You may not be able to find Rubio Canyon on a map; you may not have even heard of it. But that wouldn’t have been the case if you had lived in the San Gabriel Valley at the turn of the 20th century.

Located in the Altadena foothills and surrounded by the Angeles National Forest, the canyon was a beehive of activity: home to a Boy Scout Camp, and the point of embarkation for riders of the Mount Lowe railway, which ushered tourists and city dwellers to popular mountain resorts. For local people who wanted to get a taste of the great outdoors, Rubio was the way in.