Pleasant Canyon - South Park Loop

Many of us who have frequented the 4WD trails of the Panamints for many years, now believe that this loop is the best remaining trail in the Panamints. It certainly is a whole-day experience, and in fact, we've come down off South Park in the dark a number of times, having seen sheep at dusk higher up in the canyon. South Park is best avoided in the dark, unless seeing sheep is important enough to you to endure a really wild road in the dark.

Generally, people go up the Panamint Mountains via Pleasant Canyon, and that would be my recommendation. Pleasant Canyon Road goes straight up the mountain behind the Ballarat store. Say hello to Lightfoot Louie at the store and ask him for any new news about the loop trip. As a matter of fact, Louie usually has a Park Service handout about the trip that he can give you. Update: Louie wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of life in Ballarat, (?????) and has moved up to a much more remote camp. Donna is the caretaker at the moment.

You will pass a number of old mines on the way up, but the remains of Clair Camp is a very significant landmark, and you will want to examine the machinery and such that remains. Clair Camp has been terribly vandalized after many years of having a caretaker to protect it. Believe it or not, a sheriffs reserve unit from Southern California went up there shortly after the caretaker was removed, and shot the place up with thousands of rounds of automatic weapon fire. Did the government sanction this vandalism to remove the likelihood of squatters? I tend to think so. You're wondering now if I made this up, but one of my most trusted desert fellow-travelers was passing through Clair Camp when the cops were shooting it up.

On up from Clair Camp you will come to the famous old World Beater Mine on the right. There is a cabin there and you can see extensive new working including a very good road to the top of the mountain where there is one of the best views of the Panamint Valley available anywhere. Just before you got to the World Beater, you passed and didn't notice the Stone Corral off to the right of the road. It is easy to go back and look at it. Apparently it was used as a rock corral by some group of primitive people there on the mountain. At this point there is road going off to the right that leads to a locked gate and the Porter Mine. The Porter Mine is mined a few weeks out of the year for its high quality jewelry gold.

Further on up, you will pass Rita's cabin on the right in the trees. This is a wonderful lunch stop and a chance to look around. From Rita's cabin there is a steep road to the top of the Panamints to Roger's Pass where there is a marker. You can see the whole world from this point and the ridge that goes both right and left from this point. Go to the right following the ridge top and you will get another splendid view of Butte Valley and Striped Butte, both accessible from Goler Wash but not from Pleasant Canyon. Up on top of the ridge you can see a long straight road going off across Middle Park and you will want to take this road, which joins South Park Canyon trail for the trip back down to the valley. There in Middle Park you will find the remains of the Rader Camp and the air strip that Rader used to access this mine and dwelling of his.

Dropping down into South Park, for part of the way, you follow the trail gouged out of the side of the canyon wall until you reach the area that Rader or someone blew out with dynamite to block access. The pictures that follow are of this area, that is the real sphincter contractor of this trip. The bridge was put across the blown-out area by a group of folks who call themselves "Friends of Briggs Camp" in cooperation with the BLM. One of their members told me that the "Friends" did it for purely selfish reasons, but even if that were true, it's a great boon for the rest of us. If that bridge was on flat ground it probably wouldn't seem like such a big deal, but going across it looking a thousand feet straight down as you do it, makes the steering arm turn to the canyon wall regardless of what the brain says.

There in the bottom of that section of South Park are two cabins, one or both of which were built by Harry Briggs the legendary miner from Redlands Canyon, where the big heap-leach mining operation is now located. Explore both cabins and read the log in the lower one. These cabins have been adopted by the "Friends of Briggs Camp" and they have done a remarkable amount of work there.

From this point, the road soon goes off to the right, up the hill, and then begins a very steep descent to the floor of the valley. The road you intersect in the valley floor goes off the North back to Ballarat, or South to Goler Wash. 

Picture #1 shows a Toyota 4 Runner going around the very scary rocky point just above the bridge. This Toyota belonged to Larry Angier who took these 4 photos.

Picture # 2 shows the same vehicle crossing the bridge.

Picture # 3 shows a full size Chevy pickup 4WD coming down South Park. This pickup is in the very capable hands of Desert Don, and you should not jump to conclusions about this being a "piece of cake", although my cousin followed us across this area in their almost new Suburban, with minimum damage to anything except his ears. (Wife screaming!)

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