Page 1 of 1

Anschutz Benchmark via Difficult Canyon

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 10:18 am
by tekewin
Girl Hiker's post on 49 palms whetted my appetite for some JT scrambling. I read about some big bouldering in a remote corner of the park, far away from public access. Being summit focused, I plotted a route through Difficult Canyon (the actual topo name) to Anschutz with a return down Dragon Wash which looked mostly clear on the sat view.

I drove I-10 East to Eagle Mountain Road. Then north to a side dirt road to a T-intersection, then turned left on Hayfield Road. These were the smoothest dirt roads I've ever driven. I was doing 30-35 mph without a problem, so any car could make the drive. I parked in between the two canyons. About half a mile from my parking spot, I reached the entrance to Difficult Canyon. Pretty quickly, I ran into the crux section with giant boulders. The boulders were solid. There were multiple class 3 obstacles and catclaw eager to rip my flesh. Did quite a bit of backtracking as I hit dead ends. I made a couple of scary moves, not always on the cleanest route. As I got deeper into the canyon, I was motivated to get through, not wanting to come back this way. After scrambling and crawling through several tunnels, the canyon opened up for a quarter mile, then came the second scramble section, with new problems. Past that, the canyon got easier. I walked up on a beautiful king snake basking in the sun. He had no interest in me and let me get quite close. I wound around the canyon to the ascent gully on the south face of Anschutz.

Image

Image

Image
Entrance to Difficult Canyon

I didn't take any photos while scrambling, but I did shoot some shaky GoPro video.


Image

The ascent gully was class 2 with crummy, loose rock, gaining 1500' in the final mile. I slid around and slowly picked my way up. I could not see the saddle at the top, but GPS gave me some encouragement. For a fleeting second, I considered abandoning the summit and just completing the canyon loop, but I was too close, and vowed to continue the fight. From the saddle, it was a short walk over two small bumps to the summit. register placed in 1981. The last visitors to sign in before me were Bob Burd, Patrick O'Neill and Karl Fieberling seven years ago. Definitely a seldom visited summit. I took a longer than usual break on top to rest, finish my Flame Broiler bowl, and enjoy the view. The return trip down the loose gully was a slow and painful knee buster. I tried to stay on what little solid rock was available. With great relief, I reached the bottom of the gully and started down the mellow Dragon Wash. I had a second snake encounter there, a huge red racer, 5-6' long and larger than the king snake. Unlike the king snake, she was skittish and disappeared in the rocks before I could snap a photo. Anschutz was serious fun and scratched my scrambling itch. For an easier day, you can go up and down Dragon Wash or take other canyons approches that appear more moderate.

Image
Ascent gully

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
Dragon Wash exit

Image
Joshua Tree boundary marker

Image
Back at truck, super smooth road

Image
Souvenir

Image
7 miles, 2443' gain

Re: Anschutz Benchmark via Difficult Canyon

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 1:38 pm
by dima
Look fun! How did you decide to come here?

Re: Anschutz Benchmark via Difficult Canyon

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:04 pm
by tekewin
dima wrote: Look fun! How did you decide to come here?
I got the idea from one of Bob Burd's trip reports. Whenever I find one that looks interesting, I tuck it away in a list of possible future hikes. Then dust one off when I am looking for something in particular, like a good scramble in this case.

It's also not far from an undocumented (AFAIK) area I have been eyeing south of Eagle Mountain. I've mapped out an approach route, but it would probably need to be an overnight to really explore it.

Re: Anschutz Benchmark via Difficult Canyon

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2023 11:39 pm
by Girl Hiker
Wow, impressive and great photos.