Since the Kanan Road was perched alongside and above the Backbone Trail during this stretch, it was quite noisy given the amount of traffic that the road sees. Hiking and Scrambling to Newton Canyon Falls Looking towards a water tunnel or bridge where the Backbone Trail bottomed out at the head of Newton Canyon beneath the Kanan Dume Road (the flat area at the top of this picture)Īfter parking the car (see directions below), we followed the Backbone Trail downhill on a switchback before descending further towards a creek that may or may not have water going over the trail. That said, when it’s flowing, you can’t miss it because you can certainly hear it when hiking Backbone Trail as it descends into the head of Newton Canyon before climbing back up. This waterfall was somewhat hidden from the Backbone Trail alongside the Kanan Dume Road, which links Hwy 1 to the 101 Freeway through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Nonetheless, on our later visits in 20, we came during early Spring after a very wet Winter so for sure we weren’t going to miss it this time around! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that our first attempt occurred in late Spring during a pretty dry Winter so perhaps it wasn’t flowing back then.

Newton Canyon Falls was one of those waterfalls that somehow eluded us many years ago on our first attempt.īut after finding it on our subsequent visits, we wondered how on earth we managed to miss it, especially given how close it was to a busy road let alone a busy trail! Newton Canyon Falls

Backbone trail water fountains