Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge

Living in Los Angeles for an extended but finite period of time has given us huge amounts of motivation to explore Southern California. The newness and novelty of our surroundings are intoxicating and the impending return to the UK keeps us keen. It may be a four-hour drive to our latest objective but come September it will be an eleven-hour flight and a four-hour drive.

Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge - photo Lily

One of the places I read about that caught my attention was the Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge down in the Anza-Borrego Desert adjacent to the Mexico Border. The bridge lurks in the Carrizo Gorge and was built in the 1930's to carry the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway over a steep canyon within the gorge. This "Impossible Railway" was constructed in the early twentieth century by blasting tunnels and building timber bridges through the mountain desert region. It took fourteen trestle bridges and twenty-one tunnels, within only eleven miles, to traverse the gorge. An epic undertaking.

Goat Canyon Trestle viewed from the scramble down - photo Lily

An undertaking that had to be comprehensively repaired in the 1930's when huge storms swept out bridges and caused hillsides to collapse burying tunnels. After the dust settled, engineers identified that the region around tunnel 15 had suffered a huge landslide and they re-routed the track across a long, high, new timber trestle bridge and new shorter tunnel. This trestle bridge still stands in its remote location, a relic from the old west, typifying every stereotypical image of a railway system long since replaced by diesel locomotives and steel box girder bridges. Profitably running trains along the impossible railway has proved hard. Numerous operators have periodically gone bust and recent attempts to reopen the line have been hampered by decades of under-investment and legal wrangling. Currently, the infrastructure looks very rickety, at least one tunnel has collapsed and the proliferation of rocks strewn across the track, show it has been may years since a train last ran the line.

Accessing the bridge requires a 10km round trip walk up over the mountains to descend the increasingly rocky goat canyon to the trestle.

Whilst we expected the trestle to be stunning the desert walk caught us by surprise in its amazingness. The path led through lush cactus groves which were in bloom. As we climbed we passed through green ocotillo groves where the spiny sticks we are familiar with had been transformed into lush green vegetation with flaming red flowers topping the bows. All the cacti we passed were in flower, multiple colours of cholla flowers competing with prickly pear and barrel cacti for our attention. Numerous species of lizard peered at us from their vantage points basking on rocks. Most fled if approached but the Flat Tailed Horned Lizards, more confident in their camouflaged appearance, allowed us to get close enough to identify them by their weird flat fat bodies and horny protrusions. A huge bird of prey passed by overhead, its shadow projected against the rock cliffs surrounding us.

The trail leading up over the mountains to the Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge - photo Lily

Cholla flowers - photo Lily

Cholla flowers - photo Lily

Cholla flowers - photo Lily

The descent into the canyon itself was an easy scramble. The path faded away to be replaced by rock steps and sections of sandy wash. The rock steps became steeper until we found ourselves at the top of a ten metre (waterless) waterfall looking down at the bridge. Only now was it apparent how alien it was to the landscape and how absurd the impossible railway was. Pushed for time we scrambled down and posed for the obligatory photos. Whilst I'm sure money and maintenance time have been spent on this bridge since 1932 when it was built, it still looks old and rickety. I'd hate to be the structural engineer tasked with assessing if it was still strong enough to take a train. Handrails and new metal flooring have been added to the central section which makes walking across feel safe enough, though the holes in the wooden flooring in the end sections focus the mind. As do the ladders missing rungs attached to the structure below!

We returned the way we came, scrambling back up the canyon was quicker than descending it and with knowledge of the route ahead, route finding was not an issue. Dropping back down towards Morterro Palms the setting sun lit up the sky and behind some low hills, the Salton Sea suddenly became visible out of the haze.

View east towards the Salton Sea at sunset

We camped at Dos Cabezas Spring near the trailhead where we watched hummingbirds and hummingbird moths suck nectar from the flowers on the (possibly) Western Redbud bushes whilst being serenaded by the Pacific Tree Frog which lived in the one square metre pool of water comprising the spring. The tiny tadpoles swimming in the water indicated that amazingly his advertisement calls must have impressed someone. There was also two sets of huge bird footprints that told a story of courtship as they slowly came together and walked parallel for a distance. A hugely scuffed area of ground followed suggesting that they hit it off well. Using pure conjecture we decided they may have been a pair of lovestruck roadrunner birds. Wiley Coyote was not observed, neither was any acme anvils nor TNT.

Flat Tailed Horned Lizard

The Dos Cabezas Spring containing tadpoles