I took a day off of work and met my friends in Santa Clarita. Then we carpooled to Jawbone Station for a short break before driving half a mile north of the entrance to Red Rock State Park. We parked at a small turnout on the east side of the highway.
We started our route to the left of the trail sign and after walking a short distance scrambled up a steep ridge 1000 ft, so that we could continue a cross-country route up a couple of ridges. If you go right at the trailhead signs, you can follow a couple of jeep roads and hike a counter clockwise loop. The route we hiked allowed us to get gorgeous panoramic views of Nighmare Gulch and the canyons below.
This was the first ridge we approached after scrambling 1000' ft.
After the first ridge we had to descend a couple of feet before we approached another ridge.
A view of the area we would eventually be hiking to get to Nightmare Gulch.
A close up view of Nightmare Gulch.
We eventually descended the ridge route and crossed paths with a jeep road, but instead of continuing on the road we went off trail and scrambled down a gully where we found lots of colorful and cool rock formations.
We found our way back to the road for a little bit then crossed some private property where we found an old campground.
We ate lunch and sat on an old foundation. After some exploring, we spotted a mine across the way. We hiked back down to check it out. The mine wasn't that deep but was filled with water, so we just peeked in.
To be continued...
