New Trail at King Gillette Ranch Named for Visionary Santa Monica Mountains Photographer
May 10, 2025
New Tom Gamache Inspiration Trail Leads from the National Parks Service Visitor Center to Spectacular Vistas of the Santa Monica Mountains
Calabasas, California (May 10, 2025)–At a ceremony today celebrating the life of the most acclaimed photographer of the Santa Monica Mountains, Tom Gamache, California State Senator Fran Pavley (ret.) dedicated a new trail built by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) in his honor. The Tom Gamache Inspiration Trail is a new visitor-serving amenity that begins just outside the main entrance to the Anthony C. Beilenson Interagency Visitor Center at King Gillette Ranch. The easy .25 -mile trail then crosses a footbridge over Stokes Creek, and climbs up to join the existing 1.2-mile Inspiration Point Loop Trail, offering stunning views of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Tom Gamache, 83, of Calabasas, CA, a gifted landscape photographer, passed away in October 2024. His acclaimed collaboration with author Matt Jaffe, Range on the Edge: The Santa Monica Mountains included 140 spellbinding images of the rocky outcrops, deeply wooded canyons and sycamore-shaded creeks that comprise the 46-mile Santa Monica Monica Mountain Range through the heart of California’s largest metropolitan area.
“Tom’s gorgeous photography convinced lawmakers all the way in Sacramento, who knew nothing about Southern California, that these beautiful mountains had to be saved,” said Senator Pavley.
A perfect compliment to the Visitor Center experience, the Gamache trail is easy and direct and will give newcomers to the area a taste of the Santa Monica Mountains, including a shaded stream. In no time at all, the hiker feels absorbed in the beauty of the mountains and its Mediterranean ecosystem created by the effects of the Pacific Ocean, hot, dry summers and cool wet winters.
The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) is a local government public entity dedicated to the preservation and management of open space and parkland, coastal access, watershed lands, trails, and wildlife habitat. The MRCA works in cooperation with other government partners to acquire parkland, participate in vital planning processes, provide natural resources and scientific expertise, and complete major park improvement projects. The MRCA manages and provides ranger services and fire protection for almost 80,000 acres of parkland that it owns and that are owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy or other agencies and provides comprehensive education and interpretation and leadership programs for youth. It is one of the lead agencies providing for the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.