Both Sides
of the Pass
The 118 cuts the Santa Susana Pass in half. North of the freeway the Rocky Peak fire road climbs into a field of sandstone boulders; south of it the state historic park keeps the old stagecoach grade the drivers called Devil’s Slide. Same rock, two operators, eight minutes apart. Rocky Peak first, because it has the sunrise; the state park second and optional, because it may not open until eight. One boulder outline, the rock gone black, the sky gone white. The odds: good for the first leg, which needs only a clear morning and the fire road; fair for the second, which is unmarked ground in harder light.
The Threads
what the day is really aboutChatsworth Formation was one slab field and one dome. This is the same rock read twice from either side of a freeway: boulders against a white sky at dawn, then a road the stagecoaches slid down. The first leg is the day. The second leg is a bet on an opening time the operator states two ways.
And under it, one rhythm: sunrise → rim → flat. Through the fire gate as the sun comes up, the rim on the boulders until the sun is about 8° up near 07:45, and then, if you go on, the state park in harder light where the subject is line, not glow.
Park north of the off-ramp. Be through the fire gate at sunrise. Put the boulder between you and the sun.
Teaches · Diagonal — after Catherine Opie · Lucien Hervé
The Map
where it all is · tap a point for its legOpen the whole day in Google Maps ↗ — in order: Rocky Peak Road · Chatsworth Park South. It routes from wherever the phone is, and every spot below links its own leg the same way.
Tap any point for the leg it belongs to. Two trailheads on opposite sides of the Santa Susana Pass, about four miles apart by road, about sixty-one miles round from the Westside.
Neither operator states a fee. Hours. The MRCA’s Rocky Peak page posts no hours, and its general rule is that most MRCA parks and trails are open sunrise to sunset, so this plan goes through the fire gate at sunrise, 07:03; being on the fire road at civil light, 06:38, is the exception, your call. Two things can close the day: a Red Flag Warning, under which both the MRCA and State Parks (order 915-25-11) close their land, so check both the night before on a windy week; and the state park’s hours, which its own page gives as sunrise to sunset in one place and 08:00 to sunset in another. This page plans for 08:00. Call (818) 784-4849 if it matters.
The Day
two legs · the boulders at sunrise, then the stagecoach grade if you want itA day trip's unit is the leg, not the day — each carries a locator map, its theme, and an energy read. A gold pill on the clock means that time belongs to someone else: a door that opens or a slot that was booked. Everything unpilled is a suggested shape, not a schedule.
The whole day is the forty minutes after sunrise.
Over the Sepulveda Pass and west across the top of the Valley on the 118 to the last exit before the Simi side. The rocks start on both sides of the freeway in the last mile.
A hiking site warns of vehicle thefts at this lot (not verified with the operator): leave the car empty and the bag on your back. At sunrise, past the fire gate and up the road. Pavement ends within the first tenth of a mile, per the same site.
Walk west to the first bend of the fire road before you shoot anything, and sort the boulders with a compass: the faces that look east at the Valley are front-lit and flat; the faces that look back at you are dark and their edges carry the rim. Shoot the first frame looking east from the bend, back toward the gate, one boulder outline against a sky going white. Then the fire road’s own edge as a diagonal against a slab. The rim holds until the sun is about 8° up, near 07:45.
A hiking site puts a sandstone wind cave about three quarters of a mile up the fire road. If its opening faces the sun, shoot out of it: the cave wall as a black frame, the Valley haze white beyond. Nothing read says which way it opens, so if it faces west, take the raked version of its wall instead and move on. Twenty minutes there, then turn around. The summit junction is a scramble, unmarked, and a bad place to be alone with a camera bag.
Down the fire road in full light. Here the day can end: home from Rocky Peak Road is ~29 mi and ~40 min, back about 09:15. Leg II is optional.
Line, not glow: the ruts and bed edges in a sun already ten degrees up.
Eight minutes from one trailhead to the other. The state park’s page says sunrise to sunset in one place and 08:00 to sunset in another; arriving at a quarter to nine satisfies both.
