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If you want to see the day-to-day destruction from the eyes of an Ocotillo resident take a look at this site where he uploads daily photos.

http://saveocotillo.picturepush.com/album/225256/p-OWEF-08252012.html

It is heart wrenching to anyone that loves the desert.

http://m.nbcsandiego.com/nbcsandiego/pm_107837/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4esmMo2Z&rwthr=0

For those not aware, check the link

We've had 3 pretty big storms out here this summer. Each time the flood waters change the washes where the trails are. So, if you want to have some fun bring your 4WD out and try to figure where you are! Some areas are washed out, some are very sandy, and some washes are super wide, it's all great! Some signs remain to keep you from getting into areas that you don't want to go into. A simple trip up to Fonts in your mini van or rental car is a thing of the past. When nature removes or hardens the sand then they can still get up there and who knows how long that will take. Plus someone can make a lot of money pulling tourists out of Fonts Wash!

This is that fall in Sandstone Canyon early August. You used to drive up and over it on the far left. You need a rock crawler vehicle to do it now! We made it through another way.

We just drove through the narrow spot to get out!

Looks like a great trip.
Snake picture is great. looks like it is 6' long in your picture.?

Glad things are cooling down out there. Going to try to make it out in the next couple weeks.
Bob

Crap...you found my cooler...! I really thought the duct tape would last until I got out there again...gonna buy Gorilla tape next time!

McCain Valley is a great place to find snakes, I have seen many out there. Is the old shack up on El Cajon mtn also a radio shack like the one in McCain Valley?

ziphius wrote:

Daren, your second photo implies a climbing of the barbed / razor wire?!! Or good technique with the long lens...

Neither, I just slipped thru the opening of the gate.

Any one thinking of attending?
Love Ballast Point and it may be a good opportunity to meet other Anza Borrego folks

That is pretty awesome
Reminds me of this off road vehicle built by Lamborghini

Of course the price tag is $115,000


edited by surfponto on 9/18/2012
edited by surfponto on 9/18/2012

Tom,

I wonder if a careful Google Earth search would yield any results on the geoglyphs. I guess the place to start is with *known* geoglyphs, to see if the Google imagery is actually good enough to reveal them in the first place.

Jim

I am planning a trip in about 3 weeks and may head through fish creek to split rock/dave mccain spring. Curious to know if it is do able with my rig. We went as far as olla wash in 09 but things have changed a bit out there. Looking on a topo map it looks a bit tight going through olla wash and dave mccain spring.

TIA

tommy750 wrote:

Nice pics and report. Made it up to Carrizo Palms in Februrary 2009 via the East Fork. Was under 4 miles to the southern Carrizo Palms. The northern Carrizo Palms doesn't seem to exist except on the topo map. Found running water and some nice pools, but maybe dried up this time of year. Also, found this guy's remains. Thanks. Tom

Wow! Nice Bighorn find! What do you do when you find a skull like that? Leave it where you find it? Report it to the rangers? Pack it out?

Actually I think we saw the northern palm grove from up on the trestle a couple weeks back.
It looked that if you forked right from the turnoff to the southern Carrizo Palms you would run right into it.
Will try to look on Google Earth to pinpoint it.

Here you go (red arrow) although I am not sure that is North of the Carrizo Palms


Bob

Yeah, the topo map looks a little funny because the "southern" Carrizo Palms have a little circle on both the right and left side of the name which is confusing as to which canyon the palms actually are in. Looks like they are in both. The topo map shows the "northern" palms to be in the East Fork at the very top edge of your picture. Went back to the oldest sat photos (1994) on Google Earth and still don't see any palms there. Maybe that grove died out. Tom

I too lost my way a month or so ago when I went out to Piedras Grandes. All of the workers will slow down driving and the water tanks will start spraying as soon as they see you watching them.

The guy on the surfboard looked like graffiti to me when I saw it, did you go see graffiti cave?

You need to go past the signed pictos and keep poking around, you can't miss it....it's right next to the big boulder....

I have bought my last two shells and bed liners from SoCal Truck http://socaltruck.net/
They had the best prices around and are a family business. Ask for Elizabeth.

I have no affiliation with them other than being a satisfied customer.

tommy750 wrote:

Anyone have info on a good place to get a Pickup cap in San Diego? Best brand? Tired of wedging everything inside the cab. Thanks. Tom

Tom,

My Dad is selling his 2007 palomino 1251 pop top truck camper. Google the brand and you can see they are pretty cool. It has a 60watt solar system. It would fit your tundra perfect! He is selling it for 5,800 obo. Not sure if you are in the market for one but you are welcome to check it out.

Nolan

Yep, the hands are right below the graffiti...so guess where the hands came from...

surfponto wrote:

Is that the same cave as the handprints?
Never found out the story on those.

tommy750 wrote:

It's an easy drive out there if you have a gate key to Davies Valley.

