Mountain Wilson

Most peaks we hike are 10,000 ~ 12,000 ft and even up to 14,000+ ft. Mt Wilson at 5,700 ft is indeed relatively lower. Mount Wilson day hike is mostly in the shade and is the only hike we do that hikers can have hot food and ice cream at the cafe on the peak! That means hikers can carry less water than usual because there is the water refilling source at the peak.

In 1908, the Carnegie Institute installed a 60-inch (1524 mm) telescope at the summit of Mt. Wilson. And in 1910 the 150-foot-tall (46 m) Solar Tower was erected. In 1917 the 100-inch Hooker Telescope became operational and would be the world's largest telescope until the opening of the 200-inch Palomar Hale Telescope in 1948. From 1919 to the 1920s, American astronomer Edwin Hubble used the Hooker Telescope on Mt. Wilson to prove that many nebulous objects are actually galaxies beyond our own Milky Way galaxy. He also classified galaxies according to the Hubble sequence. He developed Hubble's law relating a galaxy's observed red shift to its distance away. These contributions led to an understanding that the universe is not static, but expanding. In 1984 the Carnegie Institute start to shut down the observatories on Mount Wilson.

Georgia State University Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy constructed six 1-meter telescopes in 1996. This is the largest optical interferometric array ever built. It started operations in 2001.

Time

Sep./Oct.

Activities

[622 Special SC 7 Peaks Patch][Hiking Merit Badge]

• 14-mile loop trip day hike

Maps

• Chantry Flats Mt. Wilson Trailhead (34.19567, -118.02239)

• Google Map Driving Direction from Irvine Heritage Park to Chantry Flats Mt. Wilson Trailhead

Weather

Mountain Wilson Weather Forecast