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Solo Backpacking in Rockhouse Valley

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

3/5/2012

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

My plan was to backpack into Rockhouse Valley and search for the remains of the Santa Rosa Indian Village. I found lots of conflicting information on its location so I decided I would head for one of the two areas I suspected held the remains. I looked on google earth and matched up what I thought was the remains of a circular house at about 4,000' at the base of Toro Peak. Everything seemed to match up when planning from home that I would find what I was lookiing for. But alas, I found nothing. However I had a great hike and night out in a very lonely corner of ABDSP (really I started the hike in ABDSP but most of the hike is outside the park boundary).

I woke up at 5:00AM and finished packing and had the DesertTJ on the road by 7:00. Once I left pavement near Clark Dry Lake it still took almost an hour to reach the end of the road in Rockhouse Canyon. I started hiking around 10:00 AM under clear skies with just a bit of a breeze.

I ran into 3 packers coming down by the dry fall right at the county line. These would be the only people I saw during my hike. Near the dry falls the walls of the canyon are very steep and colorful with lots of huge boulders on the floor.

Walking through the canyon the sand was hard like cement all the way into Rockhouse Valley. There must have been some rain in the area to make the sand hard like this but there wasn't much green in the area. After about 90 minutes I made it to the edge of the valley. Here is the first view of Toro Peak.

When you enter the valley you can find the 3 lower rock houses (not really houses, more like walls) on the right about half a mile or so up the wash on the west side of the valley. The lowest rock house is in bad shape but the middle and upper houses are in much better shape. There was lots of rodent droppings in the walls so I don't think I would stay in them. Here is the middle house. You can just see the upper rock house over the wall of the closer house.

After a nice long lunch break I started off up an un-named wash toward where I hoped I would find some ruins. The moon rose over the Santa Rosa Mountains as I clmbed the next 1000' up to a bench overlooking the valley.

Here is the view looking up the wash toward Toro Peak.

When I reached 4,000' I left the wash I climbed up to look for the ruins I was hoping I would find. The vegetation was pretty thick and I didn't see any signs of the circular house I was hoping to find. I did however come across and old trail with some ducks so I followed it up hoping it would lead me to the ruins. I climbed up to almost 4,600' before deciding this trail led over into the canyon where a seep is located. The pictures I had seen of the ruins show them much lower than where I was so I turned around and descended back to around 4,000' to look some more and camp. As the sun began to set I found a nice campsite and set up. Here is the view back down toward Rockhouse Canyon from my site. Once the sun set I could see the lights of El Centro through the low spot and the end of the valley.

Here is a photo looking east as the sun was setting. This is the other place in the valley where I plan to return and check out for ruins.

It was a very peaceful night with just a slight breeze. It did get down into the upper 30's but without any wind it was pretty good sleeping, although the moon was quite bright. But after the drive out and then hiking 8+ miles and gaining 2,600' of elevation I slept like a baby. I may have snored but there was nobody within miles of me to complain. Here is a pic of my spartan campsite with Buck Ridge in the distance.

I got up early on Sunday morning and spent about an hour searching one last time for the ruins still with no luck. So I packed up and was heading downhill by 7:15. It was going to be hot and I wanted to get back into the shade of the canyon before it got too hot. It was a pretty uneventful 3 hour hike back to the jeep. No mylar balloons to add to Daren's total but I did come across a regular balloon. It was not there the day before and it was still very bright purple.

Even though I did NOT find the ruins I was looking for it was a very great hike. And now I have a reason to go back and search in other parts of the valley. Here is a google earth of my route. You can see where I detoured off to visit the lower rock houses and also where I left the wash to climb up and search for the ruins up toward the top of the image.

<em>edited by hikerdmb on 3/5/2012</em>

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Solo Backpacking in Rockhouse Valley