Wait, key? Does some have a key to that gate? I went out there a few years ago expecting to be able to drive the trails around Davies Valley but was stopped by a few locked gates. Anyway, great report! That's crazy that you just came upon a human skull. I found one a few years ago out at my in-law's ranch in Delzura. Authorities said it was an immigrant who probably died of exposure.

This really was a great TR Tom, thanks for sharing. Best pictures of the glyphs out there I have seen.

Tom, That human skull is amazing! My thoughts and prayers go out to the unfortunate soul. It looks like it has been there awhile and I wonder if they will be able to identify them. Did the BP agent take down your info to report back to you any info? I wonder how many other people just walked right by without noticing, or with noticing and kept going. Were you hiking solo? It really makes you think twice before heading out alone in the desert...

One of my good friends was backpacking in the sierras and came across a rock climber who had fallen to his death. He kept on his hike and reported the guy to the authorities a few days later when he was done with his backpack trip. They really read him the riot act for not reporting it right when he found the guy.

Yeah the railroad camp is pretty cool to checkout.
Seems it will eventually fade into obscurity.
The powder keg wall was noticeably smaller the last time we were there




BorregoWrangler wrote:

Just a few more days to go! I was really sick for over a week and afraid I'd have to cancel this trip. So happy I've been feeling better! On the return trip along the tracks I'm thinking about cutting through where the old railroad workers camp is along with Indian Hill. I don't think the guys I'm going with have been there yet so it would be a great addition to the hike. Then we'd just make our way to Doz Cabezas Road.

ziphius wrote:

I'm planning on "camping high" for the views and opportunities to look into some nooks and crannies that I've spied through binoculars on my last trip. Jim

Be careful of what you might find up in those nooks and crannies...

tommy750 wrote:

Oops! You're absolutely right. The other site is 32 41.42 -116 3.68

Great, I have that marked for my next trip out there. I have been wanting to go up that wash anyway (among 5 million others also). It seems that Chris Wray's book is a little hard to find. I wonder if the Butterfield Ranch store or the visitor center has it. The Butterfield store has some pretty funky old books on it's shelf by the register.

I have another idea, and would like some feedback. This one is solely to help the park. Suppose you're driving down the road and you see a road hazard. What do you do? Who do you call? Or suppose you're driving around in the backcountry, and you see a group of people illegally camped, littering the landscape. What do you do?

I am toying with the idea of writing an app that allows anyone with an iPhone to report these and other incidents with a few taps on their iPhone. With the app I tentatively call "Anza Borrego Reporter" you would choose from selections such as "Road Hazard" or "Illegal Activity" or "Environmental Damage" or even something like "Sheep Sighting." Then you'd add more info, take a picture, and all this info would be either posted to a web site, or sent as an email message to a responsible party for them to act upon.

Those are just some basic ideas. But at the same time I don't want to unnecessarily burden an already over-burdened understaffed park with more information than they may want to deal with. But I would develop this app for the park because I love this park and want to do something to help it.

Anyone have any thoughts on what I've posted so far? Thanks!
-Bill

Nice report! I have always wondered if the rocks you find in the morteros are the ones the Indians really used or if people just put them in there. Tom, is that your stock jack or did you upgrade to a better/faster jack. I only have my stock jack and thinking about upgrading. I just upgraded to a better air compressor after the ryobi I bought from home depot sucks.
From some research this is the one I chose
Q Industries MV50 SuperFlow High-Volume 12-Volt Air Compressor
Automotive; $56.97
In Stock
Sold by: Amazon.com

Congrats Tom on your 1st scat photo! Some creepy pictos there. Some of them look like boot prints. I wonder what the symbols mean? Those metates look like the real deal, heh? - Jim

Pretty crazy I am in little blair right now with 4g

tommy750 wrote:

Nolan (anutami) wrote:

Pretty crazy I am in little blair right now with 4g

I hear you. The girlfriend and I are in the Table Mt. backcountry right now enjoying a campfire and both surfing the net.

You guys get off the internet right now and look at the stars!

Wow! Looks like they painted the whole cave red! Is there any info on what minerals/plants they used to get that red pigmant?

Keep that fire going! it was in the low 30's last night in BV

Most of the area is "limited use" which means you need to stay on the designated trails and have a street legal vehicle. However a couple of the larger trails are "open" which I think means anything goes, but not sure, you may want to double check with BLM.

Here are the only 2 readable maps I was able to find.

Tom, have you also read his survival skills of native california book?


Hey, I just ordered that on amazon! Saw it was the other book by Douglas Campbell and checked it out on amazon. Is it pretty informative? Looks like an interesting read. Thanks. Tom

Tom, great info..thanks!

