Santa Anita Canyon Road, aka Chantry Flat Road, has been jointly owned by Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Monrovia, and Los Angeles County for years. The 3-mile mountain road that leads to the Angeles National Forest will be turned over to Los Angeles County if the cities pay to fix it up. Arcadia and Sierra Madre have completed their repairs and are waiting for Monrovia to start a roughly $500,000 project.
Six years ago after severe winter rains, Cal FEMA gave several grants to cities responsible for the maintenance of the road to Chantry Flats north into the foothills from Arcadia. Monrovia is responsible for a small segment of that road, but it has not yet been repaired. Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa explained that the initial grant was insufficient to pay for the repairs.
This month's heavy rainstorms triggered as many as 18 mudslides. The first major slide deposited 6000 cubic yards of mud on a section of road in Arcadia. The road to Chantry Flat is closed until further notice.
Chantry Flat Road, also known as Santa Anita Canyon Road, will reopen to the public on Wednesday, April 16, despite unfinished repairs. Fire in the Santa Anita Canyon had forced a 6-month closure of the road.
Workers use earth-moving equipment to shore up Chantry Flat Road, which has been closed for over a year due to mudslides. The road may re-open at the end of September.
Kim Kelley, owner of the Adams pack station near Chantry Flat, has decided to sell the historic station for financial reasons. The heavily damaged roads to Big Santa Anita Canyon have hurt her business.
A cabin is lost, but memories endure. Greg Vanni of Arcadia, had a cabin among the 80 historic Chantry Flat cabins in Big Santa Anita Canyon. It burned to its foundation in the Bobcat Fire. It was a 350-foot cabin built in 1910 during "The Great Hiking Era," a time between the 1880s to the late 1930s in Southern California, when settlers from the city were drawn to the San Gabriel Mountains looking for adventure. The historic Adams Pack Station survived the fire.
View from Chantry Flats Road down onto Canyon Road curving in the Upper Highlands, a residential area in north Arcadia. Santa Anita wash and the spreading basins are seen in extreme upper left in photo.
The road to Chantry Flat will close April 1 for repairs, with Arcadia and Los Angeles County working to fix two sections of the road. Closure will last until July 9.
Seven months after Chantry Flat Road was closed at night, the noise that bothered residents and the injuries from auto accidents have virtually ceased.
Aerial view north up Santa Anita Avenue. Note Chantry Flats Road on mountain near right side of photo. This view was taken from just south of Huntington Drive. This image belongs to Arcadia Historical Society.
Damage saps fun from Angeles forest. Angeles National Forest's Chantry Flat Road remains closed after suffering damage from the 2020 Bobcat fire and subsequent fires. Storms and fires force closure of trails, roads and campgrounds, some for years. The forest's second-most visited area, Chantry Flat, in the section north of Arcadia, Monrovia and Sierra Madre, has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. A sign in Arcadia (photo) advises motorists of the Chantry Flat Road closure.
Aerial view south from Chantry Flats Road over the still-developing upper Highlands section of Arcadia. View is across Arcadia toward the Puente Hills. Santa Anita Park Race Track is seen in the center. Santa Anita Wash is seen on extreme left.
Bobcat Fire - Most Chantry Flat cabins survived - 62 of 80 structures, historic Adams Pack Station did not burn down in massive Bobcat Fire which broke out September 6.
Money from a $19.9 billion statewide transportation bond approved by voters in 2006 is being used for road improvement projects. Arcadia received $900,000 for the rehabilitation of Santa Anita Avenue, which is already under construction. Two photographs of Santa Anita Avenue with captions are included.
