I recently had reason to browse aerial imagery in the far southeastern corner of California, an exercise which turned up an interesting array of off-radar features including oases, natural bridges, and slot canyons. Intriguingly there was one singular wash network, formally named "Unnamed Wash" on USGS topos that seemed to have over 20 different slot canyons in a fairly confined and accessible region. I recruited my dad to join and we set off early to see what this part of California was about.
We found Picacho Rd to be in good shape, recently graded with not too much sand. We parked on the side of the road and first checked out the two slots above the wash crossing. We went in the top of the roadside one finding some interesting carbonate cemented basalt boulder floor, then some surprisingly soft sandstone comprising the walls. There was an abundance of obnoxious recent graffiti and slightly more acceptably some historic graffiti dating to 1909. The slot had some nice twists and turns but was a little wide and shallow at only 20ft depth. We went up the joining slot which was wider and sunnier but at least allowed us to loop back to the car by closing the triangle across the alluvium between.
We then returned to the road crossing and headed down the wash, almost immediately arriving at the first of many very narrow and more deeply cut slots. These were more like it. Overall the slots were short and easy to traverse but we did occasionally find dryfalls near the top of the slots. We saw an owl and later a toad enjoying the cool shadows of the canyons. Bighorn sheep tracks were also visible in a few places.
We drove about a mile down the canyon stopping at the most promising slots along the way. In two places the canyon was fully car-width and required us to fold in the side view mirrors to get through. After that we opted to park at a wider respite and walk down the wash a bit further. The temperatures got up to the mid-90s but we succeeded in mostly staying in the shade. In all we explored about a dozen branches of slots in a few hours time before working our way back out.
The air quality was deteriorating rapidly and we immediately noticed the unforecast strong winds once we exited the wash. It seemed like it was going to be miserable camping and so we abandoned plans to camp overnight and instead opted for a detour to collect some kyanite near the All American Girl Mine before heading for home. We both found our fill of baby-blue kyanite garden boulders to weigh the car down before heading off. Terrible air quality!
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| Picacho Peak at right |
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| View from kyanite locale |
The wind was getting even worse as we drove for over an hour through dust and sand clouds, even spotting a sand plow working to clear fast-forming sand dunes from the interstate. I convinced my dad to detour at the bizarre roadside palm oasis of Holtville Hot Springs and I soaked for a few minutes before we continued on. The temperature was very pleasant with two concrete pools, a hotter cattle trough, and a showerhead sprayer. The springs area seemed well kept up all things considered and the palms provided a degree of protection from the sun and wind. The spring was less than 150ft from the interstate!
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| Sand plow! |
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| Holtville Hot Springs |
We drove on through the early armageddon-like sunset of the dust storm and drove past Barth Rd on the western shore of the Salton Sea. There is a good chance this might have been named for my grandpa who worked on the Salton Sea seawalls; I will have to try to figure out how to look up any public records at some point. We stopped for tasty Mexican in Indio and then on to Riverside where it seemed to be a much cooler day (apparently it snowed in the San Bernardinos!). Thanks to my dad for joining me for a day out; it has been a long time since we have done a trip together.
