Johnson Valley OHV Area
Cougar Buttes to Soggy Dry Lake
The riding area can be entered from Highway 247 at Camp Rock Road, 55 miles southeast of Barstow. There are plenty of wide open spaces for camping, off-roading and exploring. The Cougar Buttes GPS coordinates are: 34.497350° -116.797267°. Cougar Buttes are a series of rocky hills. The area terrain is mostly rocky mountains, rolling hills, open valleys, and dry lake beds. Cougar Buttes has many spots for camping which is limited to 14 days. Facilities: two bathrooms at Cougar Butte, one at Anderson Dry Lake, and two at Soggy Dry Lake; no running water. Fees/Reservations: no fees, no reservations accepted. Trailer Length Limit: none.
This ride was part of a weekend trip by the SoCal Riders but I decided to only go for the day. It took over 4 hours to get there from my home in the West San Fernando valley. Luckily I left very early and arrived around 8:30am. I joined about a dozen riders (dirt bikes and ATV's) of various skill levels for a short trip out to Soggy Dry Lake. We started out from their campsite at Cougar Buttes. The mountains around this area are well known for their nasty 4x4 rock climbing trails. We left camp on a double wide soft trail with its fair share of whoops. After a few miles the trail opened up to a wide desert area with multiple trails and sand washes all heading to the dry lake bed. It took us about an hours to get out to Soggy Dry Lake and we all enjoyed opening up the throttle and criss-crossing the hard flat lakebed. We gathered up everyone and decided to head West into the hills to find a more interesting way back to camp. The initial trails into the hills were pretty easy but a few of the group had difficulty negotiating a couple more difficult sections.
The riding area can be entered from Highway 247 at Camp Rock Road, 55 miles southeast of Barstow. There are plenty of wide open spaces for camping, off-roading and exploring. The Cougar Buttes GPS coordinates are: 34.497350° -116.797267°. Cougar Buttes are a series of rocky hills. The area terrain is mostly rocky mountains, rolling hills, open valleys, and dry lake beds. Cougar Buttes has many spots for camping which is limited to 14 days. Facilities: two bathrooms at Cougar Butte, one at Anderson Dry Lake, and two at Soggy Dry Lake; no running water. Fees/Reservations: no fees, no reservations accepted. Trailer Length Limit: none.
This ride was part of a weekend trip by the SoCal Riders but I decided to only go for the day. It took over 4 hours to get there from my home in the West San Fernando valley. Luckily I left very early and arrived around 8:30am. I joined about a dozen riders (dirt bikes and ATV's) of various skill levels for a short trip out to Soggy Dry Lake. We started out from their campsite at Cougar Buttes. The mountains around this area are well known for their nasty 4x4 rock climbing trails. We left camp on a double wide soft trail with its fair share of whoops. After a few miles the trail opened up to a wide desert area with multiple trails and sand washes all heading to the dry lake bed. It took us about an hours to get out to Soggy Dry Lake and we all enjoyed opening up the throttle and criss-crossing the hard flat lakebed. We gathered up everyone and decided to head West into the hills to find a more interesting way back to camp. The initial trails into the hills were pretty easy but a few of the group had difficulty negotiating a couple more difficult sections.
Cougar Buttes
As we turned North and headed back to camp, the trail became more of a rocky jeep climb but really had no major areas of difficulty. Everyone was able to negotiate the climbs and descents and we all enjoyed the challenge and the change of scenery. In all the entire round trip was a little over 3 hours and provided a nice introduction into this area. I had been to Johnson Valley before but never had ridden around Cougar Buttes.
The video below shows most of the ride and will provide you a lot more detail than this short ride report.
The video below shows most of the ride and will provide you a lot more detail than this short ride report.
