News

This past Saturday, October 5th, 2024, an individual went hiking with their two dogs up the Sam Merrill Trail in Las Flores Canyon one mile west of Eaton Canyon while air temperatures were hovering in the low 90s. The individual hiked all the way up to the hotel ruins atop Echo Mountain before both dogs began suffering from heat illness. The hiker called 9-1-1 and the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team was dispatched to rescue them. However, before rescue crews could arrive, one of the dogs passed away.

Just 24 hours later on the evening of Sunday, October 6th, a 62-year old man with pre-existing health conditions hiking through Eaton Canyon collapsed of a heart attack brought on by heat illness. Despite performing CPR for 20 minutes, emergency crews were unable to resuscitate the man and he was declared dead at the scene. The temperature was 93.8°F at the time of the incident according to the nearby Southern California Edison weather station in the equestrian area.

Summer 2024 has finished with an average temperature of 78.97°F at the weather station in old town Pasadena, ranking as the 6th hottest summer on record out of 117 years. It also featured the area’s second hottest heat wave ever, reaching 114°F on September 6th. The heat continued into early October with a string of days in the low to mid 90s. 

Recently, there has also been intense inversion layers at Eaton Canyon in the morning hours where cool air pools in the wash while heat collects at the ridge tops. These inversion layers form because cool air is innately more dense than warm air. Hikers beginning their climb at the Nature Center may experience temperatures rising from the low 60s all the way to 90°F once reaching Henninger Flats, even before sunrise. The following map shows temperatures throughout lower Eaton Canyon at 6:55 AM on the morning of Wednesday, October 2, 2024:

On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, the County of Los Angeles held its annual Eaton Canyon Community Meeting inside the auditorium to discuss plans for the park over the next 12 months. County staff updated the public on upcoming events, changes to park infrastructure, and changes to staffing. Members of the public were given a chance to voice their concerns, ask questions, and suggest new ideas. Multiple county staff members, including Eaton Canyon Park Superintendent Richard Smart and Natural Areas Administrator Kim Bosell, were present to answer questions and lead discussions.

Click on each tab below to learn more about announcements made by the county to the general public:

• New Restrooms
• Additional Staff
• Event: Community Training
• Event: Indigenous People’s Day

New restrooms:
New outdoor restrooms at Eaton Canyon are set to be constructed in spring 2025 and opened in early summer. They will be located at the end of the parking lot and will serve as a replacement for the four porta-potties currently in place in the same area. Construction from start to finish is expected to take four months. These restrooms will be plumbed, and a new maintenance worker will be hired to help staff keep them clean. The restrooms were previously supposed to be opened in July 2024 but were delayed due to problems with proper permitting.

Additional Staff:
Eaton Canyon is currently the most heavily staffed park within the Los Angeles County Natural Areas system which consists of 9 parks. It is also the busiest, seeing well over 1,000,000 visitors per year. A new Park Aide will be hired to fill a vacancy from earlier in the summer, and a new grounds maintenance worker will be hired to assist in maintaining the new restrooms.

Upcoming event:
Community Training: Intro to Coexisting with San Gabriel Mountain Cougars & Los Wildlife:
“FREE program on Saturday October 26th! Learn about our local cougar population and how we can coexist with these animals. Mountain lions are a keystone species and play an important part in regulating herbivore populations, disease spread, and more.”

Date: Saturday, October 26, 2024
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Location: Eaton Canyon Nature Center 1750 N. Altadena Dr. Pasadena, CA 91107
Reservations: None required
Fee: Free entry to everyone
Ages: Recommended for ages 16+

Upcoming events:
The Eaton Canyon Nature Center will be hosting multiple Indigenous People’s Day related events throughout the first half of October. There are as follows:

Yucca Cordage Class
October 3, 2024 from 6:00pm -7:00pm
Learn about and honor indigenous heritage and craftsmanship through this hands-on class.

Film screening of “Saging the World.”
October 10, 2024 from 6:00pm – 7:00pm
A documentary about the importance of white sage from ecological and cultural perspectives shown in the Nature Center auditorium

Ethnobotany Walk
October 17 from 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Learn about the traditional uses for California Native Plants during a guided tour through Nature Center curated gardens.

All events are free to everyone.
All events do not require reservation.
All events are recommended for ages 6+.
All events are located at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center ar 1750 N. Altadena Dr. Pasadena, CA 91107

The 2024 Community Meeting saw far fewer attendees than the 2023 meeting, a drop from 30 to just 6. This may have been partly due to the 2023 meeting taking place on a Friday evening, while the 2024 meeting was held on a Wednesday evening. No new questions that were not asked in the 2023 meeting occurred this time around. An overview of the questions asked at the 2023 meeting can be found here.