Daren Sefcik: Cool Canyon

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Cool Canyon / Rainbow Canyon - ABDSP

Two of the lesser known and least visited canyons in Anza Borrego Desert State Park are Cool Canyon and Rainbow Canyon. This last weekend I visited both. These canyons are semi slot canyons and reminded me a lot of canyons in Death Valley in that they narrow up and have lots of marbled, swirled types of rock. You can use Cool Canyon as a starting point to climb Granite Mountain, I made a last minute decision to try and get to the top but I stopped at Peak 4624, I just wasn't prepared to go another 1,000' that day.

Rainbow Canyon is another great little canyon that is only a mile or so long and great for a quick hike or family exploration opportunity. If you are camping in Blair Valley and have someone who can drop you off at the canyon mouth you can hike in and over to Blair Valley for about a 5 mile easy going but fun hike.

You can see all of the pictures from Cool Cool Canyon here and Rainbow Canyon here

Here is the entrance to Cool Canyon

Morteros nearby indicate past Indian occupation in the area

Some quality scat entering the canyon

Probably bobcat scat, there was a lot of this type of scat in the canyon.

This appears to be a Hawk Massacre

One of many dry falls in the canyon

Another larger dry fall

Another dry fall further up in Cool Canyon

Some Honeycomb up in the rocks, this was a great find

Large Honeycomb up in the rocks. This was a great find.

My lunch on Peak 4624, you can see Whale Peak straight ahead in the distance

My lunch on peak 4624, Whale Peak is straight ahead in the far distance

Looking back at Peak 4624 as I descended

After Cool Canyon I headed over to Rainbow Canyon for a quick couple of hours

Here is the entrance to Rainbow Canyon

You will almost immediately see the first dry fall, there are many and they are all fun to climb and easy to get over unless you decide to wear Stilettos on your desert hike...