5S15 - Rouse Hill - California Offroad Trail

300

Open

Rated 3/5

Visited: 01/14/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

The trail was easy until it started to rain. If it gets wet it becomes very slippery and dangerous to ride. A lot of deep ditches are formed that are difficult to overcome. I think now it will be quite difficult to drive this trail until the grader passes.

randy t.

750

Open

Rated 3/5

Visited: 12/10/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Easier

Trail entrance has a closed sign but the paper posted says trail open but the area directly south is closed due to fire damage. Freshly graded and nothing challenging at all. All gates were locked in the open position.

Craig Godfrey

100

Temporary Closure

Visited: 11/25/2022

Closed. The sign was moved coming from Thomas Mountain though so be careful.

This trail guide's difficulty was changed on 10/21/2022

Tommy

2400

Temporary Closure

Visited: 09/18/2022

Looks beautiful! But it's closed due to the Fairview fire. I found a map on the Thomas trail about 30 min east of the closures that shows it should be open by early October. Ran into a Cal Fire Fireman who told me maybe as early as Sept 28.

Chris Neuhahn

900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 05/28/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Easier

Fun easy trail with wildflower everywhere, and no crowd (we only saw two other vehicles). Crossing through the cloud layer was a real treat. Great alternative to doing something like Burns. Idylwild is a baby Big Bear with some good restaurants and live music. There were a couple ruts that required a little care but it was mostly very easy. The views were great.

Keenan Small

1200

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 02/12/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Easier

First time on this trail, ran it in our 2011 JKU with 4” lift and 35’s. We only went about 1/3 of the way as we just wanted a spot to picnic with epic views and let me tell you the views are definitely awesome. Nothing on the trail was difficult, although the climbing was pretty steep and there were a few deeply rutted areas but most of them had a pretty easy way around. Only saw 2 dirt bikes out there the entire time otherwise had the trail to ourselves. Will definitely be returning to do the full trail out to Thomas Mountain and probably do some camping.

paul bailey

650

Open

Rated 4/5

Visited: 07/02/2021

other than the deep ruts the trail is very easy and is in good shape. basically this is the "long way around" to get up to Thomas Mountain. Great Views, be prepared for a 4+ hour trip to the end and at least another hour down another trail

Joe

5600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 06/05/2021

Beautiful scenic trail! Rating is still currently correct as you see lots of deep ruts up to 2 ft in depth throughout the trail and there are sections where high clearance will definitely be needed. Only engaged 4wd on steeper inclines with ruts and loose rocks. The scenery is amazing on this trail as you do wind through the mountains and drive on ridges quite often. Lots of shelf roads that open up to some amazing views of the canyons and city below! We ran it as mapped from North to South. Favorite part of the trail is the drive through the Orange Groves... I can neither confirm nor deny we took some! LOL

Brian Larson

100

Open

Visited: 02/06/2021

Decided to take the wife and some friends in my Tacoma up here have some turkey sandwiches and beers at the top and merge into Thomas mountain trail. Long drive... soooo worth it! Such a fun little trail, super easy nothing to worry about except the mud. There was one puddle that id say was almost 2-3 feet deep hard to tell, as long as you know what your doing you'll be fine though. Only had it in 4x4 on a few parts just to be safe, probably didn't need it though. ive got a 3 inch lift on my tacoma and am pretty sure youd be fine in stock, as long as you know what your doing. Cheers

Sean Thomas

400

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/23/2021

3rd time on the trail. Started with light rain and mud. As I climbed up in elevation we got some good snow coming down. Took away from the views but nothing beats fresh falling snow on the trail. Recommend AT/MT tires.

Ken

100

Open

Visited: 01/02/2021

Open and in great shape. Still Snow above 4000 ft so would need 4wd. Ruts are not bad at all.

