Old Lost Valley Road, 1953

Shortly after 1950, Ray Bergman had the first road built in to Lost Valley from the Chihuahua Valley side. He hired Frank Walker, an Anza cat skinner, who did the job in “about four or five days” with a D-8 tractor, Ray recalls. Later, he made back some of the cost of having the road built by charging people to drive in and haul out leaf mold for fertilizer from under the oak trees around the valley.

The road came in through Coombs Camp, and then along the south side of Bucksnort Mountain. It stayed down in the canyons, for the most part, climbing steeply over several ridges. The original power line into camp followed Ray’s road for the most part. The last two and half miles of the road down into the valley can still be easily followed on foot; since the modern entrance road was completed in 1964, it has been known as the Old Road.

Back to Chronology