Found this interview on KPBS with the author of that book and Diana Lindsay

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/apr/08/discovering-the-history-of-california-indian-art/




Just read the transcript of the PBS interview. Interesting. Will have to read the chapter on how the blue pigment is made. Would be fun to try and make some. They discussed Indian revival and relearning pigment techniques, etc. I wonder if there's a few guys smoking toloache creating new shaman caves somewhere out there. tom

Some initials on the active water trough, I think it is "LG"

Yuha Basin / Bluffs brings back so many memories, it has always been mystical / magical, at least to me. First went there in early sixties when I was young, hiked most of the basin, the well (had water in the casings then), concretion and mud hills, pebble terraces with agate, quartz, jasper, petrified wood and palm, and of course the shell beds. Walking the bluffs there were 5 to 6 foot cleared circles, desert varnish heavy on the repositioned rocks, been that way for at least centuries, cannot remember if the geoglyphs were even known or fenced, but do not remember a fence. Melting old adobes were at the turn off road from highway into Yuha, by Coyote wash a few wattle and daub adobes also slowly melting.

Picked up a wrecked Datsun 1200 fastback in 1970, bought a wrecked counterpart (rear end damage) and welded them together, a couple of lift shackles and it was off road, all of Yuha was open, air out of the tires, R's kept up to 3k or over and went everywhere, never got stuck (what a lucky stupid kid I was) In the early 70's it was one of the off road places to be, very crowded on weekends, Yuha even served as a short course off road race track, I was there on the first Honda three wheeler and the place was being ruined, I stayed on the roads and would almost fall off and wreck a couple of times because I was looking at rocks and or plants, look there is desert holley, 'crash" look arrow weed, petrified wood, crash crash crash, I was not that good on a three wheeler.

It was easy to get lost in Yuha even after having been there a hundred times, but you could climb a bluff and always see the bunker, get your bearings, Bunker has been gone for a long time. My kids learned how to ride (on three wheelers) in Yuha, always went on destination rides, never understood making "tracks" like a hamster on a wheel, what is the purpose. By then a pipe corral had been put up around the bluff geoglyph but there was a hill climb diectly to the East and behind the enclosure, and the morons got in, I do not known how many times my family and I put boulders at the base of the hill climb, to try and block off the #%*!%& who had to destroy everything. I knew it would be closed to ORV's eventually and I agreed.

Stopped going in early 80's, kids almost grown and interested in other things, been back once or twice since. Why no one is there now has alot to do with the un-checked illegal immigrants entry, when the US economy was good, I understand campers, motorhomes left un-attended, while you took a ride, were often broken into.

Glad to see people going back, probably never camp there again, but a day trip is great,



Wow, what a great recollection of the Yuha area. My first trip there was this past August after the big storm. Was the only vehicle out there and the place looked fairly pristine considering how our deserts go. In view of your description of the past use, looks like it may bounce back. Except the geoglyphs which are so trashed it makes you want to cry. Thanks for sharing. Tom

We still go down to Bahia every year, Still a great destination.



THis is from this past summer

rockhopper wrote:

We used to go down to Bahia de Los Angeles every year during the 80's and 90's. Good times!
Thanks for sharing. I've got some old photos around herer somewhere

edited by surfponto on 12/12/2012

My wife and I in San Quintin, probably mid 80's. That is my XT 500 and my mexican plated Jeep....good times...

Thanks for the suggestions.
Heres a short one I liked

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/dps/archives/dps00752.htm

Stayed at Agua Caliente Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday we went out Carrizo Canyon and up the East Fork hoping to see the palms as explained in the Lindsay book "The Anza Borrego Desert Region". Did not make it all the way to the palms, but now that I check the maps/google earth, we were not far off. We were wondering if we took a wrong turn. Book says about 2 miles, and we hiked for 2 hours before we turned around and figured we should have seen them by now. Finally started a GPS track on my phone once we headed back and it indicated 2.2 miles. We were pretty close. bummer.

Dave

Jim (ziphius) wrote:

That first photo is ethereal and I'd be tempted to do some Photoshop magic to 'erase' the vehicles. Nice spot!

Ditto, I like that photo....Starting with CS5 you can use the Content Aware Fill feature and it works very well for that sort of thing. If you are like me and don't use Photoshop you can use the free PS alternative The Gimp and achieve the same result via the re-synthesizer plugin.

I really do not edit my photos much more than color/sharpness/crop but there are times when this type of thing comes in handy.

I always carry a paper map and compass. That is how I learned to navigate so many years ago. I also carry my iPhone linked to my inReach which has turned my phone into a nice GPS and satellite communicator. My wife feels much better about me going solo now. However I still use the map way more than the GPS and I think I always will. But I have to say when in doubt of the map the GPS helps.
David

Carrizo Mountain is the highest point of the rocky Coyote Mountains, located in the transition zone between the Salton depression of Imperial County, and the mountains and desert valleys of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the west. The range is located not far north of Interstate-8 near the small community of Ocotillo.


