Cougar Canyon Dec 31

We awoke in a beautiful place. Looking up Sheep Canyon revealed some excellent scenery and some nice palm groves. Looking downvalley revealed far-reaching views of fault-bounded ranges. I was looking forward to exploring this seldom visited corner of Anza Borrego. Cougar Canyon is perhaps one of the least visited canyons in southern California for its high quality. The canyon drains a significant portion of the Anza highlands, which combined with abundant springs, supports year-round surface water. With the rains we had recently been having I was hoping for an little extra boost of water while in the canyon. In all we had about ten rappels and many downclimbs to surmount in this hidden gem of a canyon.

With the cool conditions and comfortable hiking temperature we were able to go light with our packs. Sara carried her canyon gear and some water in a collapsible backpack that could be stashed in mine once we suited up. We hiked up the gentle alluvial fan of Indian Canyon, said hello to a lone backpacker, then turned up the narrower, steeper, and rougher Valley of a Thousand Springs. Care was needed to avoid the overabundant cat's paw, which ripped at skin and clothes without discretion. Often it was tempting to traverse the side of the canyon, but eventually we found that bushwhacking through the wash bottom was often the best. The further we hiked the denser the vegetation and the larger the boulders. A thousand foot scramble out of the canyon just left of a prominent skyline notch brought us to the ridge with Cougar Canyon, then a mild 250ft down brought us to fresh following water in Cougar. I happily dumped our remaining water, since we could use a straw filter whenever we wanted in the canyon.

        Post-fire vegetation in Indian Canyon

        Skyline notch out of the Valley of a Thousand Springs

        Valley of a Thousand Springs below

A short bushwhack down Cougar we reached the first rappel and so suited up in our neoprene.  From here on it would lightly rain intermittently but the water temperature was fortunately warmer than I was expecting and so body temperature was pretty easy to manage most of the day. The canyon had a nice mix of chockstone rappels and fluted granite. Generally I was impressed with the beauty and sculpting of the rock. This was a real canyon! More water flow would have been appreciated but the amount we had was great- much more than photos I had seen from previous trips. Although bushwhacking was prevalent for brief intervals throughout the canyon it was never enough to detract from the beauty of the canyon.

The canyon continued to deepen the further down the canyon we went. At one point a nice rappel dropped us into a hanging palm tree oasis, inaccessible from any other route. Here it was clear that this canyon sometimes receives serious flood events and in the right conditions holds deep swimming pools.

        Rappelling into a pocket oasis

Each rappel seemed better than the last. Admittedly we did have issues pulling ropes using some of the anchors we had found, but nothing we were not able to eventually remedy. Smeared mafic enclaves were nicely highlighted in the smooth, wet granite. At intervals we also spotted some nice pegmatites complete with tourmaline and garnets.

        Sara at one of the downclimbs

        Filtering some water

        Wading through the reeds

The canyon continued. The day ran on and I began to wonder when it would finally end. The last narrows was probably the best, with several interesting rappels down the most fluted and colorful sections of rock. One of the last rappels was down a narrow slot which gave us a good drenching (frontispiece).

With the very last of the daylight we reached the end of the canyon and the final bit of rock scrambling and cactus avoidance back to Indian Canyon. Although the light was almost completely gone, the light decomposed granite of the trail was just enough of a guide that we made it back to the car without using a headlamp. It ended up being a much bigger day than I expected, but also a much more satisfying one. Though I could easily enjoy another night at the remote campsite here, knowing that significant rain was forecast to follow, we de-suited, turned the ignition, and powered onward. Thankfully I made it back down Boulder Alley without drama and we were soon on pavement trying to figure out where to spend the night. We ended up at Agua Caliente County Park, a good option considering it put us closer to tomorrow's goal and avoided the many other muddy, floody options in Anza Borrego.

Palm Wash Slots Dec 30

This would be Sara and my third New Years in the Anza Borrego desert. With much to explore, lots of open space to escape from people, a short drive from Riverside, and comfortable temperatures where too cold elsewhere this time of year, I consider this is a good option. 

After driving along the Salton Sea and turning west we drove through thousands of motorhomes and recreational toys lining the highways for their new year's experience. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars (potentially even over a billion by my math!) of gas guzzling machines designed to bring the comforts of home to a dusty roadside and drive in circles tearing up the desert until its time to refuel again. I'm sure it's fun and a good time, but...I'd better stop there and let them be.

While not the destination, the Palm Wash slot canyon area was a convenient roadside stop on our drive to Sheep Canyon area of Anza Borrego. The roads in this area are better suited to the off-highway vehicles which tear them up than the Subaru, so after driving a short distance in I decided our mountain bikes would be better transport. We biked along an old alluvial fan surface, then down a rough road into the main wash system. We biked just past the end of the road before ditching them at the start of the west slot.

We walked up west slot (which reputably has the best narrows of any canyon in the area). A short lower slot gave way to open wash, then a road crossing with some Jeepers, then up a longer, deeper, more sustained upper slot. These were pretty decent water smoothed, twisty slots for California. Below a chockstone dryfall we took the obvious loose scramble out of the canyon. At intervals we would come across cracks mineralized with nice optical calcite up to one foot wide. Several of these have been mined commercially on a small scale.

