October 2001 - Lost World
Trail Rating - 4.5+
Trip Leader: Chris Villarreal
Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal
Sunday morning was heavily overcast with ominous looking clouds in the direction of the trail. I loaded up the trailer and when my friend Ken arrived, we headed out to the meeting spot. Chad showed up right after we did and we waited a while for Jim. Chad had removed his doors and top and was starting to rethink that decision after seeing the clouds off in the distance. At around 7:10 he decided to run back home and get his top and doors. Ken and myself waited a little longer for Jim before heading down the road to find a spot to park my trailer. Turns out I forgot to tell Jim we were meeting on Sunday, not Saturday (sorry Jim). Just off of Castle Hot Springs Road we found a spot to park the trailer.
The plan was for us to put 3 big rocks off to the side of the road so Chad could find us. It was raining off and on and there was a lot of lightning. It was looking like we were just going to write down the directions to the trail and not run it due to the nasty weather. About 6 miles down the road we came across this desert tortoise. I had never seen one in the wild. I took a few pictures and we made sure the little guy got across the road ok. Not two minutes after we started moving again I tried to raise Chad on the CB, we got him, sounded crystal clear! I glanced into the rearview mirror and noticed he just pulled up behind us, the rocks worked....
More wildlife, this time some wild donkeys.
Approximately 14.5 miles and two hours later we made it to the trailhead. The trail to your left in the direction of the wagon takes you to Tip Top and eventually out thru Table Mesa Road. Straight ahead and down the hill is the Lost World (yes, there is a road there). Don't know where the trail to the right goes (yet).
It had started to get sunny just as we got to the bottom of the canyon. Since the weather was clearing up we decided to head downstream and scout some more of the trail. We took the bypass to skip the first 1/2 mile section of trail and the first waterfall. The bypass can be tricky, especially when the rocks are wet.
Here's where the bypass road cuts back across the wash and keeps going! Too cool. The first waterfall is to the right. We walked down the next section of trail till the bypass road crossed the wash again. It looked doable so we then walked the bypass road to make sure it wasn't washed out. It checked out good so we started down the wash.
This second section of trail had a lot pf large rocks and mini waterfalls. I'd say it was harder than the first section.