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The hills around the Calabasas\Malibu Creek State Park area offer a variety of trails and some nice scenery to look at as well, especially while it's still green before summer kicks in. Malibu Creek State Park is a popular place for hikers, bikers and horses and can get very crowded during nice weather. This is why you go find trails like the Lookout Trail and Phantom Trail. They don't get nearly the amount of use as the more common trails do most likely because they involve some climbing which many people don't like to do and singletrack trails don't appeal as much to hikers as the do to bikers. The Lookout Trail and Phantom Trails offer some really fun fast paced singletrack riding with different types of obstacles and turns to have fun with along the way. If you start from Malibu Creek State Park you will be doing some uphill riding and\or walking but the more you go up the more you get to go down! You will find some nice turns, rocky sections and a bunch of railroad tie type steps to barrel down over. They are pretty spread apart so it should be easy for a decent rider. If you are a beginner then you may want to go slow or not go at all. |
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Lookout\Phantom Trails Video
Lookout\Phantom Trails Review
If you can manage to make it to the top of the Phantom Trail then it's a very fun ride down with action almost the whole way down. It doesn't seem to get much foot traffic which gives you the opportunity to go down as fast as you want. You may want to have a bell on your bike to give people warning that you are heading their way. There aren't too many blind corners to worry about so being able to see upcoming danger is pretty easy to do.
Most of the trail is pretty smooth allowing you to keep your speed up and have fun with it. When you get to the steps you can either go down them slowly or just go for it and see what happens. There are parts where you can kind of go around to the outside of the steps if need be. There will also be some rocky areas but they are not too technical and you can still go pretty fast over them. While riding down this trail you are sure to have a smile on your face the whole time. Once you get to the end of Lookout Trail you will be back in Malibu Creek State Park on Crags Road and then you can either head out or ride some more over to the M.A.S.H. site for example to extend your ride. If you want to do a 2 car ride you can start off of Agoura Rd. at Liberty Canyon and ride up from there and then back down Phantom into Lookout.
Lookout\Phantom Trails Pictures
Directions to Lookout\Phantom Trails
View Lookout Trail Into Phantom Trail in a larger map
Like mentioned above you can get to these trails from Malibu Creek State Park or from Agoura Rd. at Liberty Canyon. If you start at Malibu Creek State Park just follow the main fire road up the hill and as you start coming down past the dam look for the Lookout trailhead to your right. Then follow it up for a while and you will come to an intersection with a sign. You will need to get on Cistern Trail for a short bit and take that until you get to Mulholland Hwy.
From there you will cross Mulholland and ride down a very short distance and the Phantom trailhead will be on your right. If you just want to do just Phantom Trail then you can park on Mulholland and take it from there. After going up Phantom for a while it will flatten out and eventually go down. Now you will have the choice of turning around and heading back down the hill or going on towards Agoura Rd. or down to Las Virgenes and back to Mulholland to the Malibu Creek State Park parking area. The map to the right shows the path taken on this ride but the other marker shows the end of the return trip before going off to the M.A.S.H. site.
