Mike & Theresa's Travel Journal: Anza Borrego

We decided to get away from the cool, wet weather we were having in San Diego and wanted to go camping. We contemplated between the beach spots at Dana Point or the desert in Anza Borrego. The weather called for mild, dry temps in the desert, so we booked a weekend at Tamarisk Grove Campground. We camped there the last time we went to the park in April 2010. When we got to the campground, there was only 1 other site being used and only 1 other couple came later, so the campground was pretty quiet.

We set up camp right before dark on Friday, got a fire going and started cooking some dinner. We decided on grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and beans for dinner. Cooking by campfire can be fun, but we are looking into a camp stove for future camping.

It gets pretty windy at night in the desert and there were times I thought our tent was going to blow away, but the tamarisk trees did a good job protecting us from the wind. We also were smart and brought our sub zero sleeping bags and kept cozy and warm.

We woke up Saturday to a nice, sunny day. We started coffee and breakfast of eggs, bacon and tortillas. I made some PB&J sandwiches to take on our hike. We really wanted to hike the Slot Trail during our last visit to the desert, but it rained and we left early. So, we started our day at the Slots. We found the turn off, Butte Pass Rd, and drove the dirt road back to where we saw a van parked. We stopped some other people in a car to ask them about the location of the place and he got us going in the right direction and also mentioned Eagle Canyon being a good place to check out in the same area. We decided to stick with our original plan of Slot Trail. We walked back to where the canyon begins and dropped down. Once we started walking along, we discovered why it’s called the Slots. The canyon is pretty narrow in places and we had to take off our packs to get through.

The trail goes through the canyon for about a mile and a half before opening up. We continued to walk past the canyon and out to view the Borrego Badlands from different high points. We enjoyed lunch and the view for some time before heading back to the car to try another trail. Looking at the guide book and map, we thought the Wind Caves sounded pretty cool. We drove out to Ocotillo Wells and turned south to head to where the road ends. We turned off into the Split Mountain wash and tried to drive our Prius. We had to make it 5 miles before coming to the trail head. The wash was pretty gnarly and we took it really slow. We kept passing trucks and SUVs and they were laughing at us being there in our Prius. We finally decided to give up before we really got stuck and turned around after making it half way. We will have to go back with a bigger vehicle next time.

After failing to get to the Wind Caves, we drove back to camp and decided to walk one of the trails by the campground. We chose the Yaqui Well Nature Trail. The trailhead is right across the street from the campground and is 2 miles out and back. The trail is a little rocky and we saw lots of cacti and birds. It was a nice walk to end our day.

Back at camp for the evening, we made our fire and settled for hotdogs and corn on the cob for dinner. We also brought some apple cider, bought in Julian, and rum for our desert.

Sunday, Halloween, we decided to hike in Blair Valley. We started with Ghost Mountain. It’s a fairly decent rocky trail with switch backs up the mountain. It’s a little eerie feeling seeing the metal bed frame remains when you first arrive at the top. Marshall South and his family resided on the mountaintop in the 1930s. Besides the bed, there is still a chimney, water storage pool and other remains of a house that used to be there. The view from the top is pretty amazing also.

We left Ghost Mountain and walked the Morteros Trail. We walked out about a mile at first and didn’t notice any mortar holes in the rocks at first. When we started walking back, we walked around the big rocks and saw tons of the holes in the rocks that Indians used to use to grind their food.

After the Morteros Trail, we finished up our day with the Pictograph Trail. We walked out to the pictograph on the huge rock and studied it for a while. We continued all the way to the end of the trail which drops off and has a view of Vallecitos Valley. We ate our lunch while looking out into the valley. It was so quiet out there and I kept feeling like I was hearing noises. I couldn’t make out the various noises, but they were noises that made me stop and look around. Mike never heard anything. It was probably animals and/or the wind that I was hearing.