Goat Canyon is a valley in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

, United States, located within the

Carrizo Gorge Carrizo Gorge is a valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surf ...

in the

Jacumba Mountains The Jacumba Mountains are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges system, located in eastern San Diego County, Southern California, near the U.S. border with Mexico. The mountain range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction, east of the I ...

. The rock forming the canyon is

crystalline basement In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

. One feature of the canyon is a dry waterfall. The canyon is bridged by a wooden railroad trestle, the

Goat Canyon Trestle Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of , it is the world's largest all-wood trestle. Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the ...

, which is the world's largest curved all-wood

trestle ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...

. The canyon is accessible by

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

by traveling west from Mortero Palms.

Flora and fauna

Goat Canyon is named after

desert bighorn sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The Bu ...

that live within and around the canyon. During a

desert bloom A desert bloom is a climatic phenomenon that occurs in various deserts around the world. The phenomenon consists of the blossoming of a wide variety of flowers during early-mid spring in years when rainfall is unusually high. The blossoming occ ...

, which occurred in 2017, monkey flowers were observed flowering in the canyon. The

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

least Bell's vireo Bell's vireo (''Vireo bellii'') is a songbird that migrates between a breeding range in Western North America and a winter range in Central America. It is dull olive-gray above and whitish below. It has a faint white eye ring and faint wing bar ...

migrates through the area around the canyon.

Human history

Prior to Spanish governance, there was Native American activity in the area around Goat Canyon; the impact of this activity includes

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

and pictograms in Carrizo Gorge. The last Native Americans to live in the area were the

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

. Later cattle ranchers utilized the area. Beginning in 1912, construction began on the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway in the area. The Carrizo Gorge portion of the line, including Goat Canyon, was the final portion to be completed. A railroad tunnel of The San Diego and Arizona Railway, Tunnel number 15, was built into the side of the canyon but it collapsed in 1932. The collapse was caused by an earthquake, which dramatically changed the inclination of Tunnel number 15. After Tunnel number 15 collapsed, it was decided that it would be bypassed using a wooden trestle. During the construction of the trestle, segments were lowered into the canyon from the partially completed trestle. Construction workers took breaks in a portion of the collapsed tunnel that they called the "mud shed". The trestle was completed in 1933. In 1976

Hurricane Kathleen Hurricane Kathleen was a tropical cyclone that had a destructive impact in California. On September 7, 1976, a tropical depression formed; two days later it accelerated north towards the Baja California Peninsula. Kathleen brushed the Pacific c ...

's effects impacted the region around the canyon, destroying tracks and other trestles in Carrizo Gorge; the trestle over Goat Canyon was also damaged, with some of its footings destroyed during the hurricane. By 1981, repairs from the hurricane damage were completed. Heavy rains returned to the area in 1982 and 1983; this led to rail service being discontinued over Goat Canyon and through Carrizo Gorge. After repairs were again completed, trains once again ran over Goat Canyon in 2004. In 2008 the trains once again stopped running over Goat Canyon.

Popular media

In 1999,

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

traveled to the canyon to visit the trestle over it. In 2017, the canyon was depicted in a "Mysteries of the Abandoned" episode on the Science Channel.

Other uses

There is another Goat Canyon in San Diego County, which is located north of the

Mexico–United States barrier The Mexico–United States barrier ( es, barrera Estados Unidos–México), also known as the border wall, is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico–United States border intended to reduce illegal immigration to the United States ...

and south of the

Tijuana River , name_etymology = , image = Presa Tij 1.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Dam on the Tijuana River in Mexico. , map = Tijuana River Basin.svg , map_size = 250 , map_caption ...

References

{{reflist Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Landforms of San Diego County, California San Diego and Arizona Railway