Slot Canyon in Anza Borrego

February 21, 2010

Anza Borrego State Park

Sometimes you just have to go when the spirit moves you. This was one of those days. I remembered checking out the badlands area near the Calcite Mine in Anza Borrego and I knew I wanted to go back. One day, I was sitting around home when suddenly it hit me, why waste time doing nothing, when we had enough time to go for a hike. I asked Calvin and in spite of the short notice, he consented to come along. It must have been one of those celestial object alignments. Soon we were in the car heading south to Anza Borrego.

After about an hour drive, we were at the turn off to the Calcite Mine. Since we were driving a sedan instead of Roy's Blazer, we opted to walk from the pavement.

I'm headed down the road towards the Calcite Mine

Since the road is so rugged, it really didn't take all that much longer than driving, Ok, it was longer but it didn't seem like it.

Looking at a small mesa I've been told is called "Redtop"

Looking out at the Salton Sea on the hike in

Soon we reached the area where I wanted to explore

After hiking in an easy mile, we then took off from the road and headed over to the area where Roy and I had recently been rained out. During that trip I had decided that I had to come back for some exploring. I knew from the past trip that the canyon ran into a vertical dry waterfall that appeared to be about 12 to 15 feet high, I wasn't going that way, so we headed downstream.

Calvin getting psyched up for the hike as he looks around at the cliffs

Thank goodness, a duck, we're not lost, although I don't know how you would go any other way in a slot canyon?

Very soon the wall became quite narrow, in places about shoulder width

As we walked down the canyon it was interesting to see the different layers in the walls

Sometimes the canyon would open up a bit and then narrow down again

It appears that perhaps intelligent life forms have preceded us

Me walking through the canyon

Yes, it's about this wide

The different shapes and sculpturing were truly a treat to see

After a while the canyon began to open up and get wider

And even wider, here Calvin is walking under a huge overhang

When suddenly what should appear, but the natural bridge we'd seen on the previous trip

Calvin weight lifting

Calvin stomping the pillar back into place after lifting it ; )

From the natural bridge it was just a short walk back to the road we came in on and then out to the car. We both agreed that this was a great hike, not too long, but a real jewel.

Winter in the Preserve

With the wet winter that we had, one of the things that I like to do is go out and see how local conditions have changed as a result of the increased precipitation. I enjoy the changes from our normal drought conditions. I decided to go for a hike in the Whitewater Preserve with Charlene for just this purpose. As we started our hike we were treated to a view of Bighorn Sheep on the cliffs above us.

They are just a little below the top

Here's a close-up

This is normally a dry stream bed

After walking along for a ways, the canyon splits and the trail heads east, where it will head up out of the canyon bottom.

This marks the start of the canyon split

My friend Hal hasn't been here recently, he doesn't tolerate ducks very well

From here the trail heads up the ridge on the left

This is where we stopped, San Gorgonio is left of center

The water in the stream was flowing a little too much for us to consider trying to cross

Notice the patterns in the water, it's forming waves and rolling some good sized rocks

On the way back we stopped to look at this rock formation, it's different from anything else in the area.

As we hiked back to the trailhead we kept gazing at the cliffs where we had seen the bighorn, wondering if we'd see them again.

Sure enough, even closer to us than before, we saw one on the ledge below the light colored band. Seeing so much water and the bighorn made for a great hike!

Looking For Rocks In The Desert?

This is part 3 of our trip to Indian Pass, Picacho Peak and the Tumco area.

After the climb, we still had plenty of daylight left, so we decided to check out some more items of interest in the area. As we headed away from Picacho Peak, we stopped to check out some vehicles we had seen from the summit.

Charlene the heavy equipment operator

Not too sure what this was?

While reading old issues of Desert Magazine, Roy found an article about rock hounds looking for a blue rock called dumortierite. I think it's more of a purple color, but to his own... . We stopped at a wide spot on the Indian Pass road and headed over to the closest wash that headed north. If we had been thinking more clearly, we would have combined this part of the trip with our visit to Indian Pass on the first day. The magazine article had mentioned that the source of the rocks were in the mountains to the north and they were washed down the into the washes. Well off we went and walked and walked and found nothing like what we were looking for for the longest time. Then, it occurred to me, the purple rocks that I was seeing every now and then were what we were looking for. After that they were easier to find, never in too much abundance, but enough to keep things interesting.

Charlene searching the wash for dumortietite

At last, we found some pieces

Sunset

After the search for the dumortierite, we set up camp along side the road and had a pleasant evening out under the stars. In the morning we woke, ate breakfast and decided that we would do about a half days worth of exploring before heading home. Our first stop was a small hill, that was a cyanite mine in WWII. The mineral appears to form the entire hill. The most interesting pieces were a light blue to green color.

Remnants of the mining operation

After exploring the mine, we then moved on to the old ghost town of Tumco. It was fairly intact up until the 1950s, at which time vandals systematically burned down all the wooden buildings, including a hospital.

Tumco was a gold mining company town

One of two cemeteries at the old town site

Remnants of a stone structure

One of the things that surprised me was how much broken glass we found

We won't accuse the builders of being master masons

I don't think anyone would call this the most hospitable place to live

Is finding a bullet out here kind of like finding a needle in a haystack?

Charlene standing next to some of the tailings

Hey, it's Vanna!

A chuckwalla among the ruins

I was impressed by the size of these leeching tanks. The gold ore was crushed into a powder and then put in these tanks with cyanide. The cyanide would cause the gold to separate from the rest of the material and then they would extract the gold and dump the rest of the tailings.

One of the tanks

They don't make them like this anymore

Charlene giving scale to the unstable looking tank and supports

With this many tanks there was a tremendous capacity and on some days they crushed up to 167 tons of ore a day, before the mine was exhausted in 1914.

One can't help but wonder how much cyanide is still in the tailings?

After Tumco, we decided to head for home. Along the way I snapped a couple of shots of this building. I've noticed it for some time, it appears to be old and certainly has unusual architecture.