monkeynuts

was wondering how many of you would be interested in making a weekend trip out to anza borrego coming up in october when it starts cooling down out there?

for those of you that aren't familiar with the area, Anza Borrego is in the so cal desert between san diego and az. it is enourmous, with tons of trails of all difficulties, not to mention one of the most scenic and diverse places i have ever seen. rock, sand, washes, hills, canyons...... also in this same area there is the ocotillo wells svra, and the famous imperial sand dunes (glamis)!

i have been waiting all year for it to cool down to make a trip out there, and if enough of you are interested, we could cover a ton of area out there.

the average temp out there in oct is 88, and nov is 78, so the heat should be gone by then.

i have seen several of the photo albums from users on this board (marcp, good times, bajataco, and others) and have seen some awsome places out there. i'll post some links to pics of the area later today.

anyone interested in making a weekend trip out there, or even if you can only make it far a day, reply to this post. any ideas on dates, areas, campsites, whatever would be really helpful in trying to plan a trip to work out for more people.

-scott

sschaefer3

I would like that.

Aurora Sandman

My family and I have spent Thanksgiving weekend out there every year since the early 1970's. Anza Borrego is one of my favorite places on earth. God's country!

Now that I've aclamated to Colorado trails, the wheeling in Anza Borrego doesn't seem too challenging. But there are certainly some cool things to see. Highlights:

- Font's Point is a spectacular view (also a good wash to camp in)
- Drive up Fish Creek and up to the sand hill (I know that's the wrong way, but...)
- There's the mud caves up above that
- If you go past the sand hill trunoff in Fish Creek and continue on to Sandstone Canyon on the left, I hear there's some good rock crawling. (I haven't been there lately, but my brother-in-law told me this last year.)
- There's a place called The Slot that is really cool for a short walk through a narrow sandstone canyon (one person wide), plus a really difficult sand hill to try and climb up.
- There's a place called The Squeeze with a steep hill below it, which I think is the most challanging obstacle in AB. The base of the hill is at the end of Fish Creek.
- Lots and lots of washes to drive through at 40-50 mph.
- The Calcite(sp?) Mine trail is pretty cool, with sandstone shelf road crawling. Some years it's easier than others
- Coyote Canyon used to be a good 4x4 trial when it went all the way to Anza, before it was closed

I hope you guys get this trip off the ground. It should be fun if you have a good guide!

FirstToy

I would be into it too.

Marc P

Scott--
That is a great idea. I have travelled many miles there. The first trip I took with Rob, Lance, Q (where are you?), was going from Julian down Oriflame Canyon, through Diablo Dropoff and ending up in Fish Creek.
My wife and I did "the Squeeze" and the following "heart attack hill"--it is the hardest/most technical trail out there.

I will talk to you more about it on Sunday when we tackle Carveacre.

Nobody

Sounds interesting to me

Are you thinking just a weekend or longer?

Albuquerque Jim

I am interested, how far from Albuquerque?

monkeynuts

marc- a couple of places i haven't been to that i would really like to try are the squeeeze and heart attack hill.

Nobody- i kind of figured that a lot of people wouldn't be able to make it for more than a weekend, but i was thinking i was going to take friday off and head out on a thurs afternoon, even if i'm the only one.

Albuquerque Jim- good ol' computer says it's about 11 hours from albequerque. well worth the drive in my opinion

-scott

RobT2k

I wouldn't mind doing these spots either, but do you think we would fit through the squeeze? Marc made it with a slight spot on his bumper, but he's a little thinner than us. I also have a trail book that shows some carnage on a Tundra that tried to make it through, not pretty.
It says that trucks make it through ok because when the trail pitches you toward the wall you've already cleared your cab and your bed is lower. But in a SUV or truck with shell, there is more risk. It is a one way trail, so I'm not sure if you can turn around before the squeeze if you can't make it.

Aurora Sandman

I've walked the Szeeze and Heart Attack Hill, and from what I remember, the trail leading up to The Squeeze is just a dirt road, and it isn't long. Turning around is no problem.

The Squeeze is really tight. As the book you read indicates, it's the upper body that's vunerable. I'd rather get out and watch other people attempt it. It involves sqeezing between two rock walls while going down a road of rock.

We used to attempt Heart Attack Hill from the bottom, but none of us were locked, so it was pretty much impossible. I wonder if it's doable locked... If one was to make it up, I think there's enough room on top to turn around. The Squeeze is a quarter of a mile from the top of Heart Attack Hill. I don't think the Squeeze is viable in the up-hill direction.

