Indian Road

1.1 miles (one way). Easy hiking with views back into the Valley.

For centuries, Cupeño Indians from Warner Springs traveled this canyon in and out of the valley they called Wiatava to gather acorns. Living in small brush shelters, they would spend several weeks in Lost Valley each fall, harvesting, grinding, and storing acorns – their staple food. The bedrock mortars they used still exist. Later, perhaps as early as the 1870s, cattlemen used the trail through this canyon to bring their stock in and out of the valley they named Lost Valley.

In September of 1944 a fire was raging in the hills above Lost Valley, and caterpillar tractors and fire crews needed to get into the valley to make a stand. The old Indian trail was a natural route for them to follow. Herschel Higgins from the Forest Service station in Oak Grove was on the fire line; he recalled:

“We had eight bulldozers, and I had charge of them. We had a crazy old cat skinner from up North and I put him on a D-7 and I said, ‘Henry, put a road on that old trail ... just stay on the trail and put a road on it.’ And he said, ‘Follow the trail?’ And I said, ‘That’s all right with me, now take off!’ Boy, he took off into the brush and went down with all eight of them and got to the other end. They never stopped, they never looked back. And when we got to the other end there was an Army truck right behind them that drove right down into Lost Valley.”

The fire never reached Lost Valley, but ironically, a small fire started accidentally by the fire crews flared up a few weeks later and destroyed the old log barn behind the Bergman Cabin. The Indian Road, as the Scouts later dubbed it, was the first road into Lost Valley. Now kept open for emergencies, it makes an easy hike out to the boundary of the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. Unlike most trails in the Lost Valley area, much of the road is in the shade, even in middle of the day.

The trailhead is located just across the road from the COPE course at Borrego Junction. Coming up from the Rifle Range, the road to the junction passes a major acorn grinding site on the right, with dozens of mortars pounded into the bedrock. This site was still used by the Cupeño as late as 1900, before their “removal” to the Pala Reservation in 1903.

Just above Borrego Junction, a gate closes off the Indian Road to vehicles. The road climbs up, then turns to the right, passing below Castle Rock, with its natural “window.” There is a good view of camp from here.

The road continues on past Cathedral Rocks, Lost Valley’s major rock climbing area. Remember that rock climbing requires skill, equipment, and (while at Lost Valley) staff supervision.

As you enter the unnamed canyon beyond, you leave the Scout property and enter the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, our 600,000-acre neighbor. Across the canyon to your right, an old cattle trail is clearly visible. This may be a survivor of the original Indian trail through this canyon. The plant life in the canyon is interesting. On the right (south) side of the canyon are black oak trees and some pines, but to the left (north) is largely the low brushy chaparral so typical of these hills.

A majestic oak tree on the left, a little ways up the canyon, makes a nice lunch spot – or even an overnight campsite. In the hills beyond, to the north, are some interesting rock formations, including a natural granite arch.

At 0.9 miles, Taka’at Rock is visible off the road to the left. Taka’at is a Cupeño word that means pointed, an apt description of this narrow finger of rock. This was sometimes used as a climbing site during the earliest days of Lost Valley’s climbing program. Bedrock mortars can be found around its base.

At 1.1 miles, you reach the gate that marks the boundary between the state park and the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation, which was set aside in 1889 for the Cahuilla Indians. Prior permission is needed from the Tribal Council before entering the reservation, so this must be your turn-around point. Looking back down the canyon in several spots, you can see back across camp and even catch a few glimpses of the Lost Valley Road on the hills above.

Back to Trails Page