Large, whitish pegmatite rock dikes appear as giant, man-made cement walls winding across the landscape. These xenoliths are fragments of an ancient sea bed that solidified into sedimentary rock bodies that were subsequently almost entirely consumed by molten granitic material rising from below. These pegmatites and xenoliths are common throughout the Peninsular Ranges and are evidence of major sea-floor subduction under the land mass of the Californias from 100 to 70 million years ago. Lookout Point is the beginning of the Hellhole Canyon ridge trail, which descends about six miles to a large parking lot at the bottom off Hwy S-22 at post mile 16.5. It is not unusual for fitness buffs to do this trail up and down in a day.
Normal hikers arrange a car shuttle.
The trail was originally an Indian trail and was later used by cattlemen to move their stock down to the desert for winter grazing. Beginning at the Culp Valley Lookout Point, plants to note include juniper, sugarbush, mountain mahogany, nolina, Mojave yucca, and scrub oak. Santa Rosa sage, jojoba, barrel cactus, agave, and Mormon tea are found midway down. Plants at the lower elevations include desert lavender, indigo bush, brittlebush, creosote, ocotillo, and burrobush. Participants in an ABF-sponsored hike down Hellhole Canyon in April 1997 saw nine mountain sheep on this trail at the 3,000 foot level.