Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego
Indian Canyon
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Brian Posts: 221
2/22/2023
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On Sunday of President's day weekend, I drove into Collins Valley. Turns out a lot of other people had the same idea! I've never seen so much traffic on Coyote Canyon Road. When I was driving out Monday, I waited at first crossing while 11 cars passed on their way in. Luckily most people didn't go beyond second crossing, but a lot of people did stop there and hang out. Unfortunately that meant I had an audience of onlookers as I negotiated my Crosstrek through the water crossing. But that went fine and boulder alley was in the best shape I've ever seen it (although I had to deal with oncoming traffic in the middle of it both on the way in and the way out).
My knees haven't quite recovered from the Dawn's Peak hike, so I didn't do much hiking but I did explore Indian Canyon to get a feel for what I could do on a future trip. On Sunday night I found a nice camp site far away from the mob who were at Sheep Camp. All I heard was the sound of frogs in the stream below.
I had been looking at an old native trail on a map that climbs a ridge out of the canyon, but it became apparent that just getting to the base of the ridge was going to involve a lot of bushwhacking. This is what the canyon looked like just past the split with Bennis Bowl.
Monday morning I started up a ridge that had a gentle slope, good footing and great views. Some time I'd like to return and continue all the way up to Palm Mesa.
My final stop of the weekend was a brief detour into the bottom of Cougar Canyon. I had explored this before, but it was 10 years ago. I had a very interesting encounter with a group (possibly Japanese tourists?) who had rappelled down the canyon and were on their way out that morning. They were telling me how cold it had been that night, which confused me because I think it was probably mid-40s. Then they mentioned "but we found a cave to stay in, so we survived." It was then I realized they hadn't brought any tents or sleeping bags. They had intended to do the whole thing the day before, but it took longer than expected. They had horror stories about how it had taken all day just to go a mile and their parting words were "don't rappel, it's no fun."
Naturally I was curious how they got to the head of the canyon (the only way I know would be through the Los Coyotes reservation). They told me about a wiki page that has the route and it turned out I had a pic of the approach they would have taken. They would have climbed the wall up to the notch in the center/top of this pic.
Here's the wiki page with the route:
http://ropewiki.com/Cougar_Canyon_(Anza_Borrego_Desert)
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Scooter Posts: 111
2/22/2023
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Brian... missed you by a few days. Went out and camped at the mouth of Cougar canyon for three days. Hiked South Fork Sheep's Canyon, Hiked Cougar and on Friday did Schad's route from Box Canyon over to Hidden Springs. Have never done this before. Really cool to follow the old Native American trail that is still in great shape. While on top we were talking about your route up to Dawns. Very impressive !! Very large mountain lion tracks in Box Canyon.
Even though I moved to Arizona, I still get about four trips to Borrego each year.
Wish the bypass road was not as well maintained. A lot more traffic up there. Funny a lot of Jeeps come up and just turn around and leave.
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tekewin Posts: 365
2/27/2023
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Nice trip!
I was wondering about the water level at second crossing with all the rain we've had. Nice to know it was passable. Who knows after this last set of storms. I love Collins Valley.
I got lucky and was able to do a number of hikes out of Los Coyotes before they had any driving restrictions. I got Square Top from there, probably the shortest route. Also Palm Mesa, Pike BM, and Cody BM.
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