Anza Borrego Goat Canyon Trestle Hike

The Goat Canyon Trestle is an Anza Borrego treasure in the desert near the California-Mexico border. The trestle is part of the San Diego and Arizona Railroad and was built by John Spreckels in 1919. It connected San Diego with Yuma, navigating the difficult terrain through a series of 17 tunnels. The Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1932 to replace tunnel 15 that was damaged from an earthquake and still stands today at 600-ft long by 200-ft tall. According to Wikipedia, the Goat Canyon trestle is the largest curved wooden trestle in the world. Wood was used instead of metal to build the trestle because metal would fatigue with the extreme temperature changes in Carrizo Gorge. The railroad was known as the "The Impossible Railroad" when it was completed.

You can read more about the history of the "Impossible Railroad" in the book "San Diego and Arizona Railway: The Impossible Railroad" by Dr. Reena Deutsch.

There are 3 ways you can hike to the Goat Canyon Trestle. The first way is an 8 mile strenuous round trip hike over the Jacumba Mountains with an ascent of about 2100 feet and a decent of 2400 feet while boulder hopping.  The second, is a 20 mile round trip hike along the tracks from the city of Jacumba.  And the third way, a 10 mile round trip hike along the tracks from the old Dos Cabezas railroad siding located off of Sweeney Pass Road/Imperial Highway in Anza Borrego State park.

The most popular way to the trestle is by way of Jacumba.  Both hikers and mountain bikers use this route.  For our hike, we chose to hike the 4 miles over the Jacumba mountains to the trestle and then return following the tracks to the Dos Cabezas Water Tower. Total hike was approximately 15 miles. We choose these routes because both routes offered amazing views of the desert along the trail and railroad track.

We decided to camp at the trailhead and get an early morning start.

Campsite at trailhead.

Our trail took us by an old water trough and the Mortero Palms Oasis. 

Mortero Palms Oasis

Note the blue speck in the center of the picture below just above the rocks.  This is our vehicle at the trailhead.

The trail was rough and rocky.  Both pictures below are looking back toward the trailhead.

The only section of the trail that was somewhat level.

In the picture below, the trail heads down over the rocks into the valley between the two hills.  At times, we were sliding down rock faces on our backsides. Sometimes it was hard to follow the trail over the rocks.

Here is our first look at the San Diego and Arizona Railroad in the distance.

After we rounded the rock outcropping in the above picture, we were able to see the Trestle below.

The above pictures of the trestle were taken above a 50 foot dry waterfall.  Below are a couple of pictures at the bottom of the waterfall looking up.  Someone hung a rope down the waterfall for assistance, but we used our climbing skills instead.

This is me pretending to use the rope.

My friend Jerry climbing on the waterfall.

Below is another view of the dry waterfall.  The yellow rope is just visible to the right of center in the picture.

The closer we got to the trestle the more impressive it looked.

You can see the Tunnel 15 entrance on the left in the foreground of both pictures below.  This is the tunnel that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1932.

The water tank on the hill below was used to gravity feed water to a sprinkler system installed on the trestle in case of fire.  Pretty ingenious.

After we had lunch in the shade of a tunnel it was time to head down the track.  Here are a couple of tunnels we went through.

 

Looking back at the other side of the above tunnel and the landslide blocking the entrance. You can see the rails in the foreground.

The pictures below show the age of the rails.

1930

1919

1926

1913

Here are pictures of a pair of train cars that are on the side of a hill.  Back in the day, if a car derailed they just pushed it off the side.

Here is a view of Carrizo Gorge from the railroad track.

An oasis in one of the gorges visible from the track.

And finally our destination, Dos Cabezas Water Tower, then a 2 mile hike to the truck.

Here are our hike statistics.

Trailhead to Trestle. Satellite view.

Trestle to Dos Cabezas Water Tower and truck,  Satellite view.

Elevation chart, trailhead to trestle.

Elevation chart, trestle to Dos Cabezas Water Tower and truck.

Some words of caution for anyone thinking of the Trestle hike:

• Wear a good pair of hiking boots, preferable ankle high or higher to protect from twisting an ankle bouldering.
• Wearing long pants protects you from thorns and scrapes from rocks.
• Take gloves to protect your hands from rocks.
• Take plenty of water, more than you think.  You will need plenty of water hiking in this terrain.
• First aid kit in case you get tangled up with a cactus.

I prefer to hike in the spring because everything is greener and milder temperatures.

This was an awesome, yet strenuous, hike and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes trains, railroads, and the history of them.  

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and report.