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Agua Alta overnight

Brian Posts: 230 10 days ago	Brian Posts: 230 Last weekend after Thanksgiving I did an overnight hike to Agua Alta spring. I was considering spending an extra day and doing a dayhike to Jack Miller cabin, but I would have needed to refill water at the spring for that. There was a small amount of water, but it was green and stagnant and there was no new flow coming in. It would have worked in an emergency, but for my purposes I decided to give it a miss. I had carried 6 liters which ended up being the right amount for my 2 day / one night trip. I have a map published by the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument which lists the distance to Agua Alta as 8.8 miles, but according to my tracker it was a little over 10 from the Cactus Spring parking area. This map mentions that the trail becomes indistinct and hard to follow past Cactus Spring. It actually was easier than I was imagining. There were many sections that were well marked with cairns, but there were also sections (especially crossing washes) where it was easy to lose the trail and I was glad to have GPS. I noticed that the trail on the "mapbuilder topo" layer of CalTopo didn't seem to be accurate past the 5168 saddle. There are a lot of straight lines with no regard to the topography. I used the "scanned topo" (USGS) layer which agreed with the cairns I was seeing. This is near Cactus Spring and reminded me of similar rock piles I've seen in Rockhouse Valley. Burial mound? Typical scenery along the way Now that's a cairn! backside of Toro Shortly after cresting the 5168 saddle. The Salton Sea is sorta visible through the haze and the Santa Rosa crest is on the right Agua Alta A native site near the spring
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Rocko1 Posts: 600 1 days ago	Rocko1 Posts: 600 Very cool area. Looks like a great place to explore.
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