Three parties participated in the Santiago Canyon trip the weekend of June 21-22. This turned out to be a pretty good Jeep trail. Being only about an hour away makes it a good choice for a day trip. Camping wasn't terrible, but it wasn't superb either. You can click on any of the pictures below to see larger versions.

Lee Thoburn with his son Kenny in his CJ7, Mike Tilse in his Montero, and Lisa, Addison and I (David Beckemeyer) towing our M38A1 Willys left from Glendale about 8am. The drive to Littlerock Dam was mostly uneventful, short of a few U-turns finding the proper turnoff at a hole-in-the-wall town called Four Points (at least I think it was a town). The name says it all. Anyway, we arrived at LittleRock Dam National Park about 9am and spent some time speaking with the Ranger, filling out the proper paperwork and so on.

We unloaded some camp gear to mark a camp spot and headed for the trailhead, just down the road. Right away I was encouraged when I saw the lovely sight of rocks and more rocks. The trail started off just as I had hoped, not too difficult but challenging enough to make it interesting. I knew Michael had the least off-road experience and the vehicle with the fewest modifications, lowest ground clearance, etc, so I let Lisa drive my Jeep and I jumped into the Montero to act as co-pilot. I could sense that Michael was a little nervous but he and his Montero were doing surpisingly well.

As you can see from the picture, it's a rocky trail. The rocks never look as big in pictures as they really are. It is a bumpy ride. In case you're wondering, the speed we're travalling is as slow as the vehicle will go idling in first gear, low range (probably about 1/3 the speed your ordinary passenger car will go at its slowest). The trail had a steady grade which adds to the difficulty.

We didn't travel the entire trail, which is about 3 miles and according to the ranger takes about 6 hours.

The trail got progessively more difficult. We came to a spot that looked rather tricky and decided it was time to park the Montero. It turns out this was about one rock too late, but more on that in a moment. The picture at left is the spot in question.

We all scratched our heads, threw some rocks in some holes, and decided on a path. I went first and Lee followed. There was a spot at this section which had a pretty steep side angle and a rock too large to drive over at the bottom side. If you drive too high on the side, there's a good chance of sliding off under power (it's all uphill after all) and hitting the rock just that much harder. However, if you start too close to the rock at the bottom, there's a good chance you'll scrape something too. It's all a matter of balance and being very carefull with the throttle and avoiding the clutch.

This would be a much more difficult section without a suspension lift and oversize tires. It is certainly possible to make it through this spot with an unmodified vehicle, but it requires a great deal of skill.

Here you can see Lee doing a little body work to his driver side (mostly just a small crinkle in the sissy step :-)

This was the most challenging section we encountered on the way in. At several places along the trail there were several possible paths to follow, usually an "easier" one and a more difficult one. We couldn't find an easier way around this spot however, which probably limits the trail to well equipped vehicles or at least to experienced drivers.

The scenary was splendid and it was a beautiful day.

Lee needed to get back in time for the fishing trip that night; it was about 11am and time to turn around. We stopped in a nice shady spot (one of the few) and ate some lunch, then headed back down the trail in the opposite direction, back to Littlerock Dam.

On the way out, some of the same spots we already drove through on the way in seemed totally new and different -- going in a different direction can have dramatic affects on the difficulty and character of a challenging spot. At left you see Lee "catching some air."

We got to the spot where we had parked Michael's Montero and he and it rejoined the caravan. I don't know all the reasons (one seldom does) but somehow a medium sized rock managed to find its way into the rocker panel of the Montero, leaving a small dent. My first words to Michael were "Hey at least the door still opens." Probably not too comforting. Michal was upset, but took it well.

The picture at left shows the spot that got Michael, along with the evil rock visible on the left, near the passenger-side door. We surveyed the damage and determined that the vehicle was still trail worthy. I wished I could have done more to prevent this from happening. I thought that we stopped the Montero before risking damage, but it happened. This is actually typical of damage during offroading -- it usually comes when you least expect it. Overall, the Montero did very well, especially considering it has no suspension lift and small tires.

It turns out that the Littlerock Dam area has a lot of offroad activity areas, including places for ATVs, dune buggies, motorcycles, and all flavors of offroad vehicles. The reservoir itself is small and not much of a swimming hole (although swimming is allowed and poeple were swimming). It also supports fishing.

I don't know how well the Santiago Canyon trail itself would be for ATVs or other such vehicles. It seems to be better for rock-crawling, but you can decide for yourself based on these pictures.

Overall I think everyone had a good time and I definitely think another trip to Littlerock Dam and Santiago Canyon makes a lot of sense. I'm open for a day-trip anytime. Perhaps even a quick day during the week sometime.

Photgraphs taken by my lovely wife, Lisa Beckemeyer.