I had occasion to spend a few action-packed days in the Sonoran Desert along the Colorado between Blythe and Yuma evaluating its geological resources. I had previously been to some parts of the area including the mines of the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, the ghost town of Tumco, and the slot canyons of Unnamed Wash, but many places, including the four wilderness areas here, were blank spots in my mental map. In some ways I consider this California's Empty Quarter. I found out a surprising number of people live seasonally on the southern slopes near Yuma and Ogilby but once you venture to the north the visitation drops abruptly and you can soon find yourself alone in desert wildernesses of oases, unmapped natural bridges, and dramatic volcanic crags. Along the way I flew my drone about 20 times, getting nice views looking into some of the wilderness areas. It has been quite a long time since I have explored the desert on my own, which was overall great. I could have used some external courage when it came to Picacho Peak though.
I started at the Cargo Muchachos, relocating the quarry with andalusite crystals and finding a new kyanite locality. I drove to the American Girl Mine open pit and mistakenly thought I could take a road through the mountains and so had to backtrack out. I then drove Barney Oldfield Rd past a really interesting isolated basalt mesas and then on to the Valley of the Names, a 250-acre area where people have laid out thousands of names in black basalt on light-colored silty alluvium. It was kind of sad to imagine the effort that would be needed to remediate this but I did wonder if by some classification it could be considered the world's largest collective art project?
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| American Girl Mine |
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| An isolated basalt mesa |
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| A very small portion of the Valley of the Names |
From Valley of the Names I continued on to Picacho Rd. Just past Unnamed Wash I parked the car and ventured about 1.5 miles across desert pavement to check out a natural bridge carved out of volcanic breccia. It had rained the week before and so nearly everywhere I went I found standing pools of water in bedrock potholes.
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| Picacho Peak at distant center |
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| "Arturo's Bridge" |
I continued on Picacho Rd, past the enormous tailings of Picacho Mine, and out to the Colorado at Picacho SRA. Despite the pleasant temperatures the place was nearly abandoned. I was impressed with the excellent campground, facilities, and scenery in this area. This is a fairly unique section of the Colorado where dams upstream have caused the river bed to lower and the river to abandon its floodplain. So instead there are a number of lakes, backwaters, and wetlands that surround the river. I continued on the road up along the Colorado past the main campground. I detoured up Bear Canyon to its interesting slot canyon and tank area, which also featured a really nice slickenlined fault plane.
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| View from near Picacho Rd saddle |
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| Taylor Lake |
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| Bear Canyon |
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| Bear Canyon Tank (fault plane at right) |
With the last of the sunlight spent, I pulled into the beach-front 4-S Campground, which I had all to myself. In the early morning I drove to the Outpost Campground at the end of the road and then went for a 1.5 mi hike through several washes to what I thought could be another natural bridge on aerial photos. On arrival I was excited to find that I guessed correctly with an round tunnel draining a giant breached pothole with dryfalls above.
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| An unnamed natural bridge N of Picacho SRA |
I spotted some deer and a roadrunner back at the river and flew my drone for an aerial view of the Colorado. I parked where the road crossed Carrizo Wash and hiked 1.5 miles up the loose wash. Carrizo Falls was a standout spot with the wash spilling out of a slot in a hundred foot-high wall of ignimbrite with an oasis of 50 palms and a deep clear pool of water below. From the copious droppings I deemed this an important watering hole for bighorn sheep. I climbed up several dryfalls and stemmed across pools until I approached an unclimbable overhanging dryfall.
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| The hardest working river in the West |
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| Carrizo Falls, a true oasis |
After the great Carrizo hike I piled back into my borrowed vehicle and hoped the road to Indian Pass would not be so sandy as to be impassible. Happily the road was in great shape with very manageable sand ruts and I easily made it to the steeper climb out of the wash up to Indian Pass. Here I went for yet another 1.5mi hike up a wash to a unique cluster of arches in free-standing basalt dikes. From the right vantage it was possible to get two of the arches to align like eyes of the mountain.
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| Unique double arch eyes |
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| Lower arch window |
Next I drove up the incline to Indian Pass and walked around looking at the interesting petroglyphs while I ate a late lunch. These were different than any other petroglyphs I had seen before. Instead of figures and patterns carved on rock walls, the field of boulders and cobbles at the pass had intersecting sets of lines scratched into their desert varnish with locally sourced quartzite. Regardless of their actual significance, to me they really conveyed a feeling of this critical pass being a crossroads of the region. Unfortunately for every ancient petroglyph there was at least as many modern "tic-tac-toe" games or names scratched into the rocks.
