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| Hiking | 2.60 Miles |
1,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.60 Miles | | | |
| 1,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | From the top of Telephone Trail, you can connect to Harding Spring Trail (as described in an earlier triplog) or you can connect to Thomas Point Trail, as I'll describe below. Since the upper end of Telephone Trail is not very well marked, I suggest that you hike these connecting hikes at least once starting at Telephone Trail. Once you're familiar with the land, you should be able to find your way in the opposite direction. While not absolutely essential, a compass or a GPS with compass comes in handy.
There are several ways to get from Telephone Trail to Thomas Point Trail. The easiest (and the longest) follows some old logging roads. Following the roads takes you quite a bit inland. You can shorten the hike by cutting across the forest. It's easy cross-country hiking, but you do need a compass. The forest is fairly featureless and you can easily get turned around or at least get off track.
As you arrive at the top of Telephone Trail, where it crosses the edge of the rim, you follow the faint trail heading straight east. The main trail is heading southwest parallel to the rim towards a vista point. The faint trail starts at what used to be a big cairn, now just a pile of rubble. The trail is so faint and so ambiguous that you might as well ignore it and just hike due east. Occasionally you may see small hiker made cairns, but they are small and blend in the rocky terrain. As long as you head east and don't veer to the north (veering a bit to the south is ok), you'll intersect with a Forest Service logging road after about 0.18 miles. If you've been successful in following the cairns, you'll be coming down a slight rocky incline into a flattish dry wash. The cairns continue up on the other side, but if you look to your left, a hundred yards or so, you should see some tree trunks on the ground. If you head for those, you'll intersect with the logging road as it makes a sharp bend and turns north. If you miss the logs and continue following the cairns you'll wind up at the same logging road a bit further south.
Regardless of where you intersect with the logging road, you should turn right (south east) on the road to get to Thomas Point Trail. The rough logging road curves around a bit, but basically heads southeast. The is at least one short stub road branching off, but the main road is obvious. After about half a mile, you come to a major intersection where two logging roads continue to head southeast. You should always take the right branch and first head south for a short bit, then after the second road splits off, go on in a westerly direction. Follow this road for a bit over a mile as it meanders west, southwest and even northwest and it will end at the top of Thomas Point Trail.
If you look at the uploaded GPS track, you'll see that following the logging roads gets you quite a bit inland. You can shorten the hike by about a three-quarter mile by heading straight south at about 111° 43.750'W (UTM 125 4334450). You'll clear the rim easily, you won't have to cross any major gullies and accuracy in navigations isn't essential -- you intersect with the logging road that leads to the Thomas Point Trail.
You can make a loop hike by climbing to the top on Telephone Trail, hiking across the plateau to Thomas Point Trail, descending Thomas Point Trail (much easier, not as steep as Telephone) and finally hike for about half a mile on 89A back to where you left the car. The total loop is just under five miles, for a nice morning or afternoon hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
I didn’t get up there quite as quickly as I had hoped, but I was still on trail by 5:30am. Actually felt a little chilly at 60 degrees. Parked at the pullout as described in the trail description. I put out my ABT card just in case, but I wouldn’t think a pass would be needed to park there.
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