The Brown Mountain Fire Road begins at the parking lot of the Millard Canyon Campground which is reached via Chaney Trail off of West Loma Alta Drive in Altadena, and winds back into the hills of El Prieto and Fern Canyons below the ridge of Brown Mountain, named by Jason and Owen Brown after their father, the notorious Civil War era abolitionist John Brown who was hanged after the raid on Harper's Ferry. Living at their mountain homestead called Little Round Top, they christened nearby Brown Mountain in 1887 in honor of their father, and the name has survived to this day. Owen Brown was with his father when they raided Harpers Ferry in 1859. He served as an officer in the Union Army during the War, moved at some point to California with his brother Jason and sister Ruth, and died in 1889. He was buried near the homestead, and Jason returned to Ohio and died in 1912. The pictures in this photo gallery were taken on 5/5/14. On this hike I walked 2.3 miles to the junction of the 2N66 which goes downhill 2.6 miles to the Arroyo Seco near JPL (called the Lower Brown Mountain Fire Road) and uphill an additional 2.7 miles to the junction of the Ken Burton Trail at a saddle on Brown Mountain Ridge. From that junction, it is another 3 miles to Oak Wilde Campground. I have always referred to this road as the Brown Mountain Fire Road but I see that on Google maps it is called the Brown Mountain Truck Trail and further west the Fern Truck Trail. An asterisk next to the common name is for a non-native species of which there are quite a few in this area as it is fairly heavily used and close to residential areas. Information about Owen Brown and his grave
here.