Dennis Clark

Official Crew

19350

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/31/2020

My friend Robert was my trail backup when I lived in California. I’m now mapping trails in Idaho. Robert is doing an excellent job of running the trails and providing much needed Trail Reviews, check out this review from 7/31/20

Robert

Official Crew

34450

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/31/2020

We entered Rouse Hill from the south using Thomas Mountain Rd. Rouse Hill is quite a change from the manicured road conditions on Thomas Mountain. Deeply rutted in many places and few places to pick a line to avoid 2ft deep ruts. Still with this its all 2wd. It was interesting how quickly you drop out of the tall trees into the scrub. Its easy to take a wrong turn at spots as roads are not marked well so watch your map. We started down Hog Lake and soon realized that was the wrong road. At the end of this trip we drove through citrus groves so close you could reach out an grab an orange (not suggesting to do this just pointing out how close you are:)

Megan A

900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/05/2020

This one was a good one. We’re newbies so it was perfect to get us comfortable with the road lol. It has gorgeous views of the mountains and lake. Only negative is there’s not a lot of places to stop when you have littles. There also wasn’t a ton of room to let others pass by. You could also easily go down the wrong way since signage is sparse compared to other trails we’ve done. But overall, it’s a good trail to explore.

John

450

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 06/21/2020

the "moderate" rating gave a couple of newer folks in our group pause, but as other have said in earlier reviews, this trail is really pretty easy - which was exactly what we were looking for on a mellow fathers' day during a pandemic. the trail was in fine shape - the big washout in the side shown in the youtube video below was still present, but not an issue. we stopped in at several of the dispersed campsites for recon - only a couple were in use. great views and a good time. took our time and only saw one other group on the trail. we met at the valle vista shell station - 44462 Florida Ave, Hemet, CA 92544. entered the trail from the north side at the cranston ranger station on CA-74 and worked our way south to the lake hemet overlook for a snack. from there, we continued south and connected up with the thomas mountain trail (6S13). from there, south past toolbox springs and out to thomas mountain/jim truck trail and onto CA-371 for the drive home. didn't even need to air down.

Justin Kang

1600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 04/15/2020

Easy and nice!

Carl Wiegmann

100

Open

Visited: 10/20/2019

Nice run but was my second choice. Ran it solo and only saw about 4 other vehicles. Stopped to chat and they were camping at Thomas Mountain for the weekend Bee Canyon was first but closed and scheduled to reopen early next year. Ranger said rain washout and they are scheduled to repair.

Robert hill

200

Open

Visited: 07/14/2019

Fun trail but very rutted in sections one washed out section vegetation very overgrown

Mike & Mary

400

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 05/25/2019

Nice longer trail with great views. It was fairly easy except for a few spots that were very rutted and one area with a large washout. Another guy had warned us about it and said it wasn't safe to pass. We surveyed the area and deemed it safe - which it was. Lots of mud muddles after the rain 3 days prior. Probably the most interesting thing on the trail was the 80+ year old man riding solo in a Prius who was stuck pretty deep in a puddle. He was at least 5 miles in. Some Samaritans winched him out and he was on the gas all the way out. Still laughing about it!

Anyhony

100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/09/2018

was a fairly easy trail it rained a week ago so the dirt was nice and sticky there is a puddle that was pretty deep it was higher then my hubs but went pretty easy through the trail was kinda rocky there is a optional rocky hill climb right before the road T's off and leads to other trails that was pretty fun but all an all very fun trail it's not passable right now in low stock truck or car cause of rain to many rocks

Dennis Clark

Official Crew

19350

Temporary Closure

Visited: 07/28/2018

All trails in the San Jacinto Ranger District are under a fire closure until 08/31/18

Nicole

100

Open

Visited: 07/15/2018

This was a good long trail. About 3 hrs with 3 jeeps. The recent rains caused a lot of ruts and some a bit scary for beginners but definitely doable in a stock jeep. Some very soft sand uphill spots and some rocky. I put it in fwd once. Only saw one other vehicle coming the opposite direction. #hppymes

Robert

Official Crew

34450

Open

Visited: 01/23/2018

Nice ride. Did not see another vehicle the entire length. Some deep runoff ruts but easily straddled. 2wd no problem. Again great scenery and quiet. At the beginning of the trail you drive through orange groves and its easy to get on the private orange grove roads but they quickly intersect back on to Rouse Hill. If you stay right you keep on Rouse Hill. Be sure to stop and enjoy the waypoints pointed out by Dennis.

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