        Scrambling out of west slot

From above the slot we had an excellent view over the badlands and towards Borrego. One prominant bedrock hill had particularly nice huecoed alcoves. Consulting my map I soon realized the slot we hoped to loop back down had two handline/rappels marked and I didn't bring a rope. We ventured on anyway, following a fault break into the east slot and heading upstream for a quick look. Downstream we found the first rappel with a handline already conveniently rigged and safe to handline (and return up if we had to). Soon after the second handline was also easily downclimbable so we were in the clear. This canyon too had some nice narrows. We followed east slot down to its confluence where we retrieved our bikes and returned to the car. Not bad for a couple hour diversion to break up the drive.

We drove on north of Borrego Springs, eventually finding the right road through the agriculture to take us towards our destination of Sheep Canyon. The coarse decomposed granite and wet ground made for remarkably smooth and dust-free travel. We had a couple stream crossings to contend with in the dark and then a short distance further the notorious Boulder Alley, a very steep 0.5 mile rocky gut of a road. Apparently this stretch of road used to be rock crawlers only before it was regraded, but as it was it tested the limits of what the Subaru was able to handle. Some clutch was sacrificed and adrenaline pumped, but we made it and it was easy going the rest of the way to camp. We enjoyed the remote feel of this road end, with only two other groups camped nearby in contrast to the motorhome cities. We liked to think we turned these Jeepers heads with the Subaru's conquest. We had a great night's sleep despite light evening rain.

Fiery Furnace Nov 25

This was the post-Cataract Canyon trip I was hoping we would get to do. Fiery Furnace is a fin maze of Entrada Sandstone only 1500ft by 3000ft in Arches National Park, yet we would manage to spend 8hrs traversing only 3mi, with large portions of our day being only a few hundred feet from locations we had been hours before. The only way to realistically navigate it is with an extremely high resolution aerial photo and a keen sense of direction. Endemic species, pocket gardens,  grottos, arches, slots, ancient Juniper, cryptobiotic soil, and no cairns- this place had them all in the right concentration.

Due to the large amount of rescues and incredibly fragile ecosystem (frankly the park should probably close the area altogether), only fifty people are allowed into the Fiery Furnace each day. Only a very small percentage of those (only us on our day), venture far enough to require climbing and ropes. Our goal was to find the "secret" Lomatium/Krill canyoneering route (if beta becomes publicly available the Park has threatened to close it). My research paid off. We found it and it is a great one.

While we were sure to get into the park before the gates were manned at 8am  (avoiding the lines), we did not actually depart the Fiery Furnace trailhead until about 9:30am. The morning started frigid which was a convenient excuse to take our time carefully packing at the trailhead. We (I) managed to pack everything we needed into one bag, with Sara occasionally carrying a rope bag as a fanny pack.

        An interesting detour

We found Surprise Arch (frontispiece) not too deep into the Furnace and then stumbled our way through slots and around corners. Within a half an hour we left the people and voices behind us and the entire rest of the day we had the tricky nooks and crannies to ourselves. The navigation was easy. The climbing and occasional exposure was spicier than I guessed, slowing us considerably as I belayed/handlined Sara up and across the many obstacles. Two prominent climbs led us to top out onto one of the more prominent fins, with incredible views of the intricate maze below. For being only 1500ft away from our car we felt a long way away from everything!

        Looking down the last climb before the fin summit

        Fiery Furnace overview: more intricate than it looks

Once on top we had to find a route down. Appearances were deceiving and we had to spiral our way down a slab, traverse over a too tight slot and then through a gateway to the head of a slickrock bowl at the top of Lomatium Canyon. After a break in the sun we suited up for the first rappel into the shadows. A second short rappel followed, then a convenient log to cross a shallow pool.

        Approaching the start of Lomatium Canyon

        A convenient log

A couple corners and a sandy walk for a change brought us to a pouroff into darkness. Nearby we found Cassidy Arch perched on the edge. Sara went down this rappel, the tallest at 130ft, first. Thankfully we could just barely avoid the pool of water at the base, though the rope got annoyingly dirty once we pulled it.

        Cassidy Arch, photo by Sara

        The 130ft rappel

More sandy, scenic slot and yet another corner brought us to the final rappel in Lomatium, obvious from the plethora of footprints below. Though a short rappel it was a quite scenic one with a grotto and pool below and greenery nearby.

       In the middle of Lomatium, wonderfully devoid of footprints

        Above and below: rappelling back to the realm of footprints

A brief moment of skipping along a slickrock floor, and a couple turns later we again had a mighty rockpile to surmount for the second half of the journey, the Krill Route. Sara seemed to lose all confidence partway up making the task even more heinous. Once on top we had to traverse across a narrow (but quite deep!) slot, climb some slickrock, cross a saddle, and traverse more tight slots. Progress was painfully slow and the rope came out of the bag many times.

       

        Above and below: the perilous pile on the Krill route

A easy downclimb down a corner led to a bird perch and some of the few bolts seen in the Fiery Furnace. This was a spectacular rappel into a narrow slot that belled out into a freehanging rappel into a streaked chamber, a definite highlight. More slots, rappels and downclimbs, an abrupt u-turn and one more rappel put us back into footprints.

        "The Krill Chamber"

The day was nearly gone and we had just completed what was considered to be the standard route but I had a feeling we could still squeeze a bit more out by going down another slot passage. Extra credit! Straightforward slots brought us to slabby downclimbs into a sandy-floored, vertical-walled walking passage. More corners and one final rappel for good measure, this one through a small arch into a mini-grotto (and more tourist footprints). From here the way out was obvious- follow the well-trampled washes and then the larger trail back to the car. We caught the last of the light over the Furnace, joined the evening park exodus, and then joined our friends back at camp on the Island in the Sky. I felt very fortunate to explore such a unique and intricate place.

        "Extra Credit Arch"