Anza Borrego Advice

northern Californian coming down for a 5 day trip with a couple friends. Gots me a 17 sr5 4x4 with some bigger A/T's and other than that it's all stock. We'll be mostly hiking old water ways and caving but only one of us has ever been there and the drugs made her memory sketchy. Any places within the park that you'd all suggest? We're down to fuck around a bit in the truck and have a couple after market recovery points but not looking to spend the day digging out. Any easy to moderate trails you all enjoyed? The trip is 2/13-2/17 if anybody wants to come out and camp/drink/ drive around and take photographs. Wheeling won't be the theme but we'd love to do some. mostly hiking, photography and booze. Thanks!

 

Most of the trails out in Anza-Borrego aren't hardcore, with some exceptions like Pinyon Mountain Road. The Wind Caves and Mud Caves are pretty cool. Font's Point offers great views of the Borrego Badlands. Lower Coyote Canyon is an easy trail that has a large number of hiking trails next to it and is close to a town (Borrego Springs). Oriflamme Canyon start off in the mountains near Julian and ends in the desert. On my blog and YouTube channel I have lots of pictures and videos of numerous trails and

$28 Anza-Borrego Desert Region: A Guide to State Park and Adjacent Areas of the Western Colorado Desert

this book would be a great guide.

 

nice truck! I've been meaning to get out there too so i'm subscribing to this thread. good luck!

 

CompUser thanks for the advice! I'll give that e-book a look and write down your rec's. I've also read that there is dispersed camping within the park but only one reserve ahead of time which we've done already. Is there one anyone would suggest?

 

I've been wanting to get out and explore Anza myself. From the research I've done Anza Borrego is one the few places left in CA where Open Camping is allowed, which I understood to be camp where you Want as long as you clean up after. I'm going to check out @computeruser6 links as well. Sounds like some good adventures. There is the Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge hike that I've read quite a bit about, might be worth some research along with Dos Cabezas Road & Mortero Palms.

 

You can spend an entire weekend fooling around just in Fish Creek Wash (https://goo.gl/maps/rNMd3k1XWjx). Great scenery where that pin is dropped, beautiful sandstone canyons you can drive through. A stock Subaru can get to the popular hiking trails, but where Fish Creek forks is where you'll need a truck for clearance. I'm 2wd with a locker, lifted 3" and barely larger than stock Toyo AT's and was able to get everywhere I tried. A friend in a stock Frontier 4x4 made it as well, some close calls on his rocker panels but good spotters were all he needed. I did not make it to Pinyon Mountain Road (https://goo.gl/maps/Uaop4aXZVTT2) or Diablo Drop Off (https://goo.gl/maps/5H3Bv8D4JeS2), but am going this weekend and hope to at least see them, if not try to run them with a very built Jeep to help me out if needed. Trailsoffroad.com has some very user-friendly guides for popular locations, it recently changed to a member site, so just sign up for free & you can view/print the trail maps & actual trail pictures. Have fun, and if in the washes be alert of bad weather on the horizon, flash floods in this area are deadly, the high water marks are well above our roof lines in many canyons.

 

You should not attempt Pinyon Mountain Road in your truck, at least not past the Squeeze. The Diablo Drop-Off and canyon just below it aren't bad, since you're only supposed to go west-east (downhill) anyway.

 

Me & a stock Frontier 4x4 wound up on Arroyo Seco Del Diablo, unsure which direction we were headed but I think we turned around in this canyon (https://goo.gl/maps/wbjHqENEv8y). I know we were in Fish Creek going North past the Sandstone Canyon, so we must have been going south on Arroyo Seco Del Diablo, making a big counter clockwise circle before we turned back. I dropped a pin on my Garmin of the canyon where we turned around, I've been meaning to transfer it to my Google Maps account. Pretty fun sandy wash road, tons of switchbacks. I'd like to try Diablo Drop, the pics I've seen make it seem do-able unless the rains have carved it up worse. I'm going to print up some better maps this time since my Garmin is only useful for direction heading (no trail map installed). I'd like to get up to The Squeeze to see it but no way in hell I even want to risk the body damage, regardless of whether or not I could continue with 2wd past it. Maybe you'd recognize where we were, maybe not since all desert trails look identical lol. Sadly my phone GPS was off to save battery so the coordinates aren't captured

 

Diablo Dropoff gets ruined by people trying to go up it more than anything else; the Park Rangers issue citations to people who do so (if they are there). I've been in groups of vehicles with 2WD trucks through there and everyone made it. If you were in Fish Creek and ended up on Arroyo Seco Del Diablo you would've had to up the Dropoff as there are no other (legal) trails that connect the two. What paved road did you start on and end up on?