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| Indian Pass |
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| Unique Indian Pass petroglyphs |
By this point I had already managed to squeeze in 10 miles of hiking for the day across three hikes, but I hoped to fit in one more rugged 5 mi wilderness hike before the end of the day into the craggy volcanic spires at the heart of the Indian Pass Wilderness. This was probably the hike I was most excited for and it did not disappoint. I went up a rocky tributary of Gavilan Wash and soon climbed up rhyolite slopes to the first of several saddles threading through dramatic steep-walled peaks. I was immediately blown away by the wilderness feel of the place as I crested the first saddle and saw nothing but volcanic spires around me. I worked my way down the loose sloped into the headwater basin below and then sweatily climbed up to a second saddle, this one with even more dramatic views of spires and a distant Colorado River meandering on the horizon. I followed a steep chute down, crossed another basin, and then scrambled up to join the ridge leading to Peak 1280. I had nearly hit sunset at this point but wow what a stunning view. I kind of knew what to expect but was still caught off-guard with the beauty and remoteness of this place. I was surrounded by spires with an expensive horizon including the Colorado River and Arizona to the north and east and Picacho Peak looming on the southern horizon. I would have loved to linger here on this summit but knew I would already be pushing it to get back to the car without a headlamp so I barreled down the slope and followed less rugged washes and saddles back to the car. It was one of the best short solo wilderness hikes I have done. I drove through the dark back along the Colorado to the main Picacho Campground. The campground was nearly empty. I greatly enjoyed the free hot-as-you-like-it solar shower before settling in.
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| Stunning wilderness view from the second saddle |
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| A partial view from Peak 1280 |
In the morning I got another early start to drive out to the end of Railroad Canyon Road, which was more interesting than anticipated. Portions of the road traverse the top of the old railroad grade such that in places you are driving across a car-width bed with abrupt drops to both sides. After, I parked at the Marcus Wash trailhead and hiked about 2 miles cross-country (metamorphic rocks this time for a change!) and up the wash to one of its tributaries. The wash became more enclosed with meandering schist walls and then around one turn I was presented with a very nice looking natural bridge spanning the drainage. It was particularly satisfying to come upon this feature after spotting it as a potential natural bridge in satellite imagery weeks before.
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| A neat seldom visited natural bridge |
Next I drove onto increasingly rough spur roads to end up in a wash only about 0.5 miles away from Picacho Peak. I knew the peak as a classic SoCal adventure that was a mix of scrambling, some minor climbing and ropework, and a whole lot of exposure involved in ascending to the summit. I was interested in checking it out and carried gear in case I felt like giving it a try but fully expected it would be more than I wanted to do solo. There is no vantage from which the peak looks anything other than very difficult to impossible to climb but I continued on hiking up past its western wash and then steeply scrambling up a loose gully to arrive at the saddle between its east and west peaks. Here I added my helmet and ascended carefully from one ledge to another, eventually finding myself at the base of a the first ladder. I'll admit there was a lot of exposure and I was feeling shaky and not too into going much further so I sent my drone up to scout. The aerial view was impressive. The best way I could characterize the route was that it seemed like an ant farm without its side wall, with all the ledges sloping outward and covered in ball-bearing rocks. The top ladder looked particularly exposed and then I would have to rock climb, abseil, ascend, abseil to cross and recross the false summit block once on the ridge. With only slight disappointment I opted to not go for the top solo. I climbed the first ladder and checked out the platform someone built across the infamous step-across and then called that good.
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| Picacho Peak at left |
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| Interesting Picacho hoodos |
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| Peak 1474 and California red barrel cactus on Picacho Peak ascent |
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| The ant-farm style maze of ledges, walls, and ladders leading to Picacho Peak |
I made quick time back down the hill and wash to the car and started heading out towards Yuma. I drove over to check out Senator Wash where I went for a short slot canyon hike and marveled at the vast number of people living out of motorhomes. I met some colleagues at the roadside site of an old Spanish mission and relocated cemetery as the sun set (and mosquitoes swarmed). I joined them for a tasty Thai dinner in Yuma then debated a late drive or camping. I stopped by Holtville Hot Springs which I found rather busy and so opted to drive on for home. Overall I was impressed with all the neat things and hikes I was able to fit into three action-packed days. This area had a lot more to offer than I thought and I would love to come back to explore it some more.
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| Parting shot of Picacho Peak |
