Eagle Rock (Santa Monica Mountains)


Eagle Rock is a prominent sandstone pinnacle in Topanga State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, California. The original name is "Elephant Rock" as the huge sandstone outcropping looks like an Elephant head when viewed from the north side. When the Park was created the people who assign names took the name of the spring just to the east, Eagle Springs, and mistakenly repeated it for the outcropping. Gary Cheney, grandson of the original owner of the adjacent Cheney Ranch always called it Elephant Rock and the name should be restored to not only be correct, but to avoid confusion with the original Eagle Rock in Los Angeles.
The rock can be reached by an easy hike, e.g. with the Musch Trail and Topanga Fire Road of Topanga State Park. The last part consists of an easy climb on one side of the rock to the top, the other side falls down steeply by around 100 ft.