Thanksgiving 2011 Part 4: Salsberry Peak and Sidewinder Canyon

I’m not going to give away many specifics about how to get up Salsberry Peak. There is some basic info in Zdon’s Desert Summits, but the fun of this one is finding the way on your own. After a cross-desert trek towards the base of the peak you’ll find many washes and ridges, but if [...]

Canyonlands and Natural Bridges

Our weather luck was wearing out. We had hiked through a brief but annoying thunderstorm on our visit to Landscape Arch and the skies were not looking any better as we drove towards the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands has several ‘Districts’ and the Needles one was the most convenient for us, therefore [...]

Lowell Narrows, Anniversary Peak, and Bowl of Fire (Lake Mead NRA)

This hike ranks up there with one of the best I’ve done in the desert. It has a bit of everything to offer – some mine ruins and tunnels, rockhounding, nice canyon narrows to wander through, a nice scrambly desert peak (class 2/3, depending on who is rating it), challenging route finding, and some beautiful [...]

Centennial Canyon and the Coso Petroglyphs

Just north of China Lake Naval Weapons Center is a tiny little wilderness area called the Coso Range Wilderness. It’s small, around 50,0o0 acres, with limited access (4WD desert road/old mining road).  There are no facilities, no signs, no visitor center. It’s not a place to stop and gawk at nature from paved RV-sized pullouts [...]

Desolation and Sidewinder Canyons, Death Valley

Later on Sunday morning, after our Minietta Mine exploration, we headed out of Panamint Valley and into Death Valley. Our goal was to visit some of the lesser known canyons in the park, and we focused on two of them in the Amargosa range accessed via different points along the Badwater Road.

Fossil Canyon and the 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 [...]

One of the most popular hikes in Anza Borrego is Borrego Palm Canyon. But just a short drive south of this canyon is Hellhole Canyon. Hellhole has a similar set of Palm Oasis, a seasonal waterfall with ferns, and a lot of fun rock scrambling. This was our second visit to Anza Borrego and although [...]

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