San Gabriel River, and follows the east fork of the river, crossing a number of small streams. The terminus i
Heaton Flats
which has a campsite, a toilet facility, and trails that lead upstream and to the summit of Iron Mountain, above. Along East Fork Road there are extensive

fire-fighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typicall ...

facilities which are staged to combat the many fires that break out among the foothills above Azusa, Glendora, and San Dimas every year. The road is located within the

Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the United States Forest Service, U.S. Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County in southern Calif ...

and is managed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. The United States Forest Service states that all mining operations, including

gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...

, are illegal along the East Fork; however, as mining and prospecting are a historic relic of California's heritage, enforcement of the mining laws is infrequent and gold panning continues along this stretch of the road (which offers easy access to the river). Some of the sites of the area's mining heritage can be accessed from the road by visiting the site of "

Eldoradoville Eldoradoville was a gold mining town in Los Angeles County, located in the San Gabriel Mountains. Established in 1859, after gold had been discovered in the river in 1855, Eldoradoville at its peak population had three stores and six saloons. It ...

", a mining town with three stores and six saloons that was established in 1859 and washed away in the flood of January 18, 1862. East Fork Road was initially planned as an outlet from the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Area to State Route 2 and includes a "

Bridge to Nowhere A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken, incomplete, or unconnected to any roads. If it is an overpass or an interchange, the term overpass to nowhere or interchange to nowhere may be used respectively. There are f ...

" that was abandoned after a

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

; a later plan included two never-used tunnels on the aborted Shoemaker Canyon Road. In January 2005 a flood washed out two bridges, which stranded 200 campers and residents for days."200 stranded residents to get food delivery" Marianne Love. Pasadena Star - News. Pasadena, Calif.: Jan 13, 2005

Road Remains

Parts of the old destroyed sections of the East Fork roadway can still be found as one hikes from Heaton Flats and heads generally East along the riverbed. Sections of destroyed bridge supports give hikers clues as to where the roadway used to be located; however, extensive sections of the asphalt-covered road still exist and lead up to Laurel Gulch and the John Seals Bridge, which is located just before one enters the

Sheep Mountain Wilderness Sheep Mountain Wilderness is a wilderness area of within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and managed by the Angeles National Forest. It is within Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County, southern California. The U.S. Congress ...

. Once inside the designated wilderness the above-ground and still-visible sections of the old destroyed length of the East Fork Road become fewer and fewer until eventually there are no more sections to be found.

References

External links

San Diego Reader The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in the county of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a ...

Visit the "Bridge to Nowhere," deep in a roadless section of Angeles National Forest

Follows Camp, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
{{Coord, 34, 14, 3, N, 117, 48, 5, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title San Gabriel Mountains Streets in Los Angeles County, California