Photos and write-up can be seen here: Carrizo Mountain & Yuha Basin
edited by BorregoWrangler on 12/19/2012

Tom,
That is my unit. I got it last spring from REI and used it on 3 backpacking trips to the Sierra this summer. Also used it on a 2 week trip to Colorado and every trip to the desert this fall. With inReach I was never out of contact with wife and kids. It connects to my iPhone4 (can sync with Android phones and they also make a unit that will link with a GPS). It tracks my path wherever I am, on a trail or in the truck or jeep. It is very easy to use. I can send e-mails and text messages to anyone in the world. I can also pre-set 3 messages and send those without being connected to the iPhone. It has turned my iPhone into a GPS with the map package that comes with it. I download the area where I will be (So Cal is one map for all the topo maps of the whole area). Since I put my phone in airplane mode when in the backcountry it does NOT eat through the phone battery. Basically it is blue tooth connected to the inReach and the inReach is using the Iridium Satellites to send and receive e-mails and SMS text messages. I have had a couple of issues with it not staying synced to the iPhone but it is easy to re-sync. They have different packages from $10/month up. I have the $25/month that lets me have 40 text/SMS messages a month and unlimited pre-set messages. With the inReach I can also give a link to my wife and buddies and they can follow my track on topo, satellite, or road maps on their computers while I am out. Basically they can see where I am on Google Earth. It updates every 10 to 60 minutes depending on how I set it up. Makes them jealous but that is okay. With my plan I also get unlimited tracks that I can share and I can see my trip when I return. When I got my inReach I got it for about half price with a sale and rebate. If you go solo a lot it is a good thing to have.

Is that gate ever open or is the area only accessible by foot?

Tom, that is just an awesome TR...!!

I have been looking at my maps for sometime thinking about a route close to that, now I am inspired to get out there. I have seen pictures of those glyphs before, glad you were able to find them. Seeing those two vehicles all shot up near the border like that all I could think of was the movie No Country for Old Men.....you didn't find any cash did you??

The sleeping circles are interesting, I have found many of them in the park, usually up on small hills that have small saddles overlooking a valley.

Thanks for Earthpoint lead, that looks interesting.

Nice report! Never heard of the sleeping circles, Do they have any significance other than a flat place to call home for the night? I bet I have passed by them not even knowing what they were. I really like the pic with the morteros. It is pretty rare to see granite boulders in the Desert w/out the desert varnish all over them. I wonder why they are so clean.

Saw this on our almost hike to the Diablo BM via June Wash and it was on a ridge/overlook/saddle area on the way up. Sleeping circle? or more modern? If I knew what it was, I wouldn't have let the dog on it.



I've climbed that ridge to Diablo and saw that clearing. Had never heard of sleeping circles at the time and only thought what an awesome place to pitch your tent for the night. Sure looks like it could be a sleeping circle in retrospect. Tom.

Thanks for sharing that awesome trip Tom. I was so mesmerized by the glyphs on the right of your 1st photo, that I completely missed the human figures to the left. Those petroglyphs are quite ornate and eery. Yep, No Country For Old Men ran through my mind when I saw the bullet-ridden SUVs. I'd say you've found a 2nd sleeping circle for sure. Great trip. Jim

Great trip and photos. I would love to check out that area as well. Nice to know about the gate as well. Maybe I could paint the samurai in USBP livery and mosey on through....though I fear that might only add one more to the # of bullet riddled vehicles out there.
Nice info on the Land Office marker as well. We found one near Superstition Mt. on Thanksgiving, and could only figure out that it was the corner of 4 sections, with a ton more marks on it. Now the mystery may be solved. I finally got ahold of the (bad) photo I took with my dads flip phone and it seems I only got a part of the marker in the photo. &quotLand Office&quot is there but no #s in the pic. We are going out to that area this weekend and I will try to find it again if it is not covered in blowing sand.

tommy750 wrote:

Here's a route for you. Found it in Desert Magazine July 1946. Have been trying to reconstruct the path based on their clues and help from Google Earth and topos. It's quite a challenge. Would have to skip the dip into Mexico but the rest looks like it could be done. Have tried to find old maps with those springs but can't find any. Mortero and Juniper can be located by their description. Not sure about Mesquite. Caltopo etc doesn't seem to cover that area circa the 1940s. If you know a source, let me know.

Thanks Tom, I want to follow up on the map after I get back from my trip this week. That article in Desert magazine looks interesting, I like the first pictures of Petroglyphs on page 4 that are titled Sand Tank Canyon AKA Renegade AKA Little Petroglyph Canyon. I have the same photos from my trip out a few weeks ago.

Another "on my list" spot....thanks for posting. Did you just go under the freeway pass and head straight up?