California Trails

Claw Hammer

5/5 (16 reviews)

Lucerne, California (San Bernardino County)

Last Updated: 09/26/2022

Trail Information

Status

Open

Distance

0.63 mi

Nearest Town

Lucerne

Management Agency

BLM

District

Barstow Feild Office

Highlights

A true legend of the off-roading world, and often called the easier of the three Hammer Trails. Claw Hammer, located in Johnson Valley in Southern California, home of King of the Hammers, offers a difficult to severe-rated rock crawling trail in a short but exciting package. Be ready for lots of technical obstacles with cringe-worthy waterfalls, mountainous rocks, and boulders that just don't seem to offer a way around. The risk of doing body damage is high, along with vehicle failure. According to how experienced your group is, you can get through this trail in as short as 45 minutes. But the average group takes about 4 hours. Whether you are a Jeep person, Toyota junky, or a buggy driver, when looking for a truly epic offroad trail that makes most people's top 5 lists, check out Claw Hammer.

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

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Starting Point

Lucerne Valley, California

To get to this part of Johnson Valley from Lucerne, take Old Woman Springs Road (Highway 247) east for 24.5 miles. Turn north at the Johnson Valley Sign (Boone Road). Follow this road roughly 4 miles to the dry lake bed (Means Dry Lake). Located north of the dry lake, the trail goes east. The trail starts here: 34.438409, -116.476347. The best landmark to find for this trail is the large sandhill to the north of the lake bed. The trail is to the east of it.

The US Government has come to an agreement with the Off-Roaders that use the area, and we will be sharing areas of the land in Johnson Valley with the US Military. During these times which are unknown, civilians will not be allowed in the area. There is no set schedule yet of when it will be closing and reopening. This is a growing concern for many people that enjoy the area for the fear that they will permanently close this area after the first time they use this area for Military training. You can find more information on closures by clicking here

More Information

Trail Reviews

5/5 (17)

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Visited: 05/09/2022

The trail should be open now.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Temporary Closure

Visited: 04/29/2022

Closed for military drills from april 29 to May 9th 2022

George Karpouzis

1100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 02/19/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Ran the trail with 4 rigs. All on 37s plus. Lockers front and rear. 3 JLU and a 99 4runner with a bronco front axle swap Fun trail!

Trail Review: Claw Hammer - George Karpouzis

This trail guide's difficulty was changed on 11/30/2021

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 11/29/2021

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Fun little trail, the ledges at the 2nd fall are getting bigger. Bumping up this rating.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Visited: 11/01/2021

The military closure is now over. The next ones are • April 26 - May 9, 2022 • October 18 - November 1, 2022

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Temporary Closure

Visited: 10/22/2021

The area is closed for military use to Nov 1 2021 https://www.29palms.marines.mil/Staff-Offices/Government-and-External-Affairs/Johnson-Valley/#:~:text=The%20Johnson%20Valley%20Shared%20Use,military%20training%20in%20the%20area.&text=Once%20cleared%20for%20public%20use,Land%20Management%20for%20public%20recreation.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Temporary Closure

Visited: 04/27/2021

This is the weekend for Military use... Make other plans if you are going to be in the shared use area https://www.29palms.marines.mil/Staff-Offices/Government-and-External-Affairs/Johnson-Valley/fbclid/IwAR1P9xPv9BFcI9_RKJwPoHIlYTZCVZ70xbytUkGJjlQ83Za02vLDud2Px5M/

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Visited: 03/03/2021

FYI - Military Shut Down Dates 2021 April 30 to May 10, 2021 Oct 15 to Nov 1, 2021 2022 April 26 to May 9, 2022 Oct 18 to Nov 1, 2022

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/13/2020

Ran the trail really fast to get to nightmare. Love this trail. Brings back so many good memories.

Trail Review: Claw Hammer - Josh Noesser

Justin Kang

1600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/19/2020

Great!

Mike Gile

600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/29/2019

We ran Claw Hammer, Chocolate Thunder, and Turkey Claw today with 4 rigs, all 4 doors, 3 JK's and 1 JL. Not really a review just sharing some pictures. Claw Hammer was covered with snow, Absolutely Beautiful

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 03/23/2019

Quick run up Claw Hammer to test out the Jeep.... Worked perfect

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

125600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 03/16/2019

Old video from this trail

David May

Official Crew

3450

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/28/2018

We thought it would be a great idea to do a night run in Johnson Valley. Temperatures north of a 100 and the day after a full noon is what lured is there. Once again Claw Hammer proves to be a great place to do a night run. The grip level was good and the silt was down due to recent rains. We had a great time.

David May

Official Crew

3450

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/20/2017

There is no better way to start a Hammers trip than a Claw Hammer night run. The trail was in great shape. No one in our group had any drama. We were in and out of there in under two hours. This was a much better experience than the last time we ran it after a rain.

David May

Official Crew

3450

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/01/2017

My wheeling buddys and I thought that running Claw Hammer on New Year day would make for a awesome trip. We were planning on the 0.7 mile trail taking 1.5 to 2.5 hours to complete. This was a realistic plan if it weren't for the 2 days of rain prior to us getting there. Once we were 1/3 of the way up the trail and committed, the fun began. Mud, mud and more mud! We would work hard for 2 hours climbing up the wash only to still see where we started. We let a small group of purpose built buggys on 42s and 45s pass us. This was a bad idea. After they had dug out all of the dirt trying to get over the obstacles, our 35s and 37s just dropped in the holes they created. Once two of the buggys had to winch, we knew we were in trouble. After a frustrated 6.5 hours, we made it to the top. I cant wait to go back, in dry conditions of course.

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Josh Noesser

Mapping Crew - California

Joshua Noesser grew up in Southern California but has lived in different parts of the country during his young adult life. Josh was first turned to four wheeling when he road with one of his friends dad up Surprise Canyon in the Panamint Valley at age14. After nearly 3 different roll overs later and a half dozen intense waterfalls, Josh was hooked. At 16 he purchased his first Jeep a CJ 7 and by 17 was putting his first locker in it. Currently, Josh is the owner and CEO of Nybble, an IT Solutions Company based in Orange County, California. Nybble isn't your normal IT company where everyone stays in and plays video games. Nybble's average company trip is out on the trails since a good amount of his staff enjoy wheeling too. As Josh likes to say, he offers the only IT Company with the ability to provide services in extreme locations. "If you want a server at the top of The Hammers, we will take care of that for you." Today you can find Josh out on the trail behind the wheel in one of his three different off-road vehicles. See the vehicles below for more information. If you ever run into Josh, please say high, he is a very friendly person and is always happy to have a new person join the group.

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Claw Hammer

Trail Information

Highlights

Trail Difficulty and Assessment

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Trail Reviews

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Josh Noesser

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