Topic: Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

[FrankB]

Old Kane Springs Road runs southeast from SR-78 to Split Mountain Road. Marty and I decided to take that rather than go through Ocotillo Wells Saturday on our way to Fish Creek and Sandstone Canyon.  The road is mostly sandy whoops with some occasional rocky areas, nothing difficult.  A few miles in from SR-78 is Harper Canyon Road, which runs south for a little ways through one of the most beautiful cactus gardens, eventually ending at a big pile of boulders a mile or two on.

Looking west back towards SR-78. The road drops quite a bit of elevation as it works it way down to Ocotillo Wells to the east.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

The ocotillo are in full bloom right now. Where there were large stands of the plants the tops were all red, kind of glowing in the sun.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

In the Cactus Garden.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

From the Cactus Garden, Harper Canyon Road continues up a wash until it ends at what might be a nice campsite for up to about 5 trucks. The trail is stock friendly, there are only 2 little rocky spots that merit a bit of care, and one really tight turn between some rocks.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

End of the road, nice camp spot.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

[FrankB]

Next up was Fish Creek Wash and Sandstone Canyon. There are still lots of flowers out there, this really is a nice time of year to be there. It got up to the mid-70's, light wind.

Patterns in the sand.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Patterns in the sandstone.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

The smoke trees are especially nice this time of year.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Sandstone Canyon was really quiet. Almost no one was there on Saturday. The closed area at the back is now filling with sand and getting back to looking as smooth as it was the first time I saw it.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

[FrankB]

As we were heading out the moon was starting to rise over the sides of the canyon.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Once we got back to the mouth of Fish Creek Wash we decided to check out the narrow gauge railway running from the US Gypsum mine that's at the end of Split Mountain Road.

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

Anza Borrego - Old Kane Springs, Sandstone Cyn 4/4/09

[Goldfish]

Great pictures as always Frank. 

[strikedistance]

Going to Borrego tomorrow. Cant wait looks beautiful!!!

[DWphoto]

Nice Pics. I really want to cruise out to Anza one of these days.

[fleury123]

damm I was suppose to make that run. Frank, your pictures amaze me. Almost as much as the YELLOW Skid plate. We will convert you....

[FrankB]

damm I was suppose to make that run. Frank, your pictures amaze me. Almost as much as the YELLOW Skid plate. We will convert you....

Thanks Chris. Just so you know, all of the skids (except for the gas tank) are now yellow.

[SuperSlideStyle]

Where is that at?  What city is nearby?  what county?  How do I get there from the Inland Empire?

[FrankB]

Where is that at?  What city is nearby?  what county?  How do I get there from the Inland Empire?

Like the title of the post and the first paragraph says, it's Old Kane Springs Road, in Anza Borrego State Park, connecting State Route (SR) 78 to Split Mountain Road. 

The road is clearly marked on the San Diego Region AAA map, as well as the various Anza Borrego maps, the Lindsay (and probably any other) guidebook to Anza Borrego, and the DeLorme Calif Road & Recreation Atlas.  I strongly recommend that anyone who wants to wander around Southern California backroads or off road get at least these paper maps. Route planning and trying to find something like this on a GPS device can be frustrating at best, since you can't see the big picture.  I guess if you toted around a laptop with a wireless link, and maybe a sat phone modem for when there's no cell service, you could just look it up in google maps while you are rolling (or you could do that from your computer at home).

The big question of course, is: will Arnold and those a-holes in Sacramento shut the Park down before it cools off enough to go back out there this Fall?  The bigger question is: how the heck do you "shut down" the desert anyway?

[Brian (#2)]

I went on Old Kane Springs, Fish Creek and Sandstone Canyon yesterday.  There are some impressive views through there, but not as pretty this time of year.  I did a little hiking, up to the wind caves and I also walked up Diablo Dropoff to check it out because I have never been through here before.  A buddy of mine was supposed to go with me today and we were going to go down the dropoff, but he flaked out on me. 

I decided to stick to the easy runs since I was by myself.  There were a lot of jeeps out there, mostly coming down from Pinyon Mt. but I watched a few go up the Diablo Drop off who were scouting trails for an upcoming jamboree.  They were mostly cool but took a couple of jabs at me because I had a Xterra.  I just smiled   

[FrankB]

I went on Old Kane Springs, Fish Creek and Sandstone Canyon yesterday.  There are some impressive views through there, but not as pretty this time of year.  I did a little hiking, up to the wind caves and I also walked up Diablo Dropoff to check it out because I have never been through here before.  A buddy of mine was supposed to go with me today and we were going to go down the dropoff, but he flaked out on me. 

I decided to stick to the easy runs since I was by myself.  There were a lot of jeeps out there, mostly coming down from Pinyon Mt. but I watched a few go up the Diablo Drop off who were scouting trails for an upcoming jamboree.  They were mostly cool but took a couple of jabs at me because I had a Xterra.  I just smiled   

How were the temps out there?  I'm thinking in about 3 weeks or so it should be pretty nice, unless we get a fall heat wave. 

Did you go up Harper Canyon while you were on Old Kane Springs? That cactus garden is pretty nice, but probably is much better in the spring with flowers.

I never worry about the jeep guys (some are pretty cool, and a couple of them run with us once in a while). While they're in those open cabins choking on dust we're inside with our A/C on.

Post some pics if you got any.

[Brian (#2)]

It was actually pretty cool in the morning, but it did get in the low 90's by the afternoon.  I just stayed on Old Kane Springs because I wanted to do most of the exploring off Fish Creek.  I used to own a Jeep and I sometimes wheel with a buddy who has a slightly modified JK.  I just thought it was funny that they didn't really know what a Xterra is capable of doing.  They were actually pretty helpful and gave some recommendations of trails to run in the area.  Here are some of the pictures I took:

I had fun on the whoop de dos after this little rocky patch.
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Here are some from Fish Creek and Sandstone Canyon.
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