 

OK I dug out my Garmin & looked up the pin I dropped.... I was off by a long ways LOL I made a quicky map that shows the route we took https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Anza_Borrego_Fish_Creek/TAAMtr8nkX
We started on the South East edge of this route in Fish Creek, then just drove until we felt like turning around, which was in a tight canyon that kept getting worse. Looking at it on Google my sense of direction couldn't have been more off, but FWIW this was my 1st time in Anza

 

This thread has been incredibly helpful for our trip. Thank you contributors and continue! If I don't have a gps but plenty of ways to charge my phone can I track myself through the park with it? Is cell coverage decent? I have joined the websites that map out most routes and those can be printed out. Where did any of you camp? Where did you wish you would have camped? I have my air downs and camp supplies and shovel ready. I assume there are towns near(ish) by to refuel and re-ice coolers?

 

The actual town of Borrego Springs has a gas stop. When I was there last month the gas station (XL Gas) was closed for repairs, the only pump in town that was open was, literally, 1 pump at a place called "Bottle Shoppe". Gas was about $1 more per gallon but what can you do. On the far East end of the park there are places in Salton City. Or back out of the park to the West there's like 1 station in Julian.

I've stayed at Tamarisk Grove campground. For $20 per night you get running water in the bathrooms, token showers, a fire pit with a cooking grate, a picnic bench and maybe some fun neighbors. Some good open camping can be found to the East in Ocotillo Wells, it's a huge sand dune and desert trail OHV area.

I have Sprint and only had service in Ocotillo Wells and Borrego Springs. My friend on AT&T only had service at the Tamarisk Grove campground, nowhere else. We didn't cover every inch of Anza Borrego so I'm sure there were other good/bad areas, but I wouldn't expect much out of any provider. Print out some detailed maps of trails you want to explore and be ready to use them.

 

Yes, If you have an iPhone, you can leave it in airplane mode and it will still pick up a GPS signal perfectly fine. With an app and downloaded maps, you can then still drop waypoints without a cell signal. I use an old iPhone 5 with no cell service as my main GPS all the time when backpacking. It works great and battery life is MUCH better than expected when its in airplane mode.

 

You might like this area to play in- it's easy to access and has some good trails/climbs that will help you learn your trucks capabilities.

http://www.sd4wheel.com/locations/truckhaven-4x4-training-facility-in-the-ocotillo-wells-svra/

cool subjects for the photographers in your group-
http://www.desertusa.com/borrego/Borrego-metal-sculptures.html

http://www.sunkissedhiker.com/adventures/anza-borrego-sculptures-borrego-springs/

as noted above, this guide will keep you busy

$28 Anza-Borrego Desert Region: A Guide to State Park and Adjacent Areas of the Western Colorado Desert

https://www.amazon.com/Anza-Borrego...rd_wg=yStGw&psc=1&refRID=CR08467V5DGZWZ0Q0E1Y

 

what app are you using for trail maps? just apple maps?

 

Gaia GPS is my current favorite and the one I've been using most recently. Hiking Project is nice too, but I can't remember if you can d'load maps for offline use. I know you can on Gaia. I ditched my Garmin track 3 yrs ago and now just use my iPhone in airplane mode when I'm hiking. Works great.

 

Been to Anza about 6 times. Still haven't got a chance to see everything on my list. So far these have been my favorite:

Fish Creek (mentioned above)
Coyote Canyon
Font's Point
Calcite Mine

Even on cold cloudy days, the sun can be unforgiving in Anza. Bring sun screen and an EZ up for camp.

 

Tagging for future reference

 

cool thanks! I just dug up my wife's old iPhone 4 that has mic/earpiece problems. I considered it dead and was going to sell it for parts but now I have a good use for it. Settings it up right now. I've tried Avenza (PDF) Maps and that also worked good. Installing Gaia GPS now too.

 

Here is a general new 4x4 owner question. I have the SR5 upgraded wheels, however I don't think they have a beadlock on them? For the general sand depth and rocks around Anza can I safely air down to 20 without risking popping the bead? Any advice is appreciated.