Arroyo Seco Del Diablo

3100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 03/23/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Easy trail in a nice area. We stopped half way through this trail to eat and take some photos of the wiled flowers. No one else was on the trail, and it is a scenic area. Sadly Diablos Tail at waypoint 4 is closed I did this side trail years ago and it was one of the best.

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - Ben

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 03/22/2023

This is the easiest the road has ever been, no landslides block the trail, the sand stone v was flat. Almost drive my RV up it. But the trail on the other hand, still awesome, easily one of my favorites in the part. a big edit is on its way,

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - Josh Noesser

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 02/22/2023

Trail is clear right now, probably could change the rating to a 1.

Driven to Adventure

3900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 02/18/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

A very nice trail through the mud canyons. I think the 5 rating only applies to an offshoot?

Justin W

5600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 02/12/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Great scenic trail, easy but maybe a bit of a 3 in spots due to obvious recent mudslides. “Hardest” spot is a tight slot/squeeze close to the end.

Frank The Tank

3200

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/29/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Was able to get through the trail and it was definitely different than last time in 2019. Was able to get through with only 1 spot where full size trucks might have to be careful! Still fun to run 🏃‍♂️

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130100

Partially Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/05/2022

Rumors of a new landslide on the trail. You may need to loop around Arroyo Tapiado in the mean time to get to Diablos Drop.

Davin

100

Partially Open

Visited: 12/04/2022

Near waypoint #4 there's a landslide that makes the main trail impassable. To the right, there's a rock garden that you could crawl over with a lifted truck. However, I didn't see any tire tracks so I decided to turn around instead of making a new trail. Overall beautiful trail though, wish I could've done the whole thing.

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - Davin

Darren

2800

Open

Visited: 10/30/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Great canyon trail! We came in via Arroyo Tapiado and didn't see anyone on this route. Landslides are not a big deal but do require you to take them slow.

Pete

600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 04/17/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Fun, beautiful trail that we did in our stock Tacoma. It's narrow at some points, but only one spot required us stopping to get lined up properly. A full size truck might have issues?? As others have mentioned, probably not the trail for crossover vehicles. We found a magical campsite on the north end and I am pretty sure we had the whole canyon to ourselves for the night. There's a lot of defacement of canyon walls ("Dad & Sara 2021" type graffiti) near the south entrance of the trail which is truly disappointing.

Jon Houchin

5200

Open

Visited: 10/23/2021

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

I took my 2019 Ford Ranger, plus some buddies with their 2020 Toyota 4Runner Sport (bone stock), 2020 Ford Ranger Tremor (bone stock), and 2019 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (not stock) down (north to south) about half the trail yesterday. The entrance to the trail on the north end was the only section that gave our newbie any trouble with a bit of running board dragging and wheel lifting. About half way through at a spot with no place to pass anther truck was broke down which backed up 30 or so vehicles for an hour or so. The 4x4 community came together and worked to get the rig drivable enough to get it to a spot where the trail was cleared and a trailer could be brought in. Nice trail, good for newbies with high clearance, not recommended for crossover type vehicles.

Andy Darcy

600

Open

Visited: 10/09/2021

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Trail is open and in good shape. High clearance 4x4's should have no problem. Be mindful of where you park though, some of the sandstone cliffs are very inverted right now. no mud when we went on 10/9/21.

Carlos Caro

100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/22/2021

Some short sections of the road covered from recent slide, but still enough space to pass on one side.

Kevin farley

100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/02/2021

Drove a Raptor through with no issues. Tight but passable.

Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 01/02/2021

As noted in the last review, there were plenty of new landslides. By now, all the landslides has been driven over and broken down enough that none of them posed a real challenge.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 11/20/2020

Ran up the trail for a quick remap. Several new landslides are there which might cause issues in the winter and spring. Please be careful when on this trail.

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Rami

500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/10/2020

Thoroughly enjoyed. Traveled with friends with mixed off-roading experience. Sand was deep at times and the terrain switched between sand and hard pack with occasional straight patches of hard pack (aka open it up) and deep sand. A few fun points of steep up/down and hill climb/sharp descent on the northern side. Overall, fun and relatively harmless as of this writing.

