I am going to start this with a preface that I will not be revealing all the details of this hike to protect the art that has been left here for a long time period. The flip side is that there is a clique of Los Padres hikers who have a small group and go places and never tell anyone else about it! They pride themselves on "finding places" but they are really just sharing information that only they have and then deeming who is worthy of knowing where these places are. With that all prefaced, if you can figure out the route based on what is already out there, this write up should help you find your way since much has changed. Realistically only strong hikers with great trail sense are going to find this place so the whole we need to keep this secret is kind of BS. Also I did not actually get to the spot but I know where I was and it was clear that I was about .5 of a mile of creek thrashing to get to the cave.
This hike begins at Dough Flats, the road is fully open to the TH. You can now drive all the way to the TH as they have graded the last steep section. You can expect from Fillmore to drive a full 45 minutes to get to the TH and high clearance isn't absolutely necessary but will allow you to get there at speeds more then 5 MPH. The trail is really nothing special and the whole area burned and never fully recovered. The trail itself also has no relief or shade so pick a day that is not hot otherwise you will suffer. You will reach a trail sign at the top of a crest with the right going to Ant Camp which is not a very inviting place and to the left is your trail going towards Alder Creek. You will reach Cow Camp which is a really depressing place. We saw a skunk here. The rest of the route gets more interesting as you hike through the Rock Corral that has lots of cool rock formations. There are a couple of rock art drawing somewhere in here. Last time I came I looked to no avail, once again the know crowd knows where they are at.
From here you drop down a depressing 1,000 feet towards Alder Creek which will have to be hiked back up on your return trip. You will make the turnoff to go to the cave. This route will drop you down to a dry creek bed, that you will follow up for a little while and the trail will cut over to the left branch of this creekbed that you are going upstream, all dry. There will be ducks and an obvious trail in this section. From here confusion begins to reign. There will be a dry narrow slit ahead of you but the actual trail goes off to the right and climbs up to a saddle and then drops you to the other side of that narrow section of canyon. We went directly up the ridge near the narrows and once we clambered up some 3rd class rock realized that there was a brushy trail to the southwest of us that we should've taken. With all that said the narrow canyon is climbable and not very difficult as we took it on the way back. It is also much more direct of a route so preferred, if there is no water in there.
From the other side make sure you are in the drainage that drains the narrows. The area is completely dry and depending on whether you went up the narrows or came down over the ridge stick to the left where the canyon forks. You will see a rough trail along this section that will get you to a steep ridge that will allow you to climb up to another ridge top. From this point you will be able to see where you are trying to get to, but any semblances of a trail has now disappeared. We made a mistake of staying on that ridge to drop down but instead the better move is to go about twenty yards along that ridge to the left and you will see an earthen slope that drops you into the ravine. There will be another clear section to climb up to the next ridge which is a lot less brushy then the one we went down from. It also allows you to get further upstream. Now take this ridge hugging the west side until you get to the point where you can't go any further without rock climbing. Push through some brush to the right and you will see another steep earthen slope that will take you to the half mile point to get to the cave. We stopped here as we were pretty tired and I was not looking forward to the way back even though it turned out much easier with our beta. We ended up doing 17 miles in just under 8 hours which is probably why most people do this as an over-nighter. I will be back probably this year, if I get another cool weekend for hiking.
Indian Art Cave
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Uncle Rico
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- Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:48 pm
Myeh. I'm not part of the "club," but I'm also not that troubled by the fact that the location of this cave (and other rock art sites) aren't made public. If they were, every dipshit with a can of spray paint and a bag of weed (read, the "filthy casuals") would be out there destroying the place and then putting the coordinates on blast on Instagram. Does that make me an elitist? I guess so.
Ive heard of such clubs....its kinda weird, as in how did you not know. You get some youtuber advertising somewhere so well known, and yet its their little secret. And then theres someone excited about finding out about Eaton. And then you see how this happens....noone uses google for example(I got 2 results for tr of this). The person saying the place is like God.
In fact, in tik tok, you get people promising the world, since they know they have your trust. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48725515
Its gone far beyond the infleuncers.
In fact, in tik tok, you get people promising the world, since they know they have your trust. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48725515
Its gone far beyond the infleuncers.
God bless AW, your posts brighten my day. I feel like you are the only person that really gets me. I would go hiking with you but I have this odd feeling we would be in some unfamiliar canyon and you would leave me there, to see if I could find my way back.
