EISPIRATEN

Tired of breathing smoke and ash from the Eaton Fire, I decided to drive to the high desert and hike around the Barstow area. Thankfully Jeff was able to join me at the last minute, so I wasn't alone for the Owl Canyon and Rainbow Basin scramble. Stavros Basis describes this beautiful loop hike at his website. He does a good job providing all the important information.

Jeff and I began hiking from the Owl Canyon Trailhead. The trail drops you into a wash, which then turns into a class 2 scramble through a narrow canyon with colorful rock formations.
We found a neat cave that connected the main canyon with a side branch.
There were thoughts of trying to find a different way back to the main canyon, but it seemed like too much effort, so we backtracked through the cave and continued along the normal route.

After a narrow stretch of fun scrambling, the canyon opened up and we found multicolored rock formations.
At the top of Owl Canyon we turned west and passed through a series of whitewashed gullies.
Then we climbed out of the canyon to reach Rainbow Basin Overlook (3964').
On the ridge, cold wind became an issue. It was blowing hard enough to potentially knock us off our feet. Fortunately summit rocks provided shelter and we ate lunch in relative comfort with a beautiful view into Rainbow Basin, which would be our descent destination.
To be continued...

After lunch at the summit, we followed the ridge westward down to a saddle junction. We then turned south and headed into another canyon, following Stavros' route.
This begins as a decent singletrack, used by motorbikes too. Ultimately the trail disappears, and motorbike tracks leave the wash, going up the banks. We continued down the wash to a narrow, drop-in point. And here we scrambled down a few class 2/3ish sections to reach a cool slot canyon.
Ultimately we exited the slot canyon and reached a scenic road for Rainbow Basin. We hiked down the road a bit and found a use trail that goes up a ridge to the large plateau between Rainbow Basin Drive and Owl Canyon Campground.
From the ridge we looked back at our lunch spot way in the distance.
Then it was a simple matter of crossing the plateau and dropping back into the start of Owl Canyon.
Of course we had to leave a sticker at the campground.

I love both of these areas - especially Owl Canyon when you get to where it narrows. Thanks for sharing! I may try to dig up some old pictures I have and share them in the future.