Scott holzhauer

100

Open

Rated 4/5

Visited: 02/17/2020

Trail is passable, stay close to the right side then get some momentum going to get through the mud. Made it through pretty easily.

Jeremy crestik

200

Impassable

Rated 3/5

Visited: 02/17/2020

Still impassable where two previous posters stated.

Tj Sleboda

3800

Temporary Closure

Rated 3/5

Visited: 12/21/2019

Like the previous reviewer stated, I thought the route was impassible just south of diablo tail. I read older reviews below and surprised to read that the jeep and forester made that route. Hugging the east side or right - is narrow and extremely off camber. Based on the tracks, it looked like only motos have done this. The mud bog on the north side looked like people attempted to traverse it but gave up. No tracks through the bog that I could see. I definitely wouldn't try it alone! I decided to turn around and enter the trail from north. It was dark by then and made it down to the bog and diablo tail trail. There was only one sketchy section that was rough and close to slot walls.

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - Tj Sleboda

John Patch

200

Impassable

Visited: 12/21/2019

Attempted on 12/21. Made it about 1-2 miles until we reached a rock slide that was partially washed away. Might be able to make it up that however immediately after was a mud hole/puddle with extremely soft mud. Tossed a 6 inch rock into the mud and it sunk easily 13 inches. Didn’t look like anybody attempted to drive through except a dirt bike leaving 12-18 inch ruts. About 8 vehicles showed up behind us and nobody attempted therefore I deem it currently impassable

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - John Patch

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Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 11/24/2019

After the rain last week, the mud hole tuned into a very large water crossing that was unavoidable and as of Saturday was around 3-4 feet at its deepest point.

Trail Review: Arroyo Seco Del Diablo - Taylor Kempkes

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Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/20/2019

Since the last review from a couple weeks ago, there is now a bypass for the mud pit. As you come over the landslide and see the mud pit, there is a section of trail that hugs the right hand side of the canyon. It is quite off-camber, so taking it very slow will be crucial to making it through without sliding down into the mud. With that said, the mud pit is not as difficult to traverse as it looks, one member of our group made it through the mud and back in his stock Subaru Forester with normal road tires.

Barclay Osborn

350

Open

Visited: 10/12/2019

As of 10/12/2019, there was a new rockslide south of the Diablo Dropoff connector; it looks like a spring was exposed because there was also a large sulfurous-smelling mudpit with about 2' of water despite no recent substantial rains. Due to the rockslide and width of the canyon, there is no nearby bypass of the mud/water pit if you can't make it through, however, you can go north, connect up with Arroyo Tapiado, and take that south, which will eventually connect with the south end of this trail.

Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/02/2018

This is always a great trail to take on the way to Diablo Drop Off as it's much less crowded than Arroyo Tapiado. The trail has changed drastically since it was originally rated and at this point the it is passable in a 2wd vehicle with some ground clearance and experience. Although, 4wd is helpful for some of the sandy sections. Even the v-notch at the end of the canyon has eroded/filled in to the point you can just drive straight through no problem. But, if you're looking for a mild challenge, the trail has plenty of "shortcuts" with little climbs and rock gardens to traverse.

Tom H

3900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/19/2018

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced intermediate wheeler, a one-day trip putting together four trails: Canyon Sin Nombre, Arroyo Seco Del Diablo, Diablo Dropoff, and Fish Creek is a must do and will keep you busy all day. You begin on Highway S-2 and finish on CA-78. All four trails are reviewed here on trailsoffroad.com The scenery is spectacular and the driving is easy and relaxing. Diablo Dropoff will be exciting for the newbies, because it is steep, sandy, and off-camber, but just take reasonable caution and all will be fine. After you enter Fish Canyon, if you have time, take the side trip to Sandstone Canyon, which is a mile in the opposite direction. The trail account here on trailsoffroad.com says it all. Both the wheeling and the canyons are awesome.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130100

Open

Visited: 04/21/2017

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