The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 49

AUTOMOBILES AVIATIOK TRAVEL RESORTS HUNTING FISHING Vffid8 3J VOL. LIU SUNDAY MORNING. SEPTEMRER 2 1921 dapt ttt i nin T'fWs 3 The scenic wonders of San Ga- J'. vA 1 i The scenic wonders of San Ga- yiW''-1 A WV CHBKJEl GHMyOA MORRS PAM, rMS-SfyCUr TJ7A briel Canyon, now accessible over a good highway, are visualized here in pictorial form with accu-. rate map of the route drawn by fflgfeiA.

Charles H. Owens. Trip was cntV mae in a new Chevrolet six IV. sec'an urn'se by the Los An-' 4 geles Chevrolet dealers. 1 GOOD HIGHWAY TAPS SAN GABRIEL CANYON Millions Being Spent Throughout A rea tor Roads, Dams and Better Recreational Facilities O.

All, V. ft ft BY LYNN J. ROGERS They have oiled the road up the north fork of the San Gabriel all the way to the ranger station some two miles below the County Playground at Pine Flats. So with the paving completed a year or two ago up the main canyon and the west fork to where the north fork branches, you can drive now, over smooth and dustless road, in high gear virtually all the way, back into the very heart of the Sierra Madres, into country that belonged such a little while ago solely to the hardy few who visited it afoot or with horses and pack burros. only a matter of a few years until the slopes are entirely covered.

Turning into West Fork, the mo torist finds the natural beauty of this branch of the canyon unharmed, and North Fork likewise is little changed. The steep grades of the stage coach days have been si t-A3 tYvs 'in-t "'p- replaced by easy grades and wide sweeping curves. Past the entrance to Coldbrook Camp, the road leaves the canyon and climbs the steep face of the ridge, dips into Soldier Creek, dark with the shade of great pines and oaks that shelter scores of mountain cabins, and climbs again past Headlee's Camp, a lovely little mountain resort in what used to be Ljttle Clenega. A little stream rises in the clenega, and runs past the doors of the cabins. OILED ROAD PART WAY Past Headlee's the oiled road con Ti IT' cowry's v7WiwOi psAirvnrs, tinues some three and one-half miles HPZ- I To really appreciate today's motor Journey it Is necessary to go back twenty-five years ago.

At that time you took the Santa Fe local to Azusa, climbed oft there and found the Follows Camp stage, the Rln-con stage and the Coldbrook stage lined up in front of the depot. Lucky were the passengers on the first stage to get away, for the others followed in the dust of the un-paved road. Then, if you were going to Coldbrook, you had a full day's ride ahead of you, in the lurching stage that ground through the white sand of the river's bed, plunged through hub-deep crossings of the river, with steel tire slipping and sliding on smooth, water-worn rocks. If you knew the canyon, you counted each landmark passed as an achievement. Camp No.

1, Charley Hogue's little orange grove, Dixie Camp, the Silver Mill, O'Mel-veney's, the Intake, the Relay Camp, the Forks, Rincon, Buell's Camp, the Narrows, the steep grade where the road left the bed of the north fork, and finally, with the sun already below the high ridge to the west, Coldbrook at last. TRAVEL TIME REDUCED No such trip awaited the Times-Chevrolet scout car last week. Fifty minutes from Los Angeles saw us In Azusa, and fifty minutes more covered the entire distance that the stages took an entire day to toll over. Since those stage coach days, millions of dollars have been poured into the San Gabriel Canyon In roads and dams. It will be readily admitted by any one who ever saw the canyon in the old days that Us lower reaches have not been beautified in the process.

The canyon walls have been ripped and scarred to build the new highway. A hundred feet of green water behind Morris Dam ripples over Dixie Camp and the Silver Mill. A broken chimney on a barren point marks what was once the green refuge of O'MeU veney's. Farther up, work in progress on Dam No. 7, which is being built In place of the ill-starred project at the Forks, and the east wall of the canyon is being ripped away In great terraces to provide material for the huge rock-fill struc tore that la to block the canyon.

The scout party halted a moment to watch the scurrying trucks far below. NATURAL BEAUTY UNHARMED An interesting step to prevent erosion and to hide the scars of the great fills along the road has been taken within the past year. A TV I ,1 to the Ranger Station, twenty-flve miles from Azusa, The remainder of the two miles to the County Playground at Pine Flats is not oiled as yet, and here for the first time our party encountered the discomfort of dust. At Pine Flats we were greeted by Roy M. Tuttle, assistant chief ranger in charge of the Crystal Lake division, and under his guidance shown the many improvements under way for accommodation of campers.

Some seventy camps 1th stoves and tables are now available. By next year there will be 460 more. Water to piped to all the camps. A little out-door theater is being built, and there is nightly entertainment by the Crystal Bar Ranch Boys. There Is a store and saddle livery for the convenience of guests, and over the low ridge south of the Flats lies Crystal Lake, the only natural lake in the Sierra Madres.

There is a life guard on duty at the lake and it is a popular swimming place. PART OF ANGELES LOOP At present the road from Azusa ends at Pine Flats. Eventually It will be part of the Angeles Crest Highway, a slxty-five-mlle loop. The west end enters the Arroyo Seco and is completed for some eleven miles, with work now in progress to Red Box Divide, northwest of Mt. Wilson.

Ax soon as funds are available, It will be extended along the divide past Barley Flats, Chllaeo and Buck' horn Flats to Pine Flats. Not only will it be a wonderful scenic ride, but the western end of the road has already served to halt two disastrous mountain fires, and thus proved of Inestimable value. Eventually, too, it la planned to build road (Jong the north slope of Mt. Isllp, connecting Pine Flats with the County Playground at Big Plnea. Heading back toward Asusa again 1 a -V Ji.

.1 I 4kC Held by stout stakes driven deep into the banks, terraces of brush have been made across the fills, and atreadr willows and other erowth wa decided to visit the east fork of ban atrtd. jtidre from th the San left the paved (Cm44nw4 an Pag 4, (Minna 41 'ft'0 sf rst cW4, fronts www voj4Jm krowth already started, ft wfll be.