If I remember right, if you take the road the "correct" way, from The Sqeeze direction, the trail takes a right turn toward Heart Attack Hill. And if you instead walk straight, you don't have to go very far to get to the top of a spectacular (dry) waterfall. Now, it's been 15 years, so my memory might be a little off...

sschaefer3

I can't make the weekend of October 17-19 but the other 3 would be workable.

If you can hamer down a date, I can make sure to save it. We were going to go to Mexico, but this would be just as good.

monkeynuts

how about the 9, 10, 11 or 24, 25, 26. either works for me. what about everyone else?

sschaefer3

24, 25, 26 would work best for us, yes us. Looks like you'll get the 4Runner and the Land Cruiser .

sschaefer3

I could get through here in the 4Runner, but it might be too hard for the general group. I don't think I would try it in the FJ-62.

Marc P

I made it through the squeeze pretty easily in my 2nd gen, but it is very tight. Also the climb up to the dropoff is very hard. I did it before I had my locker and got stuck big time. Heart attack hill is by far the scariest downhill I have ever done. The first hole your wheel goes into would swallow a yugo.

There are plenty of other challenging trails in the park that I have only read about.

But if you guys want to do it, I will do it again.

monkeynuts

talked to mark & rob (marc p & robt2k) today when we went wheelin here in san diego today, and sounds like oct 24, 25, 26 would be best for us too. so lets set that as the date, give everyone as much time as possible to get the time off work.

we were also discussing places to set up camp. if anyone has any suggestions, were thinking about something that gives us easy access to all the different trails out there.

Illiana

Hello Everyone,

I took my Mother and Martin down to Ocotillo Wells and Anza Borrego 3 years ago on a Memorial Day Weekend, it was a spectacular area. The lodging was inexpensive, there are hot springs in the area and there's a great hole in the wall mexican restaurant in Borrego Springs.

One trail I rather liked was the North side of Anza Borrego State park, the Upper Coyote Cyn. trailhead was hard to locate, but once i got Martin onto that trail, he did very well traversing the rocks and going through the sandy washes at the bottom of the canyon (the 4runner was more stock at that time). We saw quite a few Big Horn Sheep, flowers and a spectacular view. For more info: http://totalescape.com/active/campst...anza.html#bkrd

I also took them over to the Pinyon Mtn Squeeze, the Stagecoach trail, Hills of the Moon and other trails of interest.

Enjoy the run!
Lee

sschaefer3

See if you can get that guy with the 2003 4Runner to come out as well, I want to see that thing in action.

Illiana

Addendum to previous post:

The best camping areas in the area that have drinking water available are: 1) Borrego Palm Canyon, in the state park, they have a few group tent sites available for tent camping (limit is up to 24 people, i think) 2) Tamarisk Grove, in the state park 3) Vallecito County Park 4) Agua Caliente County Park (hot springs pool at this camping area) 5) Stagecoach Trails Resort and 6) Butterfield Ranch.

Dispersed camping with vault toilets and no drinking water: 1)Ocotillo Wells SVRA (if memory serves me right, showers available at the ranger station) 2) the lower Coyote Cyn area of Anza Borrego SP(creekside, some flood risk if it rains, some trees and tall brush) 3) Yaqui Well Primitive Camp area 4) Arroyo Salado Primitive Camp area and 5) Culp Valley Primitive Camp area. The primitive camp areas may not allow open fires, check beforehand.

There's probably more places, but these are the ones i could think of off the top of my head. If everyone needs more ideas, please let me know and i'll try my best to help. There's also a couple of inexpensive motels in Borrego Springs that were clean and well located on the edge of town.

Lee

monkeynuts

steve - i think you're referring to lance, the fearless should-be test pilot for toyota with the green '03. i'll send him a pm. he is always ready to head out anywhere.

Illiana, thanks for all the good info! one place i havn't been are the two coyote canyon trails, but i really want to hit both. are you going to make it out there?

in regards to lee's post, ocotillo wells svra may not be a bad place to camp at all. while it may not be secluded away from the general population, it does have a lot of pluses: it is pretty central - between arroyo salado and sandstone canyon/fish creek, along woth most everything else. it has lots of good places to camp, you can have fires. it is a svra (state vehicular recreation area), and there are tons and tons of trails and points of interest right there in the park that make it easy to just head out for a short trip, head out at night...there is a good size sand hill (blow sand hill) that people gather at all day and night and try to make it up. also, there are showers and bathrooms maintained by the state. most imporatantly, like i said, it is centrally located to a majority of the trails out there.