Monday, February 2 - We headed out early this morning with a couple of hikes in mind. It was a little cool (32 degrees this morning) but by the time we reached the trailhead it had warmed-up nicely (60 degrees). It sure cools off in the desert of Borrego Springs, CA, at night!
Our first stop was the Slot Trail. We had to travel about two miles on a dirt road off the pavement to reach the parking area.
The scenery at the top is gorgeous.
There is no real trail down to the Slot. We started off by getting fooled by a wide path leading into the canyon - dead end. We retraced our route to find several steep paths leading down into the canyon.
We are going down there?
The beginning of the descent is very steep.
What a neat hike down to the "guts" of the earth.
There was never a claustrophobic feeling with the sky nearly always visible. There were some huge boulders hung-up overhead.
The neat thing was squeezing between the walls of the canyon.
We hiked about 2 miles round trip and really enjoyed ourselves. Our new camera received a good workout since we took a hundred pictures. This is an easy hike that we rank up there in the top ten hikes we've taken. Put this on your list, you'll enjoy this excursion.
After returning to the truck and making our way slowly over the washboard surface to the paved road, we headed to Peg Leg dry camp area on the Northeast side of Borrego Springs. We are searching for a serpent! We stopped and talked to several campers in the area, but no one knew what we were talking about. We decided to drive over to Rockhouse Canyon Road to Clark Dry Lake and try to find a trail up the back of the mountain.
After hiking up and down several trails without success, Paul spotted two other hikers, out of the corner of his eye, setting a flag up. Marsha recalled the serpent site was marked by a flag!Ahh...success! We had hiked near this area, but the flag was down. We hiked through a small canyon in front of us to finally reach the site of a serpent made from local stones. Somebody put a good deal of work in constructing this double row of dark rock with quartz on top to set the pattern of the snake. It's wonderful that people enjoy the sculpture without disturbing the construction.
We took a different trail back to our truck. It was a steep, rocky descent.
Can you see the trail in there?
At least Marsha had reached her 10,000 step goal on her Fitbit. We have several other hikes on tap for tomorrow, so check back and follow along.
Every night the sky is ablaze in the desert.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
Nice. Love the Slot Trail hike, reminds me of one we did in Namibia, Africa.
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NO NO NO NO NO. . .that does NOT look fun to me. . .not at all. . .you guys are very, very brave souls. . .and I just knew the snake was going to be in the canyon. . .so glad to find out it was only a sculpture. . .goodness! LOL. . .
ReplyDeleteawesome! We REALLY need to get to Borrego
ReplyDeletelooked like the two of you had a great day for a hike!
ReplyDeletenice to put the camera to good use!
I'm with Janice. But I do love your pictures.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this old body could handle the slot. Sure does look narrow in places and I take up more room than you two. We would have tried it 20 years ago and loved it though. Have fun out there.
ReplyDeleteExcellent pictures, glad you found the snake.
ReplyDeleteyep those hikes are on the list but we didnt get to them this year...
ReplyDeleteHow did you know the snake was there? Beautiful photos.
ReplyDeleteWhat new camera did you get? I"m certainly glad you didn't come across a real snake.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed The Slot! It has some awesome slotting. We had to take our packs off to get through those tight areas you photographed. The camera is taking super photos. Hope you are enjoying it:)
ReplyDeletePeople say the snake can be hard to find without the flag. Good someone was putting it up while you were there. It is an interesting find:)
I hope you are planning to do Ghost Mountain before you leave!!
We just happened upon that snake when we camped off Rockhouse Rd. It was a cool thing to find out in the middle of the desert. Haven't done that slot canyon so it goes on our list!
ReplyDeleteWe just happened upon that snake when we camped off Rockhouse Rd. It was a cool thing to find out in the middle of the desert. Haven't done that slot canyon so it goes on our list!
ReplyDeleteYou were very close to Howard and Linda Stilley of the Stillhowlin blog. Nice couple that have been on the road for 20 years.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found the serpent. Seems that is the thing to see in Anza Borrego. I will have to experience it myself someday.
ReplyDeleteThe canyoneering looked like a lot of fun! Katie wants a FitBit too! I use my phone to count steps as 10,000 is also my daily goal!
ReplyDeleteHow cool! Glad nobody has trashed the snake.
ReplyDeleteBetter you than me. I have claustrophobia.
ReplyDeleteA couple years ago, I probably could have done that hike, but I'm not so sure now. Glad you found the snake.
ReplyDeleteWe try to avoid sliding when walking :-)
ReplyDeleteGood for you Marsha, for always completing your 10000 fit walk….
ReplyDeleteI would love to do that hike one day soon.
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