Bushwhacking near Ryan Mountain

What started out as a hike to Lost Horse Mine via Ryan campground turned into an off-trail bushwhacking adventure south of Ryan mountain and east of Keys View road. After setting up camp at Ryan campground, we headed east down the California Riding and Hiking Trail (CRHT). After missing the 90 degree right turn, we turned around and headed west on CRHT, but missed the turn again! Finally, on the third try we were able to spot it. For your own notes, the turn is east of Ryan campground and right next to a National Park Service sign noting that the you are in a fragile burn recovery area. It's just after the CRHT makes a sharp(ish) left turn heading East.

South of CRHT & Ryan Mountain, Looking West

It was clear that this trail is not actively maintained and you should be confident in your backcountry navigation skills if you're going to head in this direction. Sections of the trail appear to be a long abandoned access road. Other sections will make you wonder if you are on any sort of trail at all! We wound up between a few small hills directly South of the CHRT turn off. This area was absolutely perfect for some backcountry camping so we will be back soon.

After passing through the hills, we started to turn slightly southeast and down into a wash. We hit what appeared to be a junction, consulted the map and made a left turn. There were plenty of footprints in this area, and the left turn appeared to be more heavily traveled. Post-hike analysis of the GPS trek and the trail map have indicated we should have continued straight, so this must have been the beginning of our backcountry bushwhacking adventure. We wound up eastward through a wash that had clearly been traveled by many before us. The scenery started to change as we gained a little bit of elevation. There was more shade and even a few pine trees as the trail narrowed and continued along a fold in between the hills.

Heading Through the Wash

We finally traveled far enough up the wash to where there was no longer a clear path forward. It was getting late in the afternoon as well, so we decided to turn around and bushwhack our way back to the trail junction. The hike back was smooth with one small exception: I walked straight into a cactus. When you have to really concentrate on finding the trail, punting a small cactus is easier than you might think. After continuing skin irritation and a little research, it turns out I bumped into a silver cholla cactus. They are native to the region and left mosquito-bite looking bumps on my legs for a few weeks. Luckily, it's all healed up now and the marks are barely noticeable.

Overall, this was a beautiful area of Joshua Tree and we noted a few great looking backcountry camping locations. We were disappointed about not making it to Lost Horse Mine, but I am really looking forward to the backcountry camping areas we scoped out. Another great thing about exploring roads less traveled is the opportunity for solitude. We didn't spot a single soul (except the bunnies of course)!