Trail Review: Switzer Falls
Parking: Parking lots down by the trailhead, halfway down the road, and up at the turnoff on Angeles Crest Highway. An Adventure Pass is required to park.
Distance: About 4 miles out & back
Difficulty: Moderate
Switzer Falls is a popular waterfall hike in the Angeles National Forest. It's a fun trail that has a couple of different environments as you go along. The first thing to note though is the parking situation.
There are two parking lot areas (sort of two and a half), the first is at the top of the hill by the Angeles Crest Highway. If you park up there, you'll need to trek all the way down the winding road to get to the trailhead (and then back up at the end of the hike...). There is an area almost halfway down the road with a couple of marked parking spots but I wouldn't really call it a proper parking lot. Then, at the bottom of the hill is the main parking lot. It's got a fair amount of spots but it does fill up quickly on the weekend and people will drive back and forth waiting for someone to leave. So I'd recommend arriving earlier in the day as it was much easier to get a spot then.
The trail starts at the west end of the parking lot with a bridge that brings you over the Arroyo Seco River. There's a small picnic area and some bathrooms just after the bridge which seemed like a popular spot the day we were there. (Note: the bathrooms at the east end of the parking lot were a lot more tolerable than that bathrooms by the bridge/picnic area.)
For about 1.1 miles, the trail criss-crosses along the river as you descend further into the canyon. The decline is gradual so coming back up at the end of the hike shouldn't feel too bad. There are 8 water crossings, none of which are that difficult. They're all pretty shallow and have rocks or logs to keep from getting wet. A few require more balance than others.
Here are a few photos of some of the water crossings:
At the 8th crossing, there will be a sign pointing to the right for the Switzer Falls trail and, after crossing the water, the path starts to ascend up the hill. If you miss the path going up away from the water and continue along the water's edge by accident, there will be another sign indicating you are no longer on the trail.
This is where the environment changes. As the path heads upwards and away from the river, you'll end up coming out of the wooded area and into the sunlight above the canyon. It's really a great view as you follow along the mountain's edge. If you look closely, you can see the Upper Switzer Falls deep in the canyon below (which is not accessible by foot).
After about 0.3 miles along the cliffside, the trail begins to descend again into the canyon and meets back up with the Arroyo Seco River. This is the steepest part of the whole trail but it's also not that long of a section. The trail technically overshoots the waterfall so you'll be heading upstream for the last leg, making 4 more water crossings before getting to the waterfall.
By one of the last river crossings was a wooden swing which bore the HikerSwing hashtag on it. It was so fun to swing on that I forgot to take a photo of it!
Switzer Falls itself is a pretty popular spot to hang out so there were quite a few groups gathered at the falls and pool in front of it. It's a wide area though so it wasn't too overcrowded thankfully. People had room to spread out.
After you are done enjoying the waterfall, just head back the way you came to get back to the parking lot!
Bottom Line: A nice but popular waterfall trail in the Angeles National Forest. Start early (or on a week day) of you want less people around.
