Carrizo Gorge Wilderness Backpack - ABDSP

Gary and I spent the long 3 day Memorial Day weekend leisurely traversing the Carrizo Gorge Wilderness with no more of an agenda other than getting back to our trucks sometime by the end of the day Monday. Mr Tom was kind enough to drop us off at Jacumba on Sat morning and was going to hike with us for the day but the weather was kinda cold and blustery and I guess his jacuzzi and booze back home sounded better so it was just Gary and I.

Carrizo Gorge is one of those easy to get to wilderness areas that just never gets old and it has a long history with the railroad and the now famous Goat Canyon Trestle. The trestle seems to be growing exponentially in popularity and I suspect that will continue until the railway patrols pickup again. This particular trip we saw as many as 10 motorcycle adventurers in addition to all of the usual hikers and MTB'ers.

There is something about the Gorge that seems to beckon film photography and I always enjoy taking at least one older analog camera with me. The B/W photos here are from my Fuji GW690 6x9 medium format camera and the film is Fuji Acros 100 developed 1+2+100 in PMK Pyro @13 minutes. A few of the photos I took were an attempt to mirror photos found in the The Impossible Railroad book.

Carrizo Gorge with Sombrero Peak way off in the distance to the right


Following the tracks, some of the trestles are in good shape, others not so much


One particular set of railway cars that has been out on the tracks for several years now has been heavily vandalized.


On page 36 of The Impossible Railroad book there is a picture showing the Young & Crooks Camp 1 and all of the workers tents and the compressor plant equipment. This is the roughly the same photograph but the only thing you can still see are foundations of cement and many of the cleared areas that were built up with rocks to form a tiered foundation for the large tents they used


Gary at a few of the railroad camps


This workers camp overlooks the gorge and has approx 5-6 built up tiers for large tents. Most of it is overgrown with cholla now though.




Here is another photo from The Impossible Railroad book
on page 40 showing tunnel 15 where they eventually gave up on that tunnel and built the tracks around it


We found a huge horseshoe, looked more decorative than useful


This is one of the cooler tunnels out there


Gary heading into tunnel 16, this one has a history of fires and collapses which is evidenced by the tweak on the top. The inside supports you see in the other tunnels are missing which I am guessing is from the 1986 fire that burned it out


What would a trip thru the Gorge be without a photo of the Trestle


Eventually we found our way to the East Fork and the Carrizo Palms. There was some water and lots of wildlife tracks


Unfortunately this poor gal was not able to make it to the water source. I was able to go out a few days later with a Fish & Game Biologist to perform a post-mortem and the cause of death was determined to be from disease


Rock Art



I did manage to get some digital shots as well, love the sunrise photos with a super zoom


The Goat Canyon Trestle has several "catwalks" built in to facilitate repairs and maintenance duties and there is also an elaborate fire supression system built into the trestle with many pipes and valves that lead up to the water tanker on the hillside above. This photo is looking straight thru the first catwalk and some of the water pipes are visible. I can't recommend walking these catwalks at all, they are sketchy at best


Gary enjoying some of the water at Carrizo Palms


Reptiles were out and about, we found 2 in the same spot with head injuries, pretty strange, anybody have any ideas? We were thinking hawks or such




This guy was chilling in the shade of the tunnels


Railroad camp debris, re-purposing a shovel for something?


This is more my speed, a real fifth bottle of whisky


Anyways, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed...time to turn in.....




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Carrizo Gorge Railway Goat Canyon Trestle - ABDSP

On my way home from hiking Whale Peak and exploring Inner Pasture I stopped off in Jacumba to meet up with some friends to ride out to the Goat Canyon Trestle in Carrizo Gorge. Let me say this was by far the easiest way I have traveled to to see the trestle.

I had a flat on my MTB and Scotty "C" promised to fix it when I got there, he totally lived up to his promise..thanks Scotty!


Really..??


Our first wood plank crossing


Scotty C heads off into a tunnel. Riding thru the tunnels was a blast, especially the really long ones


This train is now becoming famous the longer it sits out there



The funky aqua/turquoise colors of the interior are so cool


Possibly one of my favorite window stickers yet


Tried out some of the B/W filters for the camera


Scott and Greg immediately saw what was wrong with the train, somebody had wedged a piece of wood under the wheels


Canadian Car & Foundry (Can-Car) manufactured these railway cars


There was a lot of debris left near an abandoned tunnel


This was an abandoned tunnel that looked caved in several hundred yards into it


No idea what this is


ta'da..! the Goat Canyon Trestle


Riding the steel side grates was sketchy

Sombrero Peak 07-11-2011 - ABDSP

Sombrero Peak is an iconic peak when you enter Anza Borrego Desert State Park from the south. It is visible from the S2 highway from Ocotillo until you pass the Bow Willow campground. There are a few different routes up to the peak, the two most popular being the shorter approach from Indian Valley and and the longer less steep approach from McCain Valley. Neither approach is easy and you will need some cross country navigation skills to get there. The views from the peak are incredible, you will get 360 degree views of the entire Anza Borrego desert and also of the McCain and Imperial Valleys.

You can download a Google Earth KML file of my trip here.

You will need to plan your own route and be confident in your route navigation skills before heading out to the peak, my GPS tracks alone will not get you there and back.



This trip was mostly to capture panoramic images of the desert from the peak. I had my camera packed away knowing I would make better time if I wasn't stopping every second to take pictures. As a consequence I missed several good wildlife shots. I saw a large coyote, a fox, a 4' rattlesnake, several Turkey Vultures, two large Red Tail Hawks and countless smaller birds.

There are always the intriguing rock formations in McCain Valley that can take whatever shapes your mind can think of, mostly faces for me.

Here is "Boulder Man" East and West side views



You can follow mostly old jeep trails up to the last 1.7 miles to the peak, after that you will need to use your navigation skills and maps to the peak.


1.7 miles to the peak from here, not much trail after this


If you look close enough you can find pottery sherds along the way (please don't take home)


You can see the Jacumba Mtn Peak and the Goat Canyon Trestle from Sombrero Peak


The panoramic views are awesome from the peak. Here are a few panorama images you can check out.

Panorama from Sombrero Peak looking north-east-south-west. This is a very interesting panorama, you will need to download and zoom in 100% and pan around. You can see so much from here, including the Goat Canyon train trestle. This was shot at 75mm focal length.



Click here to download (28MB)

Here is a panorama at 300mm focal length mostly south from Tule Mtn to the west of McCain Valley


Click here to download (24MB)

Panorama of Ocotillo from Sombrero Peak


Click here to download (5MB)