CA CA - Monica Reza, 60, hiker, Mount Waterman, Los Angeles National Forest, 22 Jun 2025

[SideQuestHiker]

There is a section in that article that refers to 2 or 3 trails not by name.
Can anyone confirm what the names of these trails are? Probably obvious for those of you who have hiked these, but could you help an armchair hiker out?

I have 3 questions -
1 - I think the trail that "includes two primary access points" must be "Mt Waterman via Upper West Ridge". Is that right?
2 - Which trail, instead, would be the "more hazardous southern route"?
3 - Which trail would be the "another trail" accessible only via offtrail/brush/wilderness trekking?

Bolding by me.

"the trail includes two primary access points: a northern entrance near a parking lot and highway, where Reza began her hike, and one by the Mt. Waterman Ski-Lifts, which has a road that “off-road vehicles” can drive on. Reza’s beanie, however, was found in the direction of a more hazardous southern route (which was not an entrance or access point), and one would have to go off the trail, through brush and the wilderness, in order to land back on another trail. Based on her familiarity with the area and Reza’s personality, the family member said it is unlikely she would have chosen the more dangerous southern path on purpose."

With regards to the various trails - what LAHiker said.

The article's wording is weird. The paragraph starts out talking about trails, but then switches to talking about bushwhacking down the south slope and Monica not willingly choosing that route. Anyone not familiar with the area could easily wonder if the paragraph was saying the southern trail (i.e. the Three Points Trail) was the hazardous southern route. I think the "more hazardous southern route" is just referring to the bushwhacking path down the southern slope towards the Three Points Trail.

 

[ItalyReader]

Thanks, @LAhiker and @SideQuestHiker, your responses help a lot. I did think the southern route was the Three Point trail but probably just means heading south.
Do we know Monica's familiarity with this trail - had she ever hiked it before?

 

[SideQuestHiker]

That article has some interesting info about what was going on in Monica's life. It contains some clear errors, such as the statement that the summit photo was the last one taken of Monica.

The article contains some other statements that I haven't heard before, which might reflect errors or misunderstandings on the part of the reporters or which might reflect shifting stories by the surviving participants:

As far as I know, previous accounts have said that the other female hiker (sometimes referred to as hiker C) stayed near the bottom of the steep section until the male companion (sometimes referred to as Hiker A) came down and told her Monica was missing.

That said, I think a group of hikers who Hiker A met on the trail, and with whom he did some initial searching, encouraged him to return to the trailhead in case Monica had gone back there some other way. So maybe there's just a little confusion about the exact sequence of those events.

JMO

I received some comments on YouTube and reddit that address this question. I will pass them along here:

YouTube - Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 1

@rocklobsterchuck6552 - 2 weeks ago ... Also wanted to note that Hiker C did tell responders that they weren't just inertly sitting before the steep part. Allegedly, they were exploring that area but always keeping the main trail in sight.

Reddit -

trailangel4 - 12 hours ago Yeah. Can confirm. That was the story in the early days of the search. Hiker C initially stated that after wandering around at the separation point, they returned to the vehicle.

I think if Hiker C returned to her car changes the timeline of how long Monica continued alone up on the trail while Hiker A went down to inform Hiker C. If he had to go all the way to the parking lot, then Monica could have gotten much further away before Hiker A and the 5 other hikers returned to the ridgeline/corner and resumed searching for Monica. And where exactly did Hiker A meet up with the 5 other hikers?

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Was in a hurry when writing previous post (heading to a work meeting). I meant to include a link to the reddit comments. Here it is:

Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 2

 

[moonglow123]

Thanks for filming those videos @SideQuestHiker, I started to watch and plan to watch the rest later. It’s helpful to be able to see where she was hiking and visualize it.

Feel bad for her children and loved ones, this continues to be very baffling I’m just baffled by the sequence of events and how she could simply vanish into thin air. Not blaming (and I know hiking companions can get separated) but I do wish her colleague had stayed closer to her, if he’d heard anything we’d at least have a better idea of what may have happened…

 

[LAhiker]

I received some comments on YouTube and reddit that address this question. I will pass them along here:

YouTube - Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 1


Reddit -


I think if Hiker C returned to her car changes the timeline of how long Monica continued alone up on the trail while Hiker A went down to inform Hiker C. If he had to go all the way to the parking lot, then Monica could have gotten much further away before Hiker A and the 5 other hikers returned to the ridgeline/corner and resumed searching for Monica. And where exactly did Hiker A meet up with the 5 other hikers?

Was in a hurry when writing previous post (heading to a work meeting). I meant to include a link to the reddit comments. Here it is:

Monica Reza's Last Hike - Part 2

I hadn't heard that Hiker C may have gone back to the trailhead. That indeed might have affected the timeline. If that new info is true, I wonder whether Hiker A was communicating with Hiker C and knew she'd gone back, or whether he didn't know until he went closer to where he thought she was waiting.

I'm also curious about where and when Hiker A met up with the other five hikers.

JMO