Phillips Canyon East

5/5 (4 reviews)
Barstow, California (San Bernardino County)
Last Updated: 05/31/2023

Trail Information

Highlights

Leading into the heart of the Calico Mountains, Phillips Canyon East meanders next to open tunnels and deep pits, providing constant reminders of the silver mining era that once dominated this area. Beginning over flat soft sandy washes, this short trail soon transforms into a rough, rocky, narrow driving challenge. As the trail descends west from its peak, impressively tall and jagged rock walls hug the path leading to the very difficult Phillips Canyon West and Odessa Canyon trails.


Trail Difficulty and Assessment

Trail Navigation

Trail Reviews

5/5 (6)
This trail guide's difficulty was changed on 05/28/2023
Official Crew
37400
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 05/16/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

I have driven off-roading long enough that I should not be lulled by an easy trail start. After a sandy wash start, I did not expect the rough trail this became. It was a fun trail with its driving challenges, and the Waypoint 2 camping spot is excellent. We proceeded from its end to Phillips Canyon West and enjoyed the challenge of an even more difficult trail. Odessa Canyon through proved a bit much for a lone vehicle, and we turned around to the shortest trail back to the pavement over Tin Can Alley back to Mule Canyon.
Official Crew
14300
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 12/26/2021
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

This was a fun trail that will be pretty easy for any truck with low range but a few rocks here and there and some steeper sections might rule out some AWD or 2WD vehicles.
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 07/15/2020

Beautiful scenery and places to stop and appreciate your surroundings. Not a difficult trail at all, but very enjoyable. 3rd gen Tacoma TRDOR w/2" lift and 33 MT's.
Official Crew
3450
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 12/27/2019

We ran up Phillips West before going down Pillips East. Both trails seemed unchanged from the recent storms. This is a great warm up trail before running the bigger trails. A lot of times we use the Pillips trail as a short cut to get back to camp. Good times!

From the Community

Start a free trial and get this level of detail on every trail guide
Start Free Trial