Overview

This is a moderately strenuous off-trail hike that runs up a wash, then up a hillside, and onto the top of a ridge with lots of Paleozoic fossils in the bedrock and in the surrounding rubble. The route is fairly short, only about 3/4 of a mile, so it makes for a nice desert hike during the short days of winter.

Link to map.

For general information on camping, hiking, regulations, other issues, and the natural history of the Wildlife Refuge, see the Desert National Wildlife Range -- Area Overview page.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this route has some steep parts with loose scree and a few little limestone cliffs. The cliffs are fairly easy to scramble around, but watch your step. During warmer weather, watch for snakes in the wash and watch where you put your hands when climbing around the limestone cliffs.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, even though this hike is short, it is pretty wild country, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials.

This is a wildlife refuge, so pay extra attention to respecting the land. Please, don't bother the bighorn sheep. They have a hard enough time making a living in these desert lands.

Trail Guide
Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located on the Desert National Wildlife Range, about 2 hours north of town.

From town, drive out to the Desert National Wildlife Range. From Corn Creek Field Station (Table 1, Site 106), continue east to a T-intersection a few yards beyond the parking area (Site 731). Turn right onto Mormon Well Road and drive south following the road for 9.3 miles as is bends around to the east and north. Stop at a large parking area on the left side of a hard curve to the right (Site 883). Park here; this is the trailhead. For details of the road, see the Yucca Peak route.

When passing Corn Creek Field Station, be sure to stop and sign the visitor register. Use a false name if you worry about the government tracking your movements, but they need all the visitor-use statistics they can get to argue for more funding.

The Hike

The trailhead is on the top of a dirt cliff overlooking Long Canyon Wash. From the parking area (Table 2, Waypoint 01), the route runs north along the edge of the cliff for about 30 yards (to the 3rd or 4th Joshua tree on the left past the "No Vehicles" sign), and then drops into the wash on a lightly used use-trail. The route continues up and across the broad wash, heading a little bit north of northwest, aiming for the first big side canyon north of the parking area on the far side of the wash (Wpt. 02). The entrance to this canyon has limestone cliffs along the south (left) side.

Dropping into the wash, the route passes a big log carried down from Long Canyon by flash floods (think about that for a moment when you get there). By the log, check the larger rocks for fossils.

From the log, continue north-northwest and cross over a little ridge between the wash coming down from Long Canyon and the wash coming down from the canyon you want to go up. As you hike across the washes, watch the rocks under your feet for fossils. We found some nice fossil crinoids, "worm trails," snails, brachiopods, and bryozoans in the wash.

Entering the side canyon (Wpt. 02), the route passes a band of short cliffs on the south (left) side of the wash. There are some interesting little caves in the cliffs, and some have large packrat (desert woodrat) nests in them, but we found no fossils in this area.

The route stays in the wash to a point past the little cliffs where a gully comes down the steep hillside (Wpt. 03). You can look up the gully to the top of the ridge on the south side of the canyon and see a limestone buttress with a large cave at the bottom of the cliff.

The route continues up the gully, moving to the west (right) through a series of ledges and cliffs (Wpt. 04) that are at about the same elevation as the cave. The route passes to the west of the buttress (it will be on your left) on a fairly steep hillside, and climbs to the top of the ridge. There are many interesting fossils in the cliffs and in the rubble on the hillside. We found fossil corals, sponges, horn corals, and crinoids here.

To get back to the trailhead, you can retrace your steps (the easy way) or you can head southeast down the ridge for about 0.11 miles to the end of the ridge (Wpt. 06) where you can circle around under the big limestone cliffs before dropping down a hillside and gully into the main washes at the bottom of the mountain. There are some nice fossils (but nothing new) in the outcrops along the south end of the big cliffs, but it is much easier to go down the way you came.

On the way back down the Mormon Well Road, stop and check out the fossil snail shells along the base of Fossil Ridge. As the road runs through Yucca Gap, there is a place where the road runs right along the base of Fossil Ridge (i.e., no bushes between the road and the cliffs). Immediately before (east of) this point, stop in the pullout on the south (left) side of the road and look at the rocks behind the parking area. Amazing.