Daren Sefcik

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Mount Tule / Sunrise Power Link Protest

Protesting the Sunrise Powerlink Project

After protesting the Sunrise Powerlink Project during the "ground breaking" ceremony I did a quick hike up Mt Tule nearby. Mt Tule is a quick easy hike and has awesome views of Carrizo Gorge and the Anza Borrego desert. I parked over near the Sacatone Lookout area and hiked up to the peak. The register had numerous entries indicating this was a popular hike, especially with the Monday Maniac crowd.

Mount Tule Benchmark

Man made wildlife guzzler nearby

Classic BLM land use area

Panorama of Carrizo Gorge (click image for full size image)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Bighorn Canyon / Nolina Wash ABDSP

Did a backpack trip out to Bighorn Canyon and Nolina Wash in Anza Borrego Desert a couple of weeks before Christmas with a couple of members from the Anza Borrego.net website. It was not a long trip, about 4 miles each day. We were able to check out the big water tanks built as guzzlers for the wildlife. One of the members was a photographer and he took some amazing night sky photographs which can be seen on the The Anza Borrego Desert at Night website.

Starting up Bighorn Canyon

Interesting rock formations in the canyon

The drinking trough from the water guzzlers

Water tanks from the guzzler. These tanks collect water from Blue Spring, a natural spring in the nearby canyon

Looking down into the canyon

Granite Mtn in the distance

Granite Mtn with a cactus

Nearby Kumeyaay Village

Kumeyaay Village has numerous morteros, it was a large village at one time

GPS route of our hike (click image to enlarge)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Smoke Tree Canyon / Calcite Mine Area ABDSP

Calcite Mine Road Sign

So the first week of winter break was a disaster with the weather but the Sunday after Christmas I packed up and got out of dodge as fast as I could. I was gonna backpack into Rockhouse canyon but as my luck seems to be I could not. Clark "Dry" Lake was flooded and the road was not passable beyond the rock crushing machine. It was getting dark and I needed to camp out somewhere so I kept driving east. I did not camp near CDL because there were already a ton of people, mostly RV's out there. Most of the washes east of CDL were also all muddy and not car friendly looking, there was a jeep stuck floorboard deep on the shoulder at Fonts Point, 2 other jeeps were winching him up and trying to pull him out...3 feet from the road. Goes to show you that anyone can get stuck anywhere, doesn't need to be way off in the back country roads somewhere. I rolled into Arroyo Salado campground and made camp just as it was getting dark. I ended up camping here for 3 nights before driving home Wed morning just as it started