Culp’s Valley

Dorie and I, and Srisuda and Uwe took a little camping trip to Culp Valley. The weather was perfect and the full moon spectacular. This trip was spurred on by a guided hike offered by the Anza Borrego Foundation. 

Perfect campfire spot

Getting the fire going

Morning coffee on a rock

Shark rock

Srisuda checking out Pena Spring

Dorie resting in the shade at camp

Hellhole canyon view point [Photo: Uwe]

Panorama from resting spot during midday heat [Photo: Uwe]

Hiking to desert waterfall [Photo: Uwe]

Very fresh yucca stalk [Photo: Uwe]

Take enough water! [Photo: Uwe]

Entering Palm grove in Hellhole canyon [Photo: Uwe]

Coming out of Palm grove in Hellhole canyon

Maidenhair fall in Hellhole Canyon, Anza Borrego State Park [Photo: Uwe]

We were a little skeptical of a moderated trip initially. But we all were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the ~3 mile excursion. Our guide was a Naturalist, Ted Caragozian, and he guided us through the riparian areas of Pena Springs and the Hellhole Canyon overlook. He talked about the plants we’ve all seen on our hikes. We probably retained only 10% of what he covered, but it was very informative. Ted has hiked more of the Anza Borrego than anyone I’ve met, but when he started to tell us about long. difficult hikes we might enjoy, Uwe and I had to reply “We’ve done that.” I think he was a little impressed. [Uwe: Particularly since we’d done Shorty’s Well to Telescope peak in Death Valley and I had done C2C2C (Cactus-to-Clouds-to-Cactus). We did get a couple of good pointers for some hikes in the Santa Rosa Mountains from him]

For the afternoon, we decided to hike to Maidenhair falls. This was a ~5 mile out and back. The falls always seemed to be “just 5 more minutes ahead”, but there was a nice 10′ falls found eventually. (Please click on any picture to enlarge to see slide show)