Space Rocks

Course Developer: Brian Hildreth

Space Rocks, Summer Series course #3, is west of Highway 395, in the El Paso area. The distance is 3.6 miles, with about 650 feet of elevation gain. To reach the start, drive to the trailhead at China Lake Blvd./Brown Road/395. You will see the trail marker for High Sierra Cyclists time trial. Drive on the dirt road to the left of this (EP237) another .4 miles. You will come to a dirt parking area near a trail head. Park here.

The green buttons will take you to a Course page on Garmin Connect, or a Route on Strava or MapMyRun. If you need a .gpx file, you will be able to download that from any of these route pages. You can review the route navigation instructions here.

Course Description

Head south on EP237 for .5 miles then veer left through a wooden gate pass-through structure. After about 300 feet make a hard left onto EP238. At about .85 miles you will see a tunnel on your right. Follow the markers and go through the tunnel to reach the other side of the railroad bed.

After the tunnel, stay straight ahead and look for a skinny single track. You should see a rocky hill to your left. At approximately .97 miles veer left and head straight up the hill on an old faint trail. Once on top of the hill, follow the trail and markers down the back side. Turn right at approx. 1.1 miles onto an old rocky Jeep trail and head down. Once at the bottom of the hill, follow a skinny single track to the left toward two red markers about 150 yards away. Cross the dirt road (EP33) and go toward the red marker. Look for the trail just south of the marker and start heading uphill toward the big rocks.

You should now be on an old rocky hiking trail heading up. At the top of the hill make an immediate left turn onto the trail (approx. mile 1.42). The trail then turns right and heads down into a valley. (At this point on the course I feel like I'm on Mars so I decided to name the course SPACE ROCKS). Take a left toward a long skinny rock slab at mile 1.57-ish. After about 30 feet make another left up onto the rock slab.

Pay attention to the markers here. You will come to a split in the trail, turn right and head onto the ridge line. You should be heading directly toward a very large rock that is split into three pieces (mile 1.72). At mile 1.8 make a hard left off of the ridge trail and head down. The trail is not very well defined in this area but after about 100 feet you will see an old rocky Jeep trail. Follow it. Once at the bottom of the hill turn left onto EP345 dirt road.

After just a couple hundred feet (approx. mile 2.12), turn left onto EP 33. At about mile 2.45 you will pass the spot where you crossed EP33 earlier, stay straight on EP 33. Look for markers and a right turn at about mile 2.73 onto a dirt road. You will come to two parallel roads at about mile 2.92. Cross the first one and go left on EP238, which you were on earlier in the course. Look for a wooden pass-through gate on your right. Go through the gate and retrace your steps back to the start.