This article has been updated since it was originally posted on January 4th:
– January 12: The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) opened most of their open space areas
– March 2: The Backbone Trail between Kanan Road west to Yerba Buena Road has been opened.
– March 25: All COSCA trails in Thousand Oaks except the Hill Canyon Bridge are now open.
– April 30: The Backbone Trail fromYerba Buena Road west to the Mishe Mokwa trailhead is open
– July 18: The remaining sections of the Backbone Trail are now open, so the entire trail is open. (Note that not all of it is open to mountain biking, as always.)
South of the 101 Freeway, the Woolsey Fire completely decimated most of the open space between Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road on the east and Point Mugu State Park (Sycamore Canyon) on the west. North of the 101, most of the open space south of Simi Valley and between Valley Circle on the east and Erbes Road to the west was destroyed.
With the recent rains, the regeneration process has begun and new growth can be seen on the burned hillsides.
Nevertheless, many of the trails are still closed until they are assessed for damage, and repaired as necessary. In addition, heavy rains my result in mudslides that may damage sections of the trail that survived the fire.
The good news is that many of the trails are now open to use. The bad news is that during the Federal Government partial shutdown, the National Park Service is not able to work on their trails, prolonging the time that they will be closed.
The following list is not exhaustive – there are many smaller trails not listed that may be open or closed. If you see that a trail is marked as closed or cordoned off, please stay off it.
Areas that are open
- Malibu Creek State Park. Keep in mind that the two wooden bridges on the Grasslands/Las Virgenes Trail were destroyed, but you can hike-a-bike across the streams if they don’t contain too much water. Also, the “Creek of Doom” section of Crags Rd has experienced rock slides. The MASH end of the concrete bridge on Crags Road has been washed away making the stream impossible to cross at that location. People are using a makeshift crossing through the stream a little beyond the bridge, towards the MASH site.
- Point Mugu State Park (Sycamore Canyon). The areas of the park with biking trails weren’t affected by the fires.
- Topanga State Park. This area is east of where the fire burned.
- Most of the Conejo Opens Space Conservation Agency (COSCA) trails in Thousand Oaks. Exceptions are
- Closed: The Hill Canyon bridge in Conejo Canyons/Western Plateau
- Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons
- Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (Las Virgenes Canyon and Ahmanson Ranch; opened on Jan 11)
- Las Virgenes View Park (opened on Jan 11). This includes
- Las Virgenes View Trail
- The north, west and southern sections of the New Millennium Loop
- The top of the Bark Park Trail
- The Backbone Trail west from Kanan Road to the Mishe Mokwa trailhead
Areas that are still closed
For your own safety and to protect the plants and creatures that live in the open space, please stay off closed trails completely, and where the trails are open to use, please stay on the trails! Also, watch for new hazards on the trails such as large ruts, debris slides, washouts and fallen trees.
