Red Rock Canyon State Park and Last Chance Canyon (CA)

[4x4mike]

Well Spring is finally here in Northern CA and Paddlenbike is getting married. Perfect time to plan a little wheeling trip. Most of the mountain trails here are either under snow, still under winter closure or closed due to a Forest Service Order. We have a lot of coastal locations that would be fun but Ken likes the desert and we decided to get down there before it got too hot.

We had a small group of guys and all of them, for the most part, met the criteria. They all owned 4Runners. At most we had 5, 4 3rd gens and one 2nd gen. We decided on Red Rock Canyon State Park because it looked cool and none of us had ever been. Check it out: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=631

We set out on Friday and planned to return on Sunday. It was a lot of highway miles but with some junk food, In and Out (the burger joint), and a simplex frequency we hit the road.

Traveling down the valley was somewhat uneventful from the Sacramento area to Bakersfield. After Bakersfield we turned East over the Tehachapi's and towards highway 14 North of Mojave to Ricardo State Campground. The campground was a nice 50 spot site. The desert landscape is much different than we're used to up north and this campground very much desert. Flat, sandy and no trees.

After setting up camp we decided to hit the dirt near Opal Canyon. The terrain was very up and down and was mostly sand and rocks with no real obstacles. We had no real destination but decided to find some mines we had seen on the map.


We took up most of the AM/PM in Bakersfield.


We told Ken this was full of the strippers we had hired to come out with us. Only in Bakersfield.


Tehachapi through my dirty windshield


Almost there. Starting to get windy.


We made it there and so did the important stuff. Tequila and peanuts, and Matt.


It was windier at the campsite than on the road. Tents were pitched to use for gear instead of sleeping in, with the exception of the bachelor guy and the peanut man. Empty the contents of your 4Runner into a tent so there would be room for sleeping. A tent pole was the first casualty. Duct tape to the rescue.


Dirt under the tires.


Even more windy on ridge tops.

[4x4mike]

We were using Back Country Navigator on dash mounted tablets for the entire trip. Quad maps with downloaded routes was nice to have. It gave us a route, if we chose to follow it, as well as labels for interesting things we might want to see. We were pretty sure this was a talc mine. The walls were very white and soft. There were huge tunnels going into and down the mountain. The ridge along the mountain was full of holes leading into the mountains center.







You could drive a truck down these chutes.


Pretty nice over look of one of the valleys.


En route back to the campsite. These roads were more improved and fun to go fast on.


Back at the campground the sun was setting.

[Good Times]

awesome! thanks for sharing... can't wait to get my feet back wet

[4x4mike]

Come morning the wind had calmed which was nice. I slept in the back of the 4Runner and it was nice and cozy. The wind was rocking the vehicle for about an hour all while Ken and Matt were being pelted with sand in the tent. Despite the sand he should have been thankful to wake up to the beautiful scenery and not duct taped in his sleeping bag.





The 4Runners handled the wind on the highway quite well. Much better than these guys. They rolled into camp with their pop up tent trailer dragging canvas and being held together with ratchet straps. Pretty much everyone in the campground "took a walk" to get a closer look. The two tents at their site looked brand new, like they were purchased the same time as the ratchet straps.



At least Ken was having a better morning than them, even if his eyes, ears and nose were caked with sand.




After breakfast and the arrival of Ken's brother in law we hit the trail.

[4x4mike]

The beginning of the trail was somewhat mellow but we had a lot of stops just to get out and look around.



Yes that is a dash mounted stripper doll/air freshener. Apparently she really got spinning on the bumpier parts of the trail.








Once out of the gray canyon we were treated with a bit of Spring color.


It seems like we spent a lot of miles in dry washes.

[Good Times]

Great photos!

Ouch!

[4x4mike]

With no real agenda we poked our heads into or drove up or down anything that looked interesting.




Top of a ridge after one of a couple hill climbs.






Schmidt Tunnel. Hand dug copper mine that was about a 1/4 mile long. It was hot and sunny outside but nice and cool in the mine. It went in one side of the mountain and popped out the other side. Pretty cool experience.

[4x4mike]

Schmidt mine, continued.

Bart Simpson voice: "It was like that when I got here."


Other end.


Apparently I got a little tipsy. Photo credit to Paddlenbike

[4x4mike]

More.





The trail was getting narrower and the rocks more jagged.


Day two was about 42 miles off road. Needless to say we were tired and hungry when we came back to our super windy campsite. Boy was I glad I was sleeping in the 4Runner.


Our campsite had been beat from the wind. Pots, pans, tables, firewood was scattered about. A neighbor said some of our stuff was about 200 feet away in a wash. At about 8pm we decided to drink beer and move our camp down a few instead of eat dinner. The new site was a bit more protected from the wind (kind of but not really, especially if you were in a tent :snicker and allowed us to light a fire and cook dinner.

In the morning we were greeted by some nice rock walls.




After packing up camp we hit the road towards home. We happened to be in Bakersfield around lunch and lucky for us...


All in all it was a great trip and the trails were a lot of fun. They were just the right mix of length and difficulty. We didn't want to trash our rigs because we like them and had to drive them 6 hours home. Any thing more difficult would have slowed our group down quite a bit and we wouldn't have been able to cover as much ground.

Speaking of covering ground. My tablet did just that.

[DHC6twinotter]

Awesome pictures, Mike! Looks like you guys had a fun time out there.