Sacatone Overlook / Carrizo Gorge ABDSP

Gopher Snake in Carrizo Gorge

Scotty "C" and I headed out to Carrizo Gorge for our now annual Sacatone Overlook / Carrizo Gorge hike. You can read about our trip last year here. This year we decided to go south in the bottom of Carrizo Gorge and see if we could find any remains of the old train encampment. The weather this year was much nicer than last year but the terrain and amount of elevation gain/loss still makes this a pretty difficult hike thru some of the least visited and remote areas of Anza Borrego. When hiking in this area of the park we usually do not even see any signs of illegal crossing routes, no dumped backpacks or discarded tuna cans. Scott and I both agree that if the illegals can make it thru this part of the backcountry than they probably have earned a spot here.

April brings Spring weather and also many wildflowers and snakes. We saw four snakes this trip but no rattlesnakes. Wildflowers and especially the cactus blooms seem more abundant in this area of the park. We covered about 9.5 miles total and about 5,000' of elevation gain/loss in about 9 hours. We made really good time compared to last year, mostly due to Scott's recent intense Jillian Michaels regiment...way to go Scott!!

Be sure to look at all of the pictures from the trip here

Scott and I before we head down Cry Baby Hill..looking good Scott!!

Some pottery sherds and a metate we found along the way

Close up of the pottery sherds and some other tool looking like stones

Gopher snake we saw along the way, Scott stepped within inches of this snake not seeing easily

Balance Rock, we use this as a field marker to navigate this remote area of the park

Yucca Bloom

Desert Beetle on a Barrel Cactus Bloom

Down in Carrizo Gorge looking south

Cholla Forest - we got cholla balls stuck on us with every step

This was about the most prominent sign of the train camp

Horned Toad Lizard

GPS Tracks of the route

This panorama shows a large section of one hillside collapsing down

This is a panorama of the entire gorge area

Be sure to look at all of the pictures from the trip here


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