As we had some time this day, we decided to cruise around in the Anza Borrego SP. In a trail guide I read something about a difficult rated sandy trail nearby ‘The Slot’, a slot canyon.
We started on the 78 from Borrego Springs towards Ocotillo Wells. At 11S 57308X 366906X (UTM/NAD27) we turned left on a dirt road.
On an easy gravel road we reached at around 11S 57336X 367155X the parking area for ‘The Slot’, where the trail seemed to end.
People, we met there told us, that the ongoing trail is closed. But we heared in the meantime, that it should still be open. So we might check this next time, when we are out there. From the parking area a lot of hiking trails are visible. From there one has to hike to the entrance of ‘The Slot’. As we did not plan to hike the slot canyon, we just walked around to see the vicinity.
A lot of hiking routes……
Back at the jeep we decided to drive back the wasy we came in. At 11S 57349X 367039X we turned left on the Buttes Pass Road towards Buttes Pass:
Buttes Pass Road was an easy gravelroad at the time, we drove it.
At 11S 57409X 367056X we met Goat Trail, which followed from there. The Butte Pass Road continued straight and connects to San Felipe Wash.
At 11S 57649X 367055X we arrived at Blow Sand Canyon. We followed the trail to the left into this canyon.
Blow Sand Canyon is very colorful. It was a lot of fun to drive through. The trail itself is (according to his name) pretty sandy, but was not difficult to drive.
At the end of Blow Sand Canyon we met San Felipe Wash. The following picture shows the sign post from San Felipe Wash towards Blow Sand Canyon:
We followed San Felipe Wash to the left. On a sandy trail one can make good pace.
At 11S 57269X 367535X we found the sign, which showed us the way to Rainbow Wash. This trail leads into the badlands below Fonts Point.
The trail itself was pretty good visible at the beginning.
As we went further, it got more and more colorful.
We also hiked a little bit to explore the geology.
As we saw later on the maps, we missed one turnoff and instead of visiting Rainbow Wash we went into a nameless sidearm.
As there was rain promised for this day and as the first were visible, we decided to turn arround to go back to San Felipe Wash.
After being back in San Felipe Wash we went left until we reached Cut Across Trail at 11S 57576X 367353X. We planned to come closer to S22 and the pavement via this trail.
Cut Across Trail was easy to drive. We crossed Military Wash and met Fault Wash.
The plan was to use Fault Wash to go north, but there was a sign, which told us, not go via Fault Wash.
We continued on Cut Across Trail and met Palo Verde Wash at 11S 57947X 367556X. We turned into Palo Verde Wash.
Palo Verde Wash leads over a distance of a few miles towards the Santa Rosa Mountains.
The vicinity here is also wonderful.
At 11S 57784X 368111X we met Short Wash, which leads to Fonts Wash. As we planned to visit Vista Del Malpais on our way out, we followed Short Wash for a short distance. Vista Del Malpais is not as wellknown as Fonts Point, but it should allow to have even more spectacular views from there on the badlands.
At 11S 57574X 368126X we left Short Wash to the left and went up to Vista Del Malpais. The following picture shows the trail up to Vista Del Malpais.
From here one can have spectacular views. In the background of the next picture you can see the incoming bad weather from the western direction.
The following picture might give an impression about the storm we had while visiting this overlook:
The next picture shows the hiking path to the overlook, which we did not walk due to the heavy wind.
Instead of this, we left Vista Del Malpais on the sandy trail down to Short Wash
Once back at Short Wash we turned left towards Fonts Wash. At 11S 57440X 368206X we met Thimble Trail, which turned off to the right.
We followed Thimlbe Trail until we reached the S22.
The following pictures should give an impression about the incoming bad weather:
And last but not least a picture, taken from Palm Canyon Resort in Borrego Springs, CA:
Here you are able to download a gpx file of our trip:
Tracklog: Rainbow Wash, Anza Borrego SP, CA (934 downloads )
The map gives an overview over the visited region:
