While the trail to Beale's Cut is under a mile round trip, it really is not a pleasant hike in any way. The primary interest in making the trek up the overgrown path is to see a historical piece of the Los Angeles area that today lies mostly hidden off of a littered track bordered by an abandoned oil refinery.
Beale's Cut is a manmade slice through an area of the Santa Clarita Divide once used as a toll road by travelers leaving Los Angeles to the north. Later, after traffic was moved to a tunnel constructed through nearby Newhall Pass, Beale's Cut became a popular filming location for western movies, including one movie where actor Tom Mix is filmed jumping the 70-foot deep pass on his horse.
More recently, a landslide filled the pass with mass, and today the cut is only about 30 feet deep and no longer passable to cars.
Despite being a state historical location, the plaque near the side of Highway 14 has gone missing, and the trail is overgrown and contains litter and exposed pipes from the oil refinery that has been abandoned on the north side of the cut.
Though once a spectacular sight - it is very worth looking into historical pictures of the cut - the area now is slightly underwhelming and really only worth the short trip for those interested in seeing this piece of history.
Despite information online, the oil refinery property to the north is private and has signs and patrols to prevent trespassing. As of now, the only current legal access is up a short 0.3-mile trail that gains about 180 feet in elevation beginning to the south.
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