Distance: 9.3 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 4120'
Elevation Gain: 2850'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.2
Round trip time: 7 hours
Recommended water: 156 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Cherry Canyon Road
Difficulty: Strenuous
Lookout Knob is a remote 100' rock spire in the Anza-Borrego desert. It sits in Hellhole Flat, a difficult to reach plateau below the eastern San Ysidro Mountains. It held my interest after I failed to get the summit in January. And with all SoCal national forests closed due to fires, I was compelled to make another attempt. This time, I started from Cherry Canyon and that made for an easier approach to Hellhole Flat than coming over Webo, but it also stacked most of the gain on the back end.
I followed the road up Cherry Canyon until it became a single track, then it turned back into a road. Before I reached private property, I left the road and aimed for the saddle south of The Thimble. The rest of the hike was cross country. I found a use trail to get me to the saddle, then started the long drop. The intervening terrain was mostly open desert rippled with numerous gullies feeding Hellhole Canyon. Some of the gullies were deep or clogged with vegetation so finding good crossings was important. I alternated between the ridges and gullies, with some help from animal trails. It took a little less than 3 hours to reach the base of Lookout Knob.
I headed toward Lookout Knob from the northwest. The first promising route I saw was not the one I had attempted the first time. The one I tried the first time was class 4 and I turned back, prompting me to bring some minimal climbing gear this time. The best route starts just right of a giant blouder with parallel black marks. I crunched through some mazanita to reach the base of the scramble. There are a couple of ways up. I went up a large square boulder, but discovered on the way down that this move could be bypassed by going left around it through a tunnel. Next was a traverse across a 2' ledge to the crux move, an exposed class 3 with a knobby hold on the left. My concern with this move was that the knob might break off. It felt OK, but I suggest testing it before using it. Above that was another ledge that wound around the summit block. A final class 2 move got me to the top. I had dragged some of my gear up, but left it below the crux, quite happy to have not needed it. I brought a register and pen in a plastic sandwich container and left it for future peakbaggers. I loved the views of Hellhole Flat and the San Ysidro Mountains. I stayed on top for about 20 minutes before climbing down without incident. All that was left was getting back with temps 30F warmer than when I started.
For some reason, I didn't pay attention to the route on my way back. I ended up going over a ridge or two unnecessarily, adding unwelcome gain in the heat. I brought some extra water based on the forecast and ended up drinking all of it. It crossed my mind to climb The Thimble again since I was only 300' below it, but my dwindling water suggested otherwise. Though there is no easy way to Hellhole Flat, this was the easiest of three paths I've taken before.
