Fossil Canyon and the Domelands

Fossil Canyon and the Domelands

Domelands
Domelands

We spent the first couple days of our trip exploring the southernmost side of Anza Borrego (along S2), basecamped at Agua Caliente Hot Spring. It was nice to camp there since we had the nice hot pools to come back to at the end of the day!

On Monday we checked out two areas I had found along S2 near the town of Ocotillo. The primary attractions were fossils and wind caves. This area, though now the middle of the desert near the Mexican border, used to be an ocean floor. There are many signs of this, especially in an area called Fossil Canyon. The rocks in this canyon are made up of fossilized sea creatures. It’s easy to find clam shells, corals, oyster shells, and more.

During the second half of the day we hiked into the Domelands to find the lesser-known wind caves. If you search for wind caves in Anza Borrego you’ll learn about the other ones – these aren’t in many books but I was determined to find them. It’s good that I had pretty detailed waypoints since the route goes through some of the badlands-style canyons, and those are a maze!

One of the coolest things we saw on this day was on the way to the windcaves at a place we called Sand Dollar Hill. Again, a sign of what this area once was, there were millions of sand dollar pieces scattered all over the desert floor.

Once at the wind caves the weather picked up, getting super windy, rainy, and dark. I would have loved to explore the area a bit more, but it just wasn’t practical given the conditions. I would definitely like to come back to this area someday and really explore. We also cancelled plans to drive the Canyon sin Nombre 4×4 road in to some mud caves since it was starting to rain. Guess we’ll just have to come back!

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Rob Mortensen

    Calipidder,
    Your title for the first posting on your holiday trip is Anza Borrego, Joshua Tree and Beer. We heard about Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree. Where’s the Beer? If I’m not mistaken I’ve seen photos on your blog of people enjoying offerings from the Stone Brewery. Knowing how nice the brewery itself is (we were there in October), I suspect you must have stopped there. I’m not familiar with other San Diego area breweries, nor do I recall seeing other San Diego brews on your blog, so further speculation on my part would be mere guesses. Please stop the wondering.

  2. Calipidder

    Ha, I should have said more! Since I didn’t really take pictures, i didn’t talk about it here on the blog. Maybe I should do a post! Basically, we spent a day checking out Pizza Port in Carlsbad, Green Flash, and Stone (in Escondido). My favorite beer of the day: Le Freak from Green Flash. Yummy!

  3. Rob Mortensen

    Thanks for the update. Supporting local breweries is always a good way to start, and end, a great adventure!

  4. Fred Fear

    Ive visited both Camyon Sin Nombre & the Mud caves a couple times. Most reciently newyearsday.
    They are both very much worth going back to. While in Canyon Sin Nombre be sure to check out the slot canyon cutting into the west wall.

    1. Charishma

      Do you happen to have detailed waypoints to these areas that you could share?

  5. Charishma

    I’m wanting to make this trip, but I was wondering if yoyu could share the detailed GPS waypoints…

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