Valley of the Moon

This has been on my hit list for many years and I really want to go check the area out. Has anyone been recently and can comment on the road conditions? I have an F150 with decent clearance but unfortunately it is not a 4x4 (lame I know). Does anyone know how close I could safely get my truck to the climbs like the gravity wall and how far roughly I would have to hoof it from the truck to the climbs? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks 

Your truck could *probably* make it up there. If you have a 4" lift, you should be fine.  However, there's a few obstacles where 4WD is beneficial. I've got a lifted Jeep wrangler and even with 4WD, a few sections are tricky. From the road to the rocks is about 2 miles? Give or take a few. I didn't check my mileage when I drove up there.  

My friend with a stock jeep cherokee made it ok in November 2018. Can't comment on current condi's. You can also park at the start of the "4x4" road and hike in (~2-3 miles and mostly downhill on the way in).

I’ve been 3 times in a stock 96’ Jeep Grand Cherokee. Stock tires too. My buddy took his RWD truck there 2 years ago and barely made it out. Had to floor it on the steep section coming out.  Really sketchy! Keep in mind, you’ll still have to walk a mile + after you park to the climbing, unless you got a badass 4X4 with good clearance and suspension. 

He’ll make it out there just fine. He jumped the gun before asking me for my Jeep. He now has been privately shamed and forced to climb with someone who will only hold him back, ie me.

Was out there this past Sunday. Temps were perfect for shaded climbing. Hopefully you’ll get nice weather as well. The second half of the road in is rough. You’ll probably make it back out in a high clearance two wheel drive. Question is how much do you like your vehicle.

Jake R wrote: I’ve been 3 times in a stock 96’ Jeep Grand Cherokee. Stock tires too. My buddy took his RWD truck there 2 years ago and barely made it out. Had to floor it on the steep section coming out.  Really sketchy! Keep in mind, you’ll still have to walk a mile + after you park to the climbing, unless you got a badass 4X4 with good clearance and suspension. 

You still have to walk about a mile from the wilderness boundary, where you park your badass 4wd, to the Patina Wall. It’s a beautiful walk with little elevation gain. 

Joe Brophy wrote:

Valley of the Moon has some of the finest choss you'll climb in San Diego area.

JOE BROPHY DRINKING ROLLING ROCK - WHAAAAAA?!?!?!! Chossy beer for chossy rock

You can easily make it 1/2 down the road until it splits off to the towers (https://goo.gl/maps/xY2238E4xN1e7R6JA). From there you get to the 'gauntlet', which is easy enough going in, but if you don't pick the right line, you're going to have trouble getting out in 2WD. I have seen several 2WD Tacomas attempt that part going out, and it hasn't been pretty - it can definitely be done, but it depends on how comfortable driving off-road you are (as in, if you're not comfortable driving off-road, don't do it!).

From the split-point you can walk the rest of the way (you have already gained most of the elevation), but it's still a fairly strenuous hike of ~2 miles to the base of Patina wall (which is where you want to go if this is your first time). If you drive all the way to the 'parking' area, it's a ~1/2 mile easy (beautiful!) hike to the base.

Definitely one of my favorite places to climb near San Diego - plus the off-road bit makes it more entertaining (and less crowded...). I personally drive a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk and can make it without issue - but the first time I drove that road it was pretty intimidating (now it feels like a walk in the park).

I made it last year in my Subaru Forester. I've got skid plates on it but didn't end up hitting anything.  There's one tricky section of road that you've gotta be delicate getting through but with a little bit of technique and a good spotter you can get through okay.

Thank you guys for the information this helps a lot, I think I’ll drive to the split and hike the rest of the way in, I have an old F150 and couldn’t afford to fix it if I messed something up so I don’t think I’ll take the risk of going further. Would it be safe to park my truck and leave it there for the day? Also has anyone camped out there?

When you get to the split, hike down a few hundred yards and take a look at that section - that’s the worst part of the trail.

OK to park for the day for sure, and yeah, we have camped there. Note that the region does see a fair bit of cross-border traffic, so keep that in mind (I have personally never seen any or heard of anybody having had any issues because of it. But you can see the evidence from the ‘traffic’ in some places).

Have fun - beautiful place!

Went out this weekend and was absolutely blown away by how beautiful it was but god damn that road is gnarly! I was also astonished at how under developed the area is. Does anyone have any info on route development out here? It seems like things have remained the same for quite some time with out many new routes going up. Is it okay to put up new routes? Should I be reaching out to anyone first to check? Any info is appreciated.

Gnarly as in fun, right? Yeah, it's a little tricky - but gets easier over time   .

Agreed - super beautiful place - would be swarming with people if it wasn't for the road. As for new developments, I honestly don't know, but new routes pop up now and again - there's clearly a TON of potential. Maybe see if you can get a hold of Dan Haughelstine - I once bumped into him out there, but he isn't on MP....

If you haven't seen it, ​This Website​​​ is a better resource than MP for VotM as well as some other socal areas

Kristian Andersen wrote: Gnarly as in fun, right? Yeah, it's a little tricky - but gets easier over time   .

Agreed - super beautiful place - would be swarming with people if it wasn't for the road. As for new developments, I honestly don't know, but new routes pop up now and again - there's clearly a TON of potential. Maybe see if you can get a hold of Dan Haughelstine - I once bumped into him out there, but he isn't on MP....

Ya gnarly as in fun haha. We just had to re route our mindstate for the day. Initially I visualized cruising the 4x4 section in my buddies tacoma and then arriving right at the Patina wall for a morning crush session before the heat arrived. Instead I quickly realized that the 4x4 section would take much longer than anticipated, we would wander aimlessly through the desert in the wrong direction, and that the morning shade would soon be gone leaving us roasting in the desert heat. Thankfully we brought a case of a beer and tank full of stoke. We still crushed and we found several caves for shade. After switching gears from this mindstate we had an epic day adventuring around the area with low climbing expectations. In our dis oriented state of aimlessly wandering I saw line after line just screaming to be climbed.... Ya I contacted Hubbard this morning to get some more info,

Hand.jammin wrote:

Ya gnarly as in fun haha. We just had to re route our mindstate for the day. Initially I visualized cruising the 4x4 section in my buddies tacoma and then arriving right at the Patina wall for a morning crush session before the heat arrived. Instead I quickly realized that the 4x4 section would take much longer than anticipated, we would wander aimlessly through the desert in the wrong direction, and that the morning shade would soon be gone leaving us roasting in the desert heat. Thankfully we brought a case of a beer and tank full of stoke. We still crushed and we found several caves for shade. After switching gears from this mindstate we had an epic day adventuring around the area with low climbing expectations. In our dis oriented state of aimlessly wandering I saw line after line just screaming to be climbed.... Ya I contacted Hubbard this morning to get some more info,

How was it driving back up the 4x4 section? Any troubles getting out?

Hand.jammin doesn’t sound like he gets out to areas that need 4x4 all to often. He should take some off road lesson then try again.

Jake Schillings wrote:

How was it driving back up the 4x4 section? Any troubles getting out?

It seemed about the same as getting in, we had to stack some rocks in few areas and spot my buddy, I would just account for some extra time to get in and out of the place when going

When going out, on the sketchiest part of the section in 'the gauntlet', the line on the right is better than the line on the left (although it's a fair bit more scary-looking). Especially if you have two-wheel drive and/or live axles. If you have done the drive a couple of times, you know what I mean  .