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Beautiful speckled rattlesnake. Was climbing a boulder near Otay Mtn. once and came face to face with one on a ledge, 2.5 feet away. Quickly downclimbed.

I just read about this in Schads book-natives chose ridges over washes because ridges rarely change-washes are constantly changing from flash floods, debris, and erosion-since efficiency is the key it makes sense to be up high and avoid the ever changing/challenging washes and have a clearer line of site.
edited by Rocko1 on 12/28/2021

This is one of my favorites. The crossing. The trails are washed away in deep and wide arroyos in the distance and then continue on beyond.

There was an ammo can in tunnel 15 awhile back that I found, technically it was legal since the tracks belong the to RR (unless the RR prohiitis them?) Not sure of your can was on RR property.

Britain wrote:

About 4 years ago I was on the R&R service trail north of the trestle. On one part of the trail theres a hill that separates the gorge. I climbed up to see if I can get a good photo of the trestle. Looking about I found this little nook in the rocks and found this old cookie can. There was something in it. And some weight to it. So perhaps some R&R worker stored his valuables? The top was pretty much rusted on but after some careful prying the top came off. And... Someones damn GEO cache. Wasnt used for a decade or more. Guess when the park made it illegal to place those they stop advertising it. Close call but no cigar.

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I thought I'd give an update on the current condition of the slot, as of April '22, so anyone searching on the area will have more info.

Last week we traveled northbound from the Dos Cabezas area along the road ending at Jojoba Wash. The damaged memorial is still there, with only a few tokens and coins left.


In our short wheelbase 4x4 Tacoma were able to navigate the slot (which had only one set of faint tire tracks), and thought we were home free, right until the end of the road...

From the plateau above the wash there are three routes down, all sandy descents similar to the one in Canyon Sin Nombre. Unfortunately, the wheelers have destroyed two of the three completely. I'm assuming they head southbound up the slopes with rock-crawler-type jeeps; there are 3 foot vertical drops in several places, some of which have been augmented with large rocks in an attempt to fill the holes. Total suicide.


The third way down is a steep, sandy slope featuring a 90-degree turn halfway down with some large ruts. If one were equipped with lots of technical 4x4 experience and a high clearance, wide-tired Jeep they could probably make it, but we were a little leery of taking the chance, since it was mid-week with no one around to help us right the truck if we rolled it during the turn. After some cussing, we reversed our course and went back the way we came. We made it through the slot "uphill" and continued south.


When we got home, I looked at Google Earth and found there was a "pin" on the slot, listing it as closed...


In a way, turning around was a good thing: we spent the night at Hayden Spring, and in the morning had the good fortune to witness a group of four Bighorn rams grazing in the wash, about 50 meters away. They didn't seem bothered by us and stuck around for about 30 minutes, before casually heading up the rocks and out of sight.

Old dinosaur tracks

I think I am the "one person" Britain referred to. Pretty epic one day hike. I'd like to go back and explore Pinto more. Once side canyon had water running out of it...

pre pandemic gary and i were the monitors for the sunset mtn guzzler but always checked in on the blue spring, nolina, pinyon and harper guzzlers. ditto what buford said, floats go bad, pin holes develop, wind pulls apart plumbing, etc. harper was the only non functioning guzzler i was aware of as of 2021. park officials started requiring covid vaccines, finger printing, background checks, etc for volunteers so gary and i resigned as volunteers.

Not able to see your pics, Britain.

Britain wrote:

LOL we were at the slot for a visit about a month ago. Wife chuckled at the 20 peso note.

Do you drive through when you go? The dropoff that comes after that looked pretty sketchy.

Very cool. Have those pictographs been touched up at some point?

I had to add an https to your images since they weren't loading for me
Not sure if anyone else was having that issue

Re https, industry standard is moving towards all https and browsers are beginning to drop support for http only. SSL is a must at this point for web content. Http only will still work but you will slowly see it stop functioning

Did anyone get the pics offloaded from this?

Did anyone get the pics offloaded from this?

Did anyone get the pics offloaded from this?

Usually the game cameras set by the park have etched on them "property of CA State Parks" or something similar from a couple I have stumbled on.

State park ones are usually locked with a cable lock, and many in ABDSP have the same key.

Speedy recovery 👍
Thanks would love to see what is on the camera.

Britain wrote:

Had a knee replacement in October. But I’m gimping around somewhat. Will try and retrieve what’s in in it over thanksgiving.

Welcome.
Worked it out with the ISP
Bob

Britain wrote:

surfponto wrote:

Speedy recovery 👍
Thanks would love to see what is on the camera.
Make sense. The isp I use keeps changing things and kills the site I run once in a while. But you fixed it.
Britain wrote:

Had a knee replacement in October. But I’m gimping around somewhat. Will try and retrieve what’s in in it over thanksgiving.

Thanks notifications are working again..

The BP ones we have found had BP business cards inside the door, no external markings like ABDSP cameras have.

Trail cam etiquette for me: Smile and wave at the camera. Most I happen to see are city, county and state wildlife cameras. I am sure they are quite disappointed to see me meandering around their camera.

Britain wrote:

What’s the etiquette when finding a trail cam? I’m sort of relieved it’s gone but a bit pissed. I had my knee replaced in October and it was a bit of work to get to it lol…

Don't get caught !!

Tommy750 and I found a few cams in McCain from BP once and then as we moved on found another one hidden way up in a tree looking down at the other ones.

Britain wrote:

Why Florida?

Mostly family choice for various reasons. I went along with it for financial reasons. I can live here on a 1/3 of what is costs to live in CA. Almost all of my family and my wife's family have left CA...so there it is.

I so miss the desert and mountains but am finding some new interests here.

I have been to the East Fork palms.
Haven't been up to the West fork (Four Frogs Canyon) palms.


Britain wrote:

You go up the canyon on the west side? Or the east side. Both have palms.

I remember you having some knee issues awhile back, doesn't seem that long ago but I am going on almost 3 years leaving SD.

Glad you are able to get back out..👍

Glad you are able to get back out there and hope it keeps improving.
I like the solitude of that Jacumba Jim's hike.

Brian wrote:

I always thought Harpers was a closed area for vehicles. Park maps show no vehicle trails in it. Weekend warriors.



It's no longer legal to drive through Harper Flat (despite the fact someone did it last summer and was later found dead).
edited by Brian on 4/12/2024

Thanks! That's great information. I might try a hike to Harper Flat from Pinyon Wash. I want no part of the squeeze or heart attack hill. Coming from Fish Creek is a lot of driving. The Vallecito Mountains and surroundings seem like a really remote part of the park.

Britain wrote:

I always thought Harpers was a closed area for vehicles. Park maps show no vehicle trails in it. Weekend warriors.

Older topo maps do show a jeep trail going through Harpers, but it's been closed to vehicles for probably about 30 years. I hiked through there last September and saw the wheel tracks of the guy who drove in over the summer. He went around a fence that's supposed to keep it closed off from the main road.