After hearing about the beautiful geography and interesting hiking trails in Devil’s PunchBowl County Park I finally set out to experience it myself. About an hour and a half from LA and from the Inland Empire, this county park, located in the city of Pearblossum, is a gem that I would highly recommend you seek out if you are looking for a unique adventure.
Getting There
From Highway 138 you turn off on Longview Road and can take that almost all the way to the entrance of the park. The trail head itself starts at the north side of the parking lot.
The Hike to Devils Chair
This hike is not for the faint of heart. While I would consider it moderate difficulty it is a good 7.5 miles round trip with over 1000 feet of elevation gained. It is doable for most hikers, but I would recommend you bring a lot of water and sun screen during the summer months as it can get really hot, and only half of the trail is in the shade.
The trail hugs the side of the mountain for most of its duration and it goes up and down until it finally reaches the hill above the devils chair. From the top of this hill you will descend another 300 or so feet until you reach the small outcropping of rocks that is known as the devils chair.
The Devils Chair
The devils chair itself is a 50 foot long small ridge of rocks that leads to an elevated rock plateau at the end. From this plateau you have a full 360 degree view of the amazing geological creation that was created from the activity of the two fault lines that run underneath. You can see many different types of rocks, some which jut up from the sparse desert landscape at least 200 feet and others that look like they have been colored with a crayon.
It is a truly unique site and one that is best seen in a video or a panorama (seen below, click it to make it bigger). We spent a good 20 minutes eating lunch and taking in the sites before we headed back the way we came.
Here is a video I took while we were approaching and arriving at the Devils Chair.
This is a popular trail, we saw attest 20 people going one way or another on it which makes sense as it is one of the more beautiful areas in the high desert and it offers a large amount of interesting sites to take in. Make sure if you have any energy left that you take the one mile loop down to devils punchbowl at the visitor center as it adds to the luster if you also see the rocks upclose.
Check out the rest of the pictures and directions below. Leave me a comment if you get a chance to check it out for yourself.
