Vetter Mountain was one of the first places we hiked to last year when we started our adventures.  We didn’t really know much about hiking at that time, and I think between the two of us we carried only one bottle of water.  I didn’t even own a pair of hiking boots!  We’ve come a long way since that day, and knowing what I know now I can’t believe I had been missing out on these incredible places!  That day kick-started our discovery of all that the great mountains surrounding Los Angeles and beyond have to offer.

After our 15 mile trek to Mount Wilson on Friday, we both wanted to do something easy on the legs. I’d heard the Vetter Mountain Trail (closed the last time we were here due to damage from the 2009 Station Fire) had been cleaned up and re-opened.  I wanted to check it out.  We drove to the beautiful Charlton Flat picnic area then hiked the Vetter Mountain Trail up to the stone foundation of the fire lookout (also burned in the Station Fire).  The area is still recovering, but taking the Vetter Mountain Trail was a nice alternative to the service road which we hiked up the first time.  When we reached the top, there was no one there so we had the views to ourselves and spent some time enjoying the scenery and each other’s company.  On the way down, we took part of the service road and then hopped on the Silver Moccasin trail to return to Charlton Flat.  It was the perfect day!