The August 28th Where in the Conejo Contest photo was of the Outlaw Loop
Congratulations to Maricar Weeks of Westlake Village who provided the correct answer and was selected as the winner. Thanks to all who responded!
The Outlaw Loop Trail is in the Conejo Canyons Open Space area in the northwest corner of Thousand Oak. The Western Plateau makes up a large portion of this open space. Other prominent features are Elliott Mountain, Hawk Canyon and Hill Canyon. A spur from the top of the Outlaw Loop leads up Elliott Mountain, named for adventurer and longtime open space volunteer Burt Elliott who passed away in 2014. The bottom of the Outlaw Loop connects to the Western Plateau Trail, an Edison Road.
Traveling up the Outlaw Loop, one has an amazing view of the Western Plateau to the south that is constantly changing as the trail climbs and turns. There are also overlooks of Hill Canyon and Wildwood Park to the northeast. From the top, you can see down into the Santa Rosa Valley. For mountain bikers, it’s quite a grind to get to the top, but the reward is a really fun, twisting descent, on top of the views!
The story of how the Outlaw Loop got it’s name is an interesting one. Its original development was not planned by COSCA; it got established as more and more people followed the path of those who first traveled it. Because it was unsanctioned, it was first described as an “outlaw” trail. COSCA had a few trail work days to fix the safety and environmental problems with it, and to close a problematic, erosion-prone fall-line section. When it became an official trail, the original name of Outlaw Loop stuck!
More recently, the aforementioned Elliott Mountain Trail was constructed to give access to the top of Elliott Mountain, and also the Lichen Trail, which winds to the top of the second highest peak in Conejo Canyons at 1150′ (Elliott Mountain is the third highest at 1017′).
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