Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego
Domeland and Wind caves - Oct 2011
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
11/5/2011
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Scout Troup 680 was kind enough to invite Webelos from the various local cub scout packs on a backpack trip to the Domelands. They got good Webelo participation and the entire group was ~50 people (we had an exact count but I did not memorize it: ~10 adults, ~39 boys, and 1 girl).
The plan was to have a majority of people sleep in the wind caves. The idea was also to not over burden the younger scouts with weight and water is heavy. This implied that the older scouts and adults needed to carry more water than their expected usage.
We first met at the troop regular meeting location and agreed to all meet at the gas station south of hwy 8 near Ocotillo and caravan to the trail head (TH) from the gas station. The dirt road to the TH was too much for low clearance passenger vehicles, but it got too rough for them fairly close to the TH. The TH had some people shooting skeets and there was quite a bit of trash there. The people shooting the skeets did clean up much of their mess but those things break into many pieces and doing a proper cleanup would take significant time. So the TH can use a good cleanup but we were not prepared for this type of cleanup (no gloves and garbage bags); I did cleanup a couple of the bigger items.
Passenger car having problems with the road.
The scout leaders distributed food and water to the various people. My pack would be heavier than it has been for a long time (~70 lbs including 3.5 gal of water, tortillas and salsa for the group dinner). Good thing it was a short hike. Unfortunately though it was quite hot, my watch thermometer had it at 102.5 in the sun about 12:30 (we were about ¾ of the way to destination at this time).
Final load up before starting the hike to the Domelands.
The hike starts off fairly flat but immediately after crossing a fairly deep ravine (maybe 12-15’ deep) the trail headed up a hill that the scouts had called “Little Scout Killer” hill (meaning Webelo killer hill). Well the little scouts had less difficulty on this hill than the parents. I was at the front of the pack so I did not see most of the difficulty but heard that at least 1 adult needed their pack carried up this hill.
We passed some minor wind caves about 0.25 miles before hitting our destination. Our destination was great. There were many wind caves. The cave that is first visible is actually a bridge and it has a natural table. The natural table had about a dozen fossils on it when we arrived. The kids added a few more but were more interested in playing than finding fossils.
On the backside of the bridge is a traverse (slightly high off the ground) to a cave that the kids named the Penthouse. The Penthouse is maybe 16-20' up in the air. When we arrived there was some graffiti (not a pictograph or petroglyph) in the penthouse but because it was sand stone it was fairly easy for me to remove.
This is the bridge cave that leads to the Penthouse.
The Penthouse is the big cave up high.
To the left of the bridge opening entrance (the exit goes to the Penthouse) was two caves the kids called Exclamation Point.
The Bridge cave and the Exclamation Point can be seen in this picture.
Another cool cave the kids named the Climbers Loft. The Climbers Loft was ~10’ up and had some fairly small toe holes that someone placed in the sandstone to get a start. I tried to climb into it wearing Crocs and could not. I am not sure that I could have gotten into it if I was wearing my boots. Well a boy slept in it but I do not know how he got his gear into it.
My son's cave shelter with my pack cluttering up the abode.
Various wind caves in the area.
The views from the camp (looking North) of the Badlands is slightly similar to Fonts Point but with more monuments. You could almost imagine being at the Grand Canyon. Beyond the Badlands was the Carrizo Impact Zone. We could see the Santa Rosa Mtns to the far North.
Overlooking the badlands.
We went Geo Caching and found 2 that we had obtained the info from the Geo Cache site and one that we happened across that did not have a single entry. I do not know if it was placed and the person forgot to enter its data on the Geo Cache site.
Finding a Geo Cache.
Some of the adults and boys climbed down into the Badlands. We were planning on taking a larger group down into the Badlands the next morning to find some more Geo Caches but our water supply dictated that we pack up and head out the next morning without doing more exploring. As we were packing up two men came. They were the only other people we saw after leaving the TH. They left on their return hike just before we did and we quickly passed them.
The entire group before departing from the domelands campsite.
The only wildlife I saw on the trip was a single lizard that was disturbed when my son picked up the rock that he was taking shelter under and a dragon fly.
The dragonfly.
This troop does something that they call Roses, Thorns, and Buds. Roses are things you like, Thorns are things that did not go well, and Buds are things to do different.
There were so many roses and they varied significantly but the Badlands view and the caves were listed many times (the food was also listed quite a bit as was the cold water in the ice chest when we got back to the cars).
The Thorns also varied but the prevailing complaint was the heat. My Thorn was literally a thorn as my Neo Air Thermorest that I absolutely love got a thorn hole (very slow leak). I was not the only one with this thorn.
Having more ice water at the car was the most common Bud. My Bud was that I would break such a large hiking group into at least two groups based on expected hiking speed. It seemed like I spent at much time waiting on people to catch up as I did hiking.
Overall it was a great backpack trip with great views and great natural shelters. My son and I had a great time.
Mylar balloon count 0. After leaving the TH the entire trip was litter free.
edited by DHeuschele on 11/6/2011
edited by DHeuschele on 11/6/2011
edited by DHeuschele on 11/6/2011
edited by DHeuschele on 11/6/2011
edited by DHeuschele on 11/6/2011
edited by surfponto on 4/1/2016
edited by surfponto on 4/1/2016
edited by surfponto on 4/1/2016
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/7/2011
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Looks like it was great trip, it is nice to see kids are still getting outdoors. I remember a trip a couple years ago to the mud caves and there were a couple hundred girl scouts..they were everywhere!
I am puzzled by the heat you mention, I haven't seen those high of temps in Oct so far.
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
11/7/2011
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dsefcik wrote:
Looks like it was great trip, it is nice to see kids are still getting outdoors. I remember a trip a couple years ago to the mud caves and there were a couple hundred girl scouts..they were everywhere!
I am puzzled by the heat you mention, I haven't seen those high of temps in Oct so far.
That weekend was hot but my temperature reading is also in the direct sun. I suspect the official temps (non direct sunlight) were likely 10 degrees cooler (not sure if they have offiicial temps for Ocotillo).
A couple years ago I took a partial cub scout pack to the mud caves. We included Hidden Cave (Plunge and Carey also) and it was way too crowded, but it was part of the adventure. Basically there are very few passing places in Hidden so we pretty much all had to wait at the rope room for everyone to get to the rope room. We were packed pretty tight in the rope room.
It was after a recent mud storm so there was mud in some of the canyons for the kids to play in and get totally covered. My son still talks about this mud adventure even though he has been to the mud caves maybe 6 times this trip was special because the mud was mud instead of dried mud.
Everyone had a great time.
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