Outer Limits
Trail name: Outer Limits
Trailhead location: 34o27'16.6"N, 116o27'6.3"W
Length: 1.2 miles
Elapsed time: 3 hours 30 minutes
How to get there (with special thanks to Mike Kunz): Outer Limits is the right name as this trail is much farther out there than the rest. Once again, take the road north and then east through the gap in the ridgeline. Follow the main road until you reach a faint intersection at 34o27'23.7"N, 116o29'35.9"W.
Turn left and follow the road up over the saddle and down the other side. You will be descending into a broad valley and you will follow the road down the valley, staying to the right. When you reach 34o27'59.8"N, 116o26'45.4.3"W (near a very strange mound of rocks), take a right in toward the ridge. In the wash, look for a very faint track (it may be marked with flagging) on the left side of the wash near the base of the mound. Follow this track marked with cairns until you drop into a large wash. Turn left up the wash and follow it in.
The trail: This trail is a great one but doesn't get as much use as it is a little farther from the lake bed. The trail starts out in a fairly broad wash where tracks wander here and there on multiple lines as vehicles seek out challenges. As the canyon tightens, the challenges no longer need to be sought out, as the single available line is usually challenge enough. Many of the plentiful rocks are bedded in sand giving little usable traction. This canyon climbs rapidly, similar to Sledgehammer, and much of the fun is derived from fighting gravity in addition to the rocks. The route is definitely more of challenge for large or long vehicles as it is very, very tight and technical. There are numerous squeeze situations where sliding through on the rocker panels is the way to go if the vehicle is narrow enough. Wider vehicles will be forced to carve up and over large rocks on one side or the other. There are several big shelves to hop up and all of them feature menacing rock walls scant inches from the sheet metal. This canyon claimed my pitman arm very near the top so we couldn't explore as much as we desired. The last fork featured a lot of tracks to the left so one would believe that there is even more fun to be had if you are feeling adventurous. The right fork carries you up and over what is left of the ridgeline and back toward the main road. |
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