A Forest Service road (Frazier Mountain Road - 8N04) provides seasonal access to the top of the mountain. This road is accessed from Lockwood Valley Road about a mile from Lake of the Woods. It goes to the fire lookout tower and radio towers at the summit at 8,026 feet elevation, with spurs to the northeast (8N24) and southwest (8N04B), both connecting with hiking/biking trails to the east and south, respectively. Several trails radiate out from the summit, used primarily by dirt bikes. The northeastern slope of the mountain is located in Kern County.
Wildfire is part of the natural dynamics of natural areas such as Frazier Mountain. The most recent fire to burn a significant portion of the mountain was the Day Fire of 2006. The Day Fire of 2006 (named for its start date on Labor Day) burned approximately 162,700 acres, starting near Pyramid Lake in Los Angeles County to the southeast. The fire spread quickly and moved westward along the Piru Creek watershed primarily on the south slope of Frazier Mountain.
Frazier Mountain was created primarily during the orogeny of portions of the western Transverse Ranges, has been suggested as middle Pliocene (Axelrod 1976, 1980) and major deformation as middle Pleistocene (Gross 1958). Geologically, Frazier Mountain is composed of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock formations. The metamorphic rock is primarily Frazier Mountain augen gneiss, and is some of the oldest rock in California (Precambrian, at around 1.3 billion years old). Pockets of sedimentary rock occurs along the flanks of the mountain, and includes sandstone and siltstone members of the Pliocene Quatal Formation, and and Pleistocene and Holocene landslides and conglomerates.
The basement rock of Frazier Mountain is basically riding up on younger material, pushed up along the North and South Frazier Mountain Thrust Faults, located on the south and west sides of the mountain. The San Andreas Fault occurring to the north and northeast, and the Big Pine Fault forms the west-northwest boundary.
Frazier Mountain is located at the axis of the Transverse Ranges (of southern California), the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, and the Sierra Madre Range and Inner South Coast Ranges of coastal central California.
One primitative car camp occurs on Frazier Mountain (Chuchupate Campground), along the road from Lockwood Valley Road at the Mount Pinos District Chuchupate Ranger Station. The Forest Service maintains a fire lookout on the summit.
There are several old mines on Frazier Mountain, including: Aura, Maule, Frazier, and Harris. The Ridgelite mine at the western toe of the mountain is still quite active, with its operations visible from Lockwood Valley Road.
Frazier Mountain is located in the northern part of the Western Transverse Ranges, dominated by mixed conifer forests. The lower elevations of the mountain contain Pinyon-Juniper Woodland (Pinus monophylla-Juniperus californica Alliance) containing a significant amount of scrub oaks, including Quercus john-tuckeri (Tucker Scrub Oak). Higher elevations find Yellow Pine Forest (Pinus jeffreyi-Abies lowiana-Quercus kelloggii Alliance), which is generally has an open or scrubby understory. Montane Chaparral vegetation alliances occur in dryier and open areas on the slopes of the mountain.
The flora (a checklist of plants) of the mountain consists of approximately 356 vascular plant taxa (including subspecies and varieties), complemented by lichens and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts). The flora is primarily holoarctic in floristic makeup, with a nearly direct topographic link to the Sierra Nevada through the Tehachapi Mountains. The flora is also influenced by the Madro-tertiary flora from the south. Of the 356 vascular plants on the checklist, 242 (68%) are supported by voucher specimens that have been deposited in one or more California public herbaria. 89 taxa (25%) have been observed on Frazier Mountain but are not supported by vouchers. Another 25 (7%) are expected but not supported by voucher specimens or direct observations by the author. No surveys of the lichen or bryophyte floras of the mountain have been conducted, that I am aware of anyway.
A large percentage of the Frazier Mountain vascular plant flora consists of plants that are rare in Ventura County. Of the 356 taxa documented as present on the mountain, including the 25 that are expected but not observed or proven yet, 153 taxa (43%) are rare, with 10 or fewer populations in Ventura County, or considered rare statewide or nationally or globally (Magney 2007), as published by the California Native Plant Society, Channel Islands Chapter. This is a lower percentage than for the county as a whole; however, it is still an impressive number. The relative uniqueness of the Frazier Mountain flora is a function of its geographic position in a floristically rich part of California, itself extremely rich floristically. Frazier Mountain has a range of habitats ranging in elevation from below 4,000 feet to just over 8,000 feet above mean sea level. While not quite subalpine like it neighbor to the west, Mount Pinos, it is almost as tall. Frasier Mountain has been riding northward on the Pacific Plate, bringing with it florisitic elements from hundreds of miles south, yet has a physical connection to migrating plants from the Sierra Nevada via the Tehachapi Mountains. Also of interest is the relatively small percentage of the flora that consists of non-native naturalized species, at 13 species, this represents only 3.6%, far below the average for the entire state or almost any area. It may be that this is an artifact of underreporting and collecting of naturalized species by botanists; however, my surveys of several transects, primarily on the south slope of the mountain, were floristic in nature, recording all species observed.
Forest Service Map of Frazier Mountain, Ventura County
USGS Topographic Map of Frazier Mountain, Ventura County
