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Brian Posts: 225
2/22/2023
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On Sunday of President's day weekend, I drove into Collins Valley. Turns out a lot of other people had the same idea! I've never seen so much traffic on Coyote Canyon Road. When I was driving out Monday, I waited at first crossing while 11 cars passed on their way in. Luckily most people didn't go beyond second crossing, but a lot of people did stop there and hang out. Unfortunately that meant I had an audience of onlookers as I negotiated my Crosstrek through the water crossing. But that went fine and boulder alley was in the best shape I've ever seen it (although I had to deal with oncoming traffic in the middle of it both on the way in and the way out).
My knees haven't quite recovered from the Dawn's Peak hike, so I didn't do much hiking but I did explore Indian Canyon to get a feel for what I could do on a future trip. On Sunday night I found a nice camp site far away from the mob who were at Sheep Camp. All I heard was the sound of frogs in the stream below.
I had been looking at an old native trail on a map that climbs a ridge out of the canyon, but it became apparent that just getting to the base of the ridge was going to involve a lot of bushwhacking. This is what the canyon looked like just past the split with Bennis Bowl.
Monday morning I started up a ridge that had a gentle slope, good footing and great views. Some time I'd like to return and continue all the way up to Palm Mesa.
My final stop of the weekend was a brief detour into the bottom of Cougar Canyon. I had explored this before, but it was 10 years ago. I had a very interesting encounter with a group (possibly Japanese tourists?) who had rappelled down the canyon and were on their way out that morning. They were telling me how cold it had been that night, which confused me because I think it was probably mid-40s. Then they mentioned "but we found a cave to stay in, so we survived." It was then I realized they hadn't brought any tents or sleeping bags. They had intended to do the whole thing the day before, but it took longer than expected. They had horror stories about how it had taken all day just to go a mile and their parting words were "don't rappel, it's no fun."
Naturally I was curious how they got to the head of the canyon (the only way I know would be through the Los Coyotes reservation). They told me about a wiki page that has the route and it turned out I had a pic of the approach they would have taken. They would have climbed the wall up to the notch in the center/top of this pic.
Here's the wiki page with the route:
http://ropewiki.com/Cougar_Canyon_(Anza_Borrego_Desert)
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surfponto Administrator Posts: 1364
2/22/2023
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Very cool.
Thanks for posting the route. That is crazy about the tourists! Doesn't sound like they had [planned out their trip very well. 🤔
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https://www.anzaborrego.net/
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Scooter Posts: 114
2/22/2023
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Brian... missed you by a few days. Went out and camped at the mouth of Cougar canyon for three days. Hiked South Fork Sheep's Canyon, Hiked Cougar and on Friday did Schad's route from Box Canyon over to Hidden Springs. Have never done this before. Really cool to follow the old Native American trail that is still in great shape. While on top we were talking about your route up to Dawns. Very impressive !! Very large mountain lion tracks in Box Canyon.
Even though I moved to Arizona, I still get about four trips to Borrego each year.
Wish the bypass road was not as well maintained. A lot more traffic up there. Funny a lot of Jeeps come up and just turn around and leave.
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Brian Posts: 225
2/22/2023
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Scooter wrote:
on Friday did Schad's route from Box Canyon over to Hidden Springs. Have never done this before. Really cool to follow the old Native American trail that is still in great shape.
I've done that route in 2 halves. The first half was going from Box canyon up to one of the playas where I camped. I remember that one very well because I went up on the day the state shut down for the pandemic. There's hardly a more isolated place to camp so it was a nice spot to get away from the craziness, but I didn't know what I would find when I went back down. Then last year Rocko1 and I went up to the playas from the Butler Canyon side so that I could see the rest of the route.
Scooter wrote:
Wish the bypass road was not as well maintained. A lot more traffic up there.
I have mixed feelings. It's nice when I can drive in with my Subaru rather than the long road walk hiking in. But it certainly does increase the traffic. If the last few years are any indication, it won't take long for boulder alley to be back in a condition that isn't driveable for a car like mine, so I guees everyone gets a bit of what they want at different times.
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Buford Posts: 456
2/23/2023
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Very nice. That is one way to access the Palm Mesa area I’ve always been curious about. Always worried about the brush. I’ve seen the old maps showing the trail up.
Boulder alley was a mess in December. About as bad as it has been in the last couple years. I was able to drive over and almost no one was in Collins Valley which was really nice. However, all the road grading equipment was parked at the bottom and the road leading up was just graded. They must have just graded Boulder Alley right after. It was definitely not Subaru passable then. I have mixed feelings about how accessible they have made it the last couple years.
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Links to my photos: ABDSP photos, Bighorn sheep photos, ABDSP time lapse video, Wildlife photos (mainly birds)
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Rocko1 Posts: 597
2/23/2023
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Cool trip. Looks like you had decent weather as well. How deep did the water come up on your Sub?
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Brian Posts: 225
2/23/2023
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Rocko1 wrote:
Cool trip. Looks like you had decent weather as well. How deep did the water come up on your Sub?
It was great weather. Got a few sprinkles while I was setting up my tent, then it stopped.
Hard to say about the water level. I didn't see any evidence of water on the trim below the doors. I spent a lot of time watching other cars drive through and even took my shoes off and waded around to find any deep spots. At second crossing I favored the left side going in and at third crossing I favored the right. I think that avoided some spots where I saw other vehicles sink in more.
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rockhopper Posts: 668
2/24/2023
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Nice adventure Brian. I like the story of the Japanize tourists. Los Coyote reservation access has jeep trails heading toward the direction Coyote canyon. We went to hike up to Hot Springs Mountain. San Diego's counties highest peak. Later we drove and hiked east to some great overlooks into Sheep / Coyote canyon. Looked like it would be a tough scramble down.
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Brian Posts: 225
2/24/2023
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rockhopper wrote:
Nice adventure Brian. I like the story of the Japanize tourists. Los Coyote reservation access has jeep trails heading toward the direction Coyote canyon. We went to hike up to Hot Springs Mountain. San Diego's counties highest peak. Later we drove and hiked east to some great overlooks into Sheep / Coyote canyon. Looked like it would be a tough scramble down.
I've also hiked to Hot Springs MTN. Unfortunately, some time in the past few years the reservation gated off the road just past the campground and it's now their policy that Hot Springs MTN is the only hike that's allowed on the reservation (for non-residents anyway). There are a number of interesting hikes that could leave from there that I know about now and I wish I had done before that restriction was put in place.
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tekewin Posts: 368
2/27/2023
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Nice trip!
I was wondering about the water level at second crossing with all the rain we've had. Nice to know it was passable. Who knows after this last set of storms. I love Collins Valley.
I got lucky and was able to do a number of hikes out of Los Coyotes before they had any driving restrictions. I got Square Top from there, probably the shortest route. Also Palm Mesa, Pike BM, and Cody BM.
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