We want to do a hike this weekend but life is quite busy these days so we decide on something close by. Looking at the maps we notice that we haven’t visited Bulldog Canyon in a while, and there are a few caches there so why not? There is a reason of course, it is an OHV/ATV paradise which makes hiking uncomfortable but why not try and see if that has changed? Parking is near the paid Usery Park but you can avoid entering it and then we take spur trails towards the main road through Bulldog Canyon.
Many of these spur trails are closed for cars and marked so and the signs are promptly ignored if not actively destroyed by the OHV community. Therefore you cannot escape them even outside the main road which we have to take anyway. It is a busy day with quite a few trucks passing, all of them bringing with them a plume of dust unfortunately. Otherwise it is actually a nice road and we have nice weather and we make good time.
On the way we stop to look for birds, and caches if close by, there are quite a few fun birds to see and even some hummingbirds on the many flowering plants. In one of the patches we sit down and eat a lunch snack before moving on, we still have a ways to go.
The views can be quite beautiful and we really do enjoy them, it is a beautiful area for hiking if you can ignore the many cars passing by.
There are a few bypasses which are welcome, at least we don’t see the cars and we are out of the dust even though of course we can hear them. The desert is beautiful with many cacti that we enjoy from afar, we have learned our lesson over the years.
Soon we reach the major intersection between the west-east road we are on with the main north-south road which is even more busy. We settle on a high point near a cache and watch the OHV passing by with none looking up to see up. We feel a bit like Native Americans stalking the invading white people from the mountains while they pass with motorized cavalry through the passes.
Returning we pass near a section where we noticed a lot of cars and motorcycles having trouble. Or at least taking a lot of time to decide. Like the Rivian who actually bravely descends, we didn’t expect that really.
As the sun starts to set we return from the last cache, at the end of the road, passing through beautiful vegetation even though some of it was defaced by ATVers or locals.
And then just as it gets dark we arrive back at the parking spot after a great time out marred only by the dust and loud sounds created by the many ATVs that we have passed.
