VIEWFINDER : Mugu Peak Trail Leads to Spectacular Vista--Even on Days When Haze Shrouds the Panorama

As they rounded yet another hill on what seemed like an interminable march toward the top of Mugu Peak, four weary hikers were being reassured by their leader that the “guaranteed spectacular vista” would definitely be worth the effort.

“This is the only hike that winds up with a view of both Santa Monica and Ventura,” the leader had told them. “You can’t match it without taking a helicopter. You won’t be disappointed. Trust me.”

The hikers had been at it for two hours. The first hour was more like a stroll, but the trail gets increasingly steep and the summit is deceptively distant. Puffing, out of breath, the hikers kept discovering another hill above the one they had just climbed.

“Can’t we just stop here and have lunch?” a hiker asked. “We all need an energy boost.”

The leader vetoed the idea and pushed them onward for another 15 minutes, the final 100 yards on a trail approaching 45 degrees. Stumbling over small boulders, they finally crested the hill and stood on the windy promontory, gaping at the breathtaking . . . haze.

“Gee, I don’t see Santa Monica, but isn’t that Brigadoon rising through the mist?” a hiker sneered.

Sarcasm aside, the wraparound view on Mugu Peak is always great, even on a bad day, a fact that saved the hike leader from being thrown off a cliff. When the marine layer hides the coastline, Santa Monica and Ventura disappear, but parts of Oxnard and Port Hueneme remain visible along with vast stretches of Pacific Ocean and Santa Monica Mountains. “Even with the haze, it’s still an incredible sight,” a hiker said. “Now can we eat?”

The payoff at the top of Mugu Peak is only part of the reason why the hike is among the best in the Valley region. The two-mile trail meanders through canyons, gullies, nature preserves and mountain meadows, providing a wide cross-section of Southern California terrain and vegetation. And while ascent is strenuous, getting down is gravity-assisted and easy.

The hikers were lucky to be accompanied for part of the journey by Ranger Daniel C. Preece, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains District. Preece, usually desk-bound at the district office in Newbury Park, likes to get out into the mountains as often as possible.

“It’s a lot better than staring out my office window all day and seeing nothing but a Denny’s and a Motel 6,” Preece said, looking very official in his crisp khaki uniform and Smokey the Bear hat, a revolver holstered on his waist.

Preece was in the parking lot at the base of La Jolla Canyon, part of Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County. Before the hike, he busted three hikers who were attempting to take a dog on Mugu Peak Trail. Dogs are barred from many trails in the park, so it is advisable to check with the rangers (818-706-1310) before taking Fido on a hike.

La Jolla Canyon provides access to several trails, including the Mugu Peak Trail and La Jolla Valley Loop Trail, and is the western terminus for the nearly completed 63-mile Backbone Trail that will link Point Mugu with Will Rogers State Park.

The trek to Mugu Peak begins at the Ray Miller Trailhead at the rear of the parking lot. Preece said that Miller, who died last year, was “an old man of the mountains with a long gray beard.” Several years ago, rangers made him the first camp host in the California park system after giving up their efforts to keep him from living alfresco in La Jolla Canyon.

“He died here in his little trailer,” which had neither electricity nor water, Preece said. “He really roughed it.”

Hiking through the canyon, Preece explained how the drought has stressed or killed vegetation--even normally plump pear cacti looked withered. “There’s a tremendous fire hazard” in the canyon, he said.

The trail cuts through an old sandstone quarry where the side of a mountain was blasted away years ago to provide bedrock for Pacific Coast Highway. But far from being an eyesore, the disemboweled mountain offers a unique cutaway look into the geology of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Rare plants grow along the trail, a section of which goes through a sprawling bunch-grass preserve. Hikers are not permitted to leave the trail or remove plants. The rare coreopsis--a bright green shrub with delicate leaves--is threatened because hikers can’t resist picking its yellow daisy-like flowers.

At midday in winter, the sun throws cool shadows across the mountains and ocean breezes can chill the perspiration on a hiker’s neck. Preece advises hikers to carry a sweater, even on warm days, and be aware that daylight fades away early in the mountains. At 15,000 acres, Point Mugu State Park can swallow hikers who underestimate its complexities.

“It’s easy to bite off more than you can chew in this park,” Preece said.

Unwilling to do that himself, Preece split off from the hikers before the trail rose toward Mugu Peak. He got on the loop trail and walked through La Jolla Valley, an elevated meadow ringed by mountains.

The others spent the next hour trudging to the summit, which is 1,266 feet above sea level. Once there, they signed a register, which they found in a water-tight cylinder, and vowed to return.

On a clear day.