Backpacking California: Mountain, Foothill, Coastal and Desert Adventures in the Golden State

Noble Canyon Trail

Jerry Schad

PERMITS

A remote camping permit is required for overnight stays. Campfires are prohibited; stove use is permitted when fire-hazard conditions are not severe. Cars parked at the trailheads must display a National Forest Adventure Pass. Contact Descanso Ranger District, Cleveland National Forest at 619-445-6235 or visit www.fs.fed.us/r5/cleveland.

CHALLENGES

The route, officially known as the Noble Canyon National Recreation Trail, is designed for multiple uses, including mountain biking. Naturally the bikers prefer the downhill direction, and some are likely to be moving excessively fast. Snow visits the canyon on several occasions during winter, but it usually melts within a day or two. By late summer or early fall, the brook in Noble Canyon could dry up.

HOW TO GET THERE

North End: Exit Interstate 8 at Sunrise Highway, just east of Pine Valley. Drive north, uphill, on Sunrise Highway, observing the mile markers, which increase from approximately mile 13.5 at the I-8/Sunrise Highway interchange. Drive to the Penny Pines Trailhead, mile 27.3, where parking space is plentiful along the highway shoulder.
South End: From the town of Pine Valley, drive west 1 mile on Old Highway 80 to Pine Creek Road, next to a bridge over Pine Valley Creek. Turn right and proceed 1.6 miles to the Noble Canyon Trailhead on the right.

TRIP DESCRIPTION

From the Penny Pines Trailhead, head west along the marked Noble Canyon Trail. After passing through a parklike setting of Jeffrey pines, you rise a bit along the north slope of a steep hill. From there, the tree-framed view extends to the distant summits of San Jacinto Peak and San Gorgonio Mountain. Next, you descend to cross dirt roads three times and then climb and circle around the chaparral-clad north end of a north-south trending ridge. Three varieties of blooming ceanothus brighten the view in springtime.

Next, you descend into the upper reaches of Noble Canyon, where the grassy hillsides show off springtime blooms of blue-purple beard tongue, scarlet bugler, woolly blue curls, yellow monkeyflower, Indian paintbrush, wallflower, white forget-me-not, wild hyacinth, yellow violet, phacelia, golden yarrow, checker, lupine, and blue flax.

The trail sidles up to the creek at about 3.0 miles, and stays beside it for the next 4 miles. Past a canopy of live oaks, black oaks, and Jeffrey pines, you emerge into a steep, sunlit section of canyon. The trail cuts through thick brush on the east wall, while on the west wall only a few hardy, drought-tolerant plants cling to outcrops of schist rock.

Back in the shade of oaks again, you soon cross a tributary creek from the east, which drains the Laguna lakes and Laguna Meadow above. Pause for a while in this shady glen, where the water flows over somber, grayish granitic rock and gathers in languid pools bedecked by sword and bracken fern. Look for nodding yellow Humboldt lilies in the late spring or early summer.

You continue within a riparian area for some distance downstream. Mixed in with the oaks, you’ll discover dozens of fine California bay trees and a few scattered incense cedars. The creek lies mostly hidden by willows and sycamores― and dense thickets of poison oak, squaw bush, wild rose, wild strawberries, and other types of water-loving vegetation. The line of trees shading the trail is narrow enough that light from the sky is freely admitted. Greens and browns―and in fall, yellows and reds―glow intensely. Impromptu campsites for small groups are fairly abundant along this middle portion of the trail, particularly on shady terraces well above the creek.

You may discover some mining debris―the remains of a flume and the stones of a disassembled arrastra (a horse- or mule-drawn machine for crushing ore), which dates from gold-mining activity in the late 1800s. Old cabin foundations are also evident.

Crossing to the west side of the creek, you break out of the trees and into an open area with sage scrub and chaparral vegetation. The trail contours to a point about 100 feet above the creek and then maintains this course as it bends around several small tributaries. Yucca, prickly pear cactus, and even hedgehog cactus―normally a denizen of the desert―make appearances here. There are also excellent vernal displays of beard tongue, scarlet bugler, paintbrush, peony, wild pea, milkweed, wild onion, chia, and larkspur.

At about 7 miles, the trail switches back, crosses the Noble Canyon creek for the last time, and veers up a tributary canyon to the south. The trail joins the bed of an old jeep road, reaches a saddle after about 2 miles from Noble Canyon, and diverges from the road, going right (west) over another saddle. It then descends directly to the Noble Canyon Trailhead near Pine Creek Road.

BUILD-UP AND WIND-DOWN TIPS

Sunrise Highway is renowned for the way it chisels across the face of an escarpment overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert. On the drive up Sunrise Highway toward the upper (north) trailhead, veer off the road at the 23.8-mile mark to visit the Vista Point near Stephenson Peak, one of the better vantage points.