Outdoor Adventure USA

Spent last Saturday Oct. 2 North of Big Bear Lake. Our trip included Horse Thief Canyon which is also known as 3N03A. It is a Black Diamond and has lot's steep slopes and great hairpins but in general nothing out of the ordinary or really that difficult. That is... unless you have a fear of heights. At one time there was a loop around the flats area of Horse Thief Canyon but the Park Service put boulders in a couple of places to keep vehicles out of the nature areas. There is only one trail in and out of the canyon. After Horse Thief Canyon we stopped at a couple of mines, had lunch, hit another Black Diamond trail, enjoyed gorgeous views, and then headed home. It had rained early in the morning which kept the dust down and provided some cooler than normal temperatures and all in all just great weather.

Horse Thief Canyon Flats Spring Area of Horse Thief Canyon Here are two pictures of the first mine we stopped at This is the view we had from our lunch perch. This is the second mine we stopped at. There was a steep approach road and room for only 3 vehicles with space to turn around. Some of the native wild life. We had to stop and let him/her cross the trail and we took the picture out the window. Crushing wheel where they separated the gold from the rocks View as we headed toward Route 38 and home Here is the approximate trail we took. You can download it and then view it with Google Earth.

Very nice! I have never done that trail! Thought I had hit them mostly all of them! I shall have to go hit that up!

The weather in Big Bear was nice this weekend, sun then rain, clouds then sun . . . nice.

I like that lunch spot. Looks like a fun trip.

Thanks for the report and pictures! Looks like you guys had a great day up there.

I know of a Horse Theft Canyon down here (great hiking trail) but didn't know there was one up around Big Bear too. I wonder if they got their names for the same reasons?

My guess (and I could be wrong) is that Horse Thief Canyon, at least the one up in the Big Bear Valley area, gets its name from the days when Native Americans (Ute and Southern Piute) would come over the mountains to take horses, often from the area around the Esistencia in Redlands (incorrectly called Asistencia today on Barton Road). Horse thieving was a huge business for Native Americans and the trafficking in them from California extended into New Mexico!

It was after one such horse thieving raid that first took white men up into the Big Bear Valley area, as they chased the Native Americans over the mountains. Part of the chasing group went over the Cajon Pass and the other through the mountains into Bear Valley.

Anyway, that is my guess . . . without looking it up . . . 50% chance of being right! <G>

There are a lot of Horse Thief Canyons around the west and very few if any Store Keeper Canyons, or Sheriff Canyons, indicating just how popular taking horses was as a profession!

I did some looking around and there are references to the name being Horse Thief Flats.

Here is a link to the trail on a topo map.

http://www.myjeeprocks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9795

Here is a link a YouTube video of the trip out. I don't remember it being as difficult as this video shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAlrZzJhlS0

Looks like a great trip. Need to check that out some day.