Hammer Down


In Lucerne Valley, just outside Johnson Valley, near the famous King of the Hammers trails, is Cougar Buttes where you will find numerous rock crawling trails among the towering, jagged, rocky buttes. Hammer Down Trail is only one of these rough, rocky, rig flexing trails in Cougar Buttes.

Hammer Down is short, but slow going and rough. Body damage is common along this trail due to tight, off-camber rock obstacles that will put your rig in some awkward positions and angles.

Ham Radio Repeater Information

147.330+ 131.8 / K6BB in Beg Bear reaches down to Cougar Buttes ( and beyond ), but once you are inside the canyon walls of this trail you will lose signal from just about anything.

When some plans with another group fell through as I was in route to this trail, it lead to an opportunity to meet and run Hammer Down Trail with a great meet-up group; SoCal Jeepers.

After helping to winch a disabled rig off of the Gate Keeper, these guys welcomed me into their trail run and I got to run Hammer Down as planned.

Thanks, Socal Jeepers!