NOTE: Weather permitting, we'll follow thru with this hike. But with winter storms and rainfalls, we'll have to cancel if it's raining out in the Borrego Springs area on this day. (Can't risk flash floods in the slot canyons.) Click HERE to check 10-day weather forcasts for Borrego Springs area before the hike. It may be sprinkling in San Diego, but sunny in the desert. And, as usual, we require each hiker to bring their own appropriate hiking gear, food, and sports drinks. Be sure to do your "carb loading" before the hike by eating a good meal/healthy snack and drinking liquids, avoiding dehydration and fatigue. Carb loading the day before is useful, too. And if you leave the hike early, please notify the hike leader directly, so there's no question that you may have gotten lost or injured along the way. Remember... Safety first.

See Area D-4:, Trip 9, Santa Rosa Mts., in Schad's book (c '98, p.266, 278-279, map on p. 267) for hike details. *** degree of difficulty out of a possible *****. This hike is 7.0 miles roundtrip and will take about 4 hours to complete. Elevation gain/loss is about 900'.

This hike is located in the NE part of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. (Check the Maps page of this website for more directions and maps to print out.) We'll plan to meet there at 11:30 am and start hiking about 11:45.

The parking area for the hike is on the north side of Highway S-22 (Borrego Salton Seaway), at Mile 38.0, due east/northeast of Borrego Springs. Turn off at mile 38, to your left, into the turnout parking area. The parking area out there has a readily visible call box, and is located about one-half mile west of the obvious microwave tower. (If you go past the microwave tower, you've gone too far.)

This hike takes place at the SE end of the Santa Rosa Mountains and brings us up into chaotic rock formations and thru slot canyons (slot-shaped ravines). After heading up thru the Middle Fork of Palm Wash Canyon, we'll climb out, onto a sloping bench plateau and work our way overland on ancient Indian trails to the Sheep Tanks (natural rock tanks) near the North Fork of Palm Wash. During heavy rains the tanks hold water which used to be important to the Native people of the area as well as the bighorn sheep and other wildlife. Their capacity is estimated at some 20,000 gallons---about as much as a backyard swimming pool. Finally, we'll descend thru the North Fork and pick up the jeep road to Palm Wash, then take the Palm Wash jeep road back to the Calcite Mine road. GPS devices are useful on this hike, so if you have one, bring it along for the practice. ;^) You should be able to create your waypoints ahead of time from info. provided on Google Earth.