Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Coachwhip Canyon

Our book of 100 Hikes in Anza-Borrego showed a 3.5 miles hike up this canyon was fairly strenuous.  John and I think they lied!  It was VERY strenuous!  But it may have had something to do with John leading us off the trail and up onto the ridge.  Most of the desert and mountains and canyons in this park are rough rocks and very little vegetation other than cacti and ocotillo (a very thorny bush).  This canyon was no different.  The path is was mostly sand but as we reached into the depth of the passage it became more boulder strewn and then a complete rock fall.  At that point we took off up the side that appeared easily climbed. But the rough rocks were slippery.  We made it to the top of the ridge and walked along it for a ways looking for an alternate way back down into the canyon but the further down we walked the steeper the sides became.  We tried to take a picture of our predicament but both batteries for the camera were dead.  We eventually creeped back down into the canyon and made it safely out.  

This afternoon we decided to change campsites and moved to the south and east of Borrego Springs but we are still in the desert.  Here we have better cell service which John was missing as he could not read his Wall Street Journal!

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