Home ▶ Completed Trips

Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego

The Island

dsefcik

Administrator

Posts: 2634

8/6/2017

dsefcik

Administrator

Posts: 2634

Went out yesterday to explore the Island a bit....copy/pasted from my blogger site

----------------

The Island

When you drive the 8 highway between Ocotillo and Jacumba you can see "The Island" between the East & West bound lanes of the highway. There is one exit on the The Island named Mountain Springs. There is a lot of rugged terrain to explore from that exit, Devils Canyon, In-Ko-Pah Gorge, Myer Creek to name just a few places. This trip I decided to go try and find the Devil benchmark located on a peak just east of the Devils Canyon #2 bridge. It was a pretty warm day, maybe 100 degrees or so, not too bad. This is a relatively easy BM to get to, my total mileage hiking was about 2.5 miles and elevation gain/loss was about 800'. Most maps will not have this named as Devil BM but it is marked as peak 2532. There are several other BM's in the area to find as well.

There are some great views from the peak, or at least there were...now all you see are wind turbines

The migrants coming from Mexico have used this peak as route north as evidenced by the abandoned backpacks and water bottles everywhere. I am still amazed at some of the remote and rugged areas of the desert I find their discards, they are some tough and determined folks.