Thursday, February 3, 2011

Sandstone Canyon Tour… (easier than Rattlesnake!)

Our Friend Pat, has a bucket list for her holiday to California, and one of the items was ticked off as completed today, and that was a Jeep Tour.  We headed off to Ocotillo Wells, where the trail head was for Sandstone Canyon.

This tour was 15 miles back into the Anza-Borrego State Park ending at Sandstone Canyon.  Turned out to be a great one!

There is a lot of unusual rock formations on this tour…

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I found this a little bit weird…

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We ran into about 4 other vehicles on this tour, one of the busiest we have run across! We met a nice couple from B.C. and had a great chat with them!

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About 4 miles in, we took a hike up a mountain to visit the wind caves… they were kind of neat.  Judy and Pat are on the trail…

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Pictures again to not really do the landscape justice out here in California!

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These are known as the wind rocks… I would think erosion had a big part to play in the forming of these rocks… it was a 1 mile hike out, and then the return…

 

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The erosion caused some caves to form…

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Judy was checking out the caves…

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Octillion cactus gets in the way… they were nice and green today.

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The deeper we got into the Canyon, the walls started to close in on us!  They were quite high at this point, and you just hope there is not a flash rain storm…

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We got into the Canyon a total of 14.1 miles and then hit the wall!  We saw evidence (tire marks on the sides of the rocks) where guys actually got there Jeeps through the gap below… the Jeeps climb right up on the rocks… crazy… we didn’t!  Called it a day!

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This is what got in our way!  It had fallen off the walls maybe a year or so ago.

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Judy took a picture of the Jeep Crew before we turned around to head out…

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This was one cool canyon we said goodbye to…

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We ran into a real ruff spot on the way back, so we made Pat get out and fill the hole up with rocks so the Jeep could climb out… OK… John and I helped her, just not sure where we are in this picture????

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Overall, another great day and great tour.  We drove back up towards Desert Hot Springs, and decided to hit Cocoa's Restaurant in Indio for diner!  It was good!

Till tomorrow…

4 comments:

  1. We actually turned off the highway onto that Sandstone Canyon wash last year with our 2 wheel drive Santa Fe but only went a half mile before deciding we had maybe better wait until we had a 4 wheel drive Jeep someday. I've got my fingers crossed that we may be in that Anza Borrego area soon........

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  2. We're going to AB next weekend with some friends who like to go four-wheeling. We're taking my Liberty this time, and my friend says we're going to go to this place. I"m so excited to get a preview!

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  3. Great blog and pics, John. That canyon looked pretty neat and is was nice that you were able to drive so far up it in your Jeep. I think it was wise to stop where you did too - that narrow stretch looked a little dicey!

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  4. another great jeep tour!...our list is growing!!!

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