Coyote Canyon from Anza to Desert Floor now Open

That's a good trail, wouldn't mind putting together a group to do that in November. October is booked for me. :)

Jerry

Would love to run that area. I've only been able to get over there on business trips driving rental cars.

Where's the trail head?

Not easy to find and trail not advised alone either so might want to get in a group of us.

To get to the trail head take Kirby Road from Anza about 4 miles to a left on Coyote Canyon (The name of a black top road not the trail) that soon ends. Then right on an unsigned dirt road keeping mainly straight for about another 4 miles following the few signs to "Anza Borrego State Park" until you come to a gate across road at the park entrance. The trail starts just past the gate.

If anyone wants to put together a group you can email me at snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net. An overnight stay camping in the desert wetlands at "the Willows" is recommended as it is truly beautiful and a long hard trail with many side trails into mountains.

How difficult a run is this? Ok for beginner to intermediate?

Can you give some details on the difficulty of the run?

thanks, bill

cool, I'm up for it as soon as I resolve the pinging issue.

No. There is public access into the park.

William, let me assure you that a 2-wheel drive pickup can't do the entire trail. We took a group of disabled up through that canyon two years ago and there were some sections that were difficult for even those of us with lockers. A stock Jeep can do much of it, but I wouldn't feel comfortable minimizing the difficulty of the trail in spots for an inexperienced wheeler. I suspect Bill has either forgotten or has only done the parts of the canyon up to the parts that are closed off much of the year due to the local mountain goats liking their privacy during certain parts of the year. The first time I did that trail with my wife, it scared her so badly that she demanded we turn around, which I did for her sake.

Jerry

Yes. There are parts of this trail where my family get out and walk! And to comment on what Bill said the "signs" are not real official signs. They are chalk scribles on old bits of wood. Anyone who has not done it before will feel they are both lost and trespassing!

Some pictures of the Anza trail taken in '68, my Jip is center top and bottom:

Great photos! Anza now has a new moderist Post Office and didn't Jeep chicks look good in 68!

Hell, Jeep chicks look good *every* year! ;-)

My humble suggestion is to start at the bottom of the canyon on the desert floor and make your way up the canyon to Anza.

The Anza Borrego Desert State Park offers abundant desert camping. The route throught Coyote Canyon has long been closed to protect the Big Horn Sheep habitat that the route passes through. The route was closed seasonally from June through September for many years, but in about '97 or '98 it was closed year around. The entire route was not closed, only the section known as the Middle Willows was closed. The Middle Willows is virtually the only water source for the sheep herds for many miles. The closure only affected motor vehicles, bikes and hikers were still allowed to traverse the canyon. Motor vehicles could go up from the bottom and down from the top, but could not pass through the Middle Willows. There are three willow along the canyon, Lower, Middle, and Upper. The middle has by far the largest amount of water, and is the most remote of the three sites. The protection effort was to keep vehicles out of the area so that the lambs would not be frightened away from the only water source for miles around. The seasonal closures worked very well, but the tree huggers lobbied for and got a year around closure. A problem quickly developed, the vehicles kept the willows thinned out, and the lambs could get to the water, but the year around closure that blocked the vehicles quickly allowed the area to become so overgrown that people walking had extreme difficulty in getting through. The lambs have the same problem, they can not reach the water because the brush has become so envasive and dense.

Mike Stevens seems to be saying that the trail is open now, but the last time I was there, there was a locked gate in January. I am not arguing what Mike is reporting, but what he is saying is counter to what I have come to know about the area. Clearly, I could be the wrong party with outdated information.

The trail was, in Bill's day, passable with 2WD. In the mid to late '90s, the trail above the Lower Willows was washed away by floods, and (I think) damaged by a land slide caused by an earthquake. The Park Service went in and created a Bypass (actual name of the section of trail) that is a boulder-strewn section of steep grade. It definitely takes 4WD to get through today, and some 4WDs will get stuck to the point of spending quality time on the end of a winch cable, but I digress. I have not been past the Middle Willows, so I am not familiar with the section(s) above that point. If I was gonna run Coyote Canyon, I think I would tent camp in the desert, and make the run up the canyon and exit in Anza. Mike suggests starting in Anza, but he lives there, so his view is understandable. The commute back to civilization from Anza is slightely easier than the commute from Borrego, but getting into Borrego to camp can be a long drive. Basically, I think it takes about 6 hours to go through the canyon one way, with stops to smell the cacti along the way. If I am right, it would be a rather long day to make the trip twice, and it is about 80 miles on the highway from Anza to Borrego Springs, so parking the motorhome at either the top of the bottom of the canyon will lead to an hour or so of driving to get back to it after making the run through the canyon.

Visitors from the San Diego area can easily make the trip from home and not spend th enight camping, but drinking beer and smoking cigars until 2:00AM is a large part of rock crawling. Make your way to Borrego Springs. From the traffic circle in the middle of town, porceed out of town on the road that goes to the Salton Sea. go about a mile or two to Di Gigorigio (or similar), and turn LEFT. Proceed to the end of the pavement where the entrance to the park is. Follow the only route that is there, and you will eventually come out in Anza along Highway 341 between Highways 79 and 74.

"Michael Stevens" wrote in message news:mR4gb.4052$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net...

The Middle Willows is still permanently closed to motor vehicles. The trail I am talking about is only accessible from Anza. The gate I mention is the entrance gate in Anza that is only open October thru spring.

PS:

My recommending the trip from the north is not related to my own personal habitat. The drive from Anza Borrego UP is tame and crowded. From Anza DOWN it is a different world.

Last time I saw Jeff, and that was too long ago, he was on a "no beer" diet so what is this with snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com?

As a former hippie rock musician who played the Fillmore, the Whiskey, etc., etc. back in '67 and '68, hey ALL the chicks looked good back then, plus the best part, they didn't mind being called "chicks"!!!