Tuesday, February 3 - We had another hike lined up for today. We had stopped in the Visitor's Center when we arrived in Borrego Springs, CA, on Saturday and viewed a film about Marshal South. It was excellent. Marshal lived on the top of Ghost Mountain, a remote, waterless mountaintop, with his wife and three kids. The remains of his homestead, Yaquitepec, are still there on top of the mountain. Guess we needed to go up and see it!
The turn-off to the trailhead was less than two miles down the road from our campground. Heading East on S2, we watched for the sign to Butterfield Stagecoach Route. This is also the road to Blair Valley. The trailhead is 3.3 miles off the paved road. We bumped along this sandy corrugated road at less than 10 miles per hour until we reached the parking area for the trail. We aren't too sure about the sanity of these long drives to reach these trials. Guess we're getting too old for this stuff!
Once parked we headed up the well-worn trail. The trail is a series of switch backs 1.3 miles in length to the top of the mountain. It's pretty rocky but not overwhelming. We did get a little winded from the steep climb - there's that old stuff again!
Bottom part of the trail.
Top part are huge boulders.
After about 30 minutes of climbing we reached the top. The view of the surrounding valleys is beautiful. It's hard to imagine why Marshal decided to make this his home. Was he insane or was it the solitary lifestyle and beautiful scenery he was after? We needed to think about that.
The beauty of Blair Valley.
Can you see our truck waaaayyyy down there?
The remains of his homestead are quickly returning to the scavengers of the earth. There really isn't too much left. A few walls, and old iron bed, a cistern, a sundial, a caved in roof, and a few other remnants. Very interesting to see and amazing that a family could live here for over 17 years.
The movie we watched explained how Marshal and his wife got all the lumber, furnishing, etc. up the trail. They used a Model T to get to the base of Ghost Mountain. They then had to carry everything up the trail. Egads….that had to be horrible.
As we began our decent down the trail we met a young couple coming up the mountain. Dang, they weren't breathing very hard! This is the only other people we saw all morning. They had just gotten engaged and were spending a couple days camping and hiking. We were the first people they told about their engagement. The gal said they hadn’t even told her mother yet. After a quick visit, we headed on down the trail and left the mountain retreat to the young lovers.
Here is the 3.3 mile dirt road we slowly made our way back on.
It was a very interesting hike, and we both enjoyed it. If you're in the area, we definitely recommend the hike. Be sure to have your hiking boots on. We have one or two more adventures in the Borrego Springs area, so stop back.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