The hills behind the city park are the state park. Its brochure says do not hike alone and to tell someone where you are going, and its trails are unmarked; you are alone, so the verdict is use judgment: the walk to the slide is unmarked, so note which way the lot lies (east, downhill) before you leave it, and keep to ground you can retrace. Nothing read from an operator places Devil’s Slide; the pin here is about half a mile west of the lot in a straight line and uphill, so allow twenty minutes up, twenty minutes for the ruts, and twenty back down. If it drops toward the Valley, the ruts run into the sun as bright converging lines; frame them downhill. Then one bed edge against the sky from below an outcrop, the outcrop between you and the sun. The pass road cut is for the trail above it, never the road shoulder.
Back across the top of the Valley with the sun behind you. Two operators, one formation, and the rest of the day yours.
The Spots
where to stand · what the light does · who built itTwo anchors on opposite sides of the 118. The first is the day; the second is optional, unmarked ground after the state park opens. Tap a spot’s map for driving directions to the parking.
- Stand
- On the fire road at the first bend, a tenth of a mile west of the gate, looking back east, with a boulder between you and the sun. Fine on the first mile of the road, and fine with a headlamp on the early start; the summit scramble off the unmarked junction near 2 mi is avoid alone before light.
- Light
- Civil light 06:38, sunrise 07:03 at 101°, computed for 18 October and moving about a minute a day. From the first bend, west of the boulders, they are backlit (inferred from OSM): rim on the edges until the sun is about 8° up near 07:45; their east faces are flat from the first minute. The dip of the beds is not published — read it with a compass on the ground.
- Frame
- One boulder outline against the sunrise sky, the sky most of the frame. Expose for the sky at +1 so it goes to paper and let the rock fall to charcoal; one more at −1 for the rim.
- See
- Chatsworth Formation sandstone on the Simi side of the pass, on 4,800 acres the MRCA runs from the 118 five miles north to Las Llajas Canyon.
- Stand
- Below an outcrop with the outcrop between you and the sun, or above the ruts looking downhill. Use judgment: the ~0.5 mi (straight-line) walk up from the lot is unmarked, the brochure says do not hike alone, and you are; note the way back to the lot before you leave it.
- Light
- Sun 19° up at 08:45 at 117°, 25° at 09:15 at 123°. Too high for a glow; low enough that an edge against the east-southeast sky still goes bright and the ruts catch it when they run toward the sun.
- Frame
- The ruts as converging lines downhill, nothing else on the ground; or one bed edge against the sky, shot from below, the sky most of the frame.
- See
- The 1861 Coast Stage Line road over the pass, steep enough that passengers walked it, cut into late Cretaceous Chatsworth sandstone.
If the Day Turns
two speeds · pick one on the morningEvery leg below carries the same day at two speeds. Dawn is the early, light-driven version; Slow starts late, drops a stop and keeps the good one. Steady is the shape written above. None of them is the failure case — pick on the morning, from how the day actually feels.
Before You Go
the camera card, and the two things to check the night beforeCamera
- Hasselblad X2D II + 38V, handheld — mode A, f/8, stabilizer on
- ISO 200 before the disc, ISO 50 after; +1 on the dial before sunrise, +⅔ after
- overexposure warning on — stripes on the sky are fine, stripes on a rock face are not
- with the sun near the frame, two more at −1 and −2
Body
- Headlamp — only for the early start, on the fire road before 06:38
- A layer — wind comes through the pass even when the Valley is still
- Solid shoes — sand, rock and loose fire road
- Water; there is nothing at either trailhead
- A charged phone — the state park brochure says to carry one for 911
Logistics
- Check the Red Flag notices for both the MRCA and State Parks the night before on a windy week
- Nothing to book, and no fee stated by either operator
- Rattlesnakes, poison oak and ticks, per the state park brochure; watch where you put your hands on the boulders
What You Got
the frames that survived the editThe geotag gets each frame close to where it stood — close, not exact; the last hundred yards are always a hunt. What a machine can't do is the part below: which ones survived, and whether the day was worth the drive.
The frame of the day.
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Which way did the beds dip, and did the rim show up where the compass said?
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Which way does the wind cave open, and how far up the road is it really?
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Was the state park open before eight?
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After
what the day taughtWhich side of the pass was the picture?
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Where is Devil’s Slide from Chatsworth Park South, and how long a walk?
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Is Rocky Peak the dawn to keep, and the state park an afternoon instead?
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Where next on the same formation — Corriganville, Sage Ranch?
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