E. Lambchop and I took a 3-day trip to Anza Borrego Desert State Park in late January. We could not have asked for better weather. Plus there was nearly a full moon. Cast a nice light on the mountains and rocks.
Here is from our camp on night 1 near Sheep Canyon Primitive Camp looking west into Sheep Canyon.
One of my favorite parts of the desert is all the cacti. Here is a cholla being bathed in moonlight.
The next morning we got a leisurely 10am start on our “hike” in Sheep Canyon. Our plan was to head up Sheep Canyon, loop around Square Top, and then come down South Fork of Sheep Canyon. We had a book on the park that gave some general directions, but no indication of what we had in store.
There is no trail to speak of just following whatever is the path of least resistance. It was about 1 hour into this excursion that I began to wonder if we were going to finish in the dark.
We continued our way up Sheep Canyon. There was water running from the time we got into the canyon from the initial wash near the campground. It is clear that the rains in winter of 2016/2017 washed a lot of things down the canyon and contributed to a lot of plant growth.
According to the book, we were looking for a large bowl area that marked the spot that we needed to cross the canyon and head toward Square Top. We consulted the map and saw what we thought was the place to go.
At this point in the hike we were both feeling good, but it was already 2:30pm. Knowing it would be dark by 5ish we needed to get to the pass to enter South Fork of Sheep Canyon. When we got to the pass, I had a sinking feeling when looking out at the sea of boulders and the difference in elevation. When I looked at the GPS afterward, the descent into the canyon varied between 30% and 50% grade.
We got to a point along the canyon where we could no longer safely continue. The only option was to head up the hillside and traverse until we found a suitable spot to descend. From a previous trip to this area, I remembered there being a palm grove…unfortunately we descended to the first one we saw which turned out to be quite a bit up the canyon from where we thought we would come out.
Once we got to the last palm grove, it was the home stretch to rejoin Sheep Canyon and get back to the campground. Made it back about 5:30pm just in time for moon rise. GPS had our distance at 5.2 miles in 7.5 hours. This was a great route with fantastic views and scenery.
GPX of the route is here.
If anyone reads this and think they want to try this route I would strongly discourage doing this in the warmer months. It is very remote and help could be a long time in coming.