The turnout for the mystery road is at mile marker 40.50 on the ACH beyond Red Box. If you drive to the next turnout, you get a nice panoramic of the whole canyon with the old road visible on the right.
We descended the overgrown road, whose bed was in good shape until the final segment after a right turn in a side gully. Here the road became rutted and populated with some thriving yucca, which forced us onto the slope a couple times.
We lost all trace of a road about fifty feet above the main canyon floor. Here some metal debris and pipes had been left behind.
Flowing water could be heard. We looked for an easy way down. Our route ended up requiring a bit of gymnastics to get off the bank and into the stream bed.
You should probably be comfortable with class 3 scrambling if you attempt this hike.
Immediately we discovered the purpose of the old road. Clearly it had been used to haul in supplies to build a pump house and install water tanks.
The pump house contained an F.E. Myers & Bro. water pump and a GE induction motor. Based on its serial number, the motor was manufactured in January of 1947. A nearby wooden utility pole had supplied the power to run the motor. Why were they pumping water at the head of Valley Forge Canyon in the '50s? Maybe they were trying to establish a year-round supply for cabins in the canyon.
So, solving one mystery led to yet another mystery.
We continued down the narrow canyon. It contained plenty of deadfall to avoid or climb over and under. Some stretches had neat cascades and small pools.
Not far below the water tanks, a waterfall stood in our way. It was approximately thirty feet high with a bypass on the right.
Periodically we noticed flat benches along the banks. I surmised that these could have been cabin locations, or spots prepared for cabins that were never built. One bench contained many scattered boulders, which possibly had formed a retaining wall or foundation now destroyed.
Another location still contained a couple rock walls.
We also detected signs of the old trail, but only small bits still exist, and they are in bad shape.
At some point the trail might have been a road, given the fact that we found this old tire in there.
In general, the scrambling was slow, and we had a few encounters with poison oak. Also, the ants decided to come out in force. But lots of beautiful watery scenery distracted us from the messy stuff.
After a couple hours we made it to the West Fork, took a meal break at Valley Forge Camp, and walked the fire road to Red Box saddle.
