Devil's Canyon Trail

Devil's Canyon is a beautiful, hidden jewel near to the Gibraltar Dam and Red Rock area. The nicest way to take this hike is to start on Paradise Rd. on the Matias Potrero trail which goes by Matias Potrero Camp, then hike to Devil's Canyon, down to Gibraltar Dam and back along either the road or the river to Red Rock. This hike is a car shuttle when done this way. If you don't want a car shuttle, then when you reach the dam, hike back the way you came.

You will need an Adventure Pass to park your car in the area.

Devil's Canyon done as a car shuttle (which means two cars - one at the start and one at the finish) is about 7.5 miles.

Devil's Canyon Trail Updates

Update trail conditions

Posted: January 2, 2012, 5:30 pm
by: JustinW

Went out on the trail starting at the top of Camino Cielo (Angostura Pass). Found the trail to be impassable, but likely due to a failure of the topo maps to mark the usable trail.

If you are following this trail coming from paradise road then I would not recommend taking the devils canyon trail junction pictured in the map, instead a more open trail junction can be seen from satellite at coordinates given below.

The trail following the topo maps is a wreak. We pushed through for the half mile from the Angostura Pass road to the Devils Canyon Trail junction marked on this map and it was uncomfortable but not unbearable. At this point we reached the trail coming from the camp as described on this guide. It was evident that someone had tried a bit of trail maintenance up to this point.

The next 0.3 miles was so awful, overgrown and finally so impassable that we turned around. We used a gps and nailed the trail exactly and so I am confident that this trail has been lost as marked.

A more careful look at the satellite images shows that a much more cleared trail exists but remains unmarked on the topo maps (national geo and here). Coming from the road at cielo: it begins at a turnoff where the water tunnel crosses Angostura Pass on the map. A designated route sign is next to this turnoff.

And instead of the devils canyon trail junction being located near the water line crossing, it appears that a longer, but more open trail junction to the dam can be found at 34°30'46.3''N 119°41'55.6''W. Neither of these two trails are marked on the topo maps.

The topo marked trail meets this route at Devils Canyon creek.

I didn't try these trails today, but anything would be more preferable to route marked on the topo maps.

-Justin

Posted: May 14, 2007, 6:33 pm
by: Liz

Yup, it's pretty. Yup, the creek is delightful. Yup, the place is entirely infested with ticks right now.

Black ones, brown ones, rust-colored ones.

I hiked the trail with a friend yesterday, and we picked and flicked no fewer than 80 ticks between us. That's a conservative estimate. We couldn't even enjoy the scenery because we were so busy playing defense.

We were never so happy to see a fire road when we exited the Devil's Canyon Trail (appropriately named for its resemblance to hell).

You may try it when it's not tick season, but I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable going back.

A few spots along the trail are washed out, too, but it's entirely manageable.

As for the drive, the river is so low that almost all the crossings are dry.

Posted: March 23, 2005, 8:29 pm
by: Diane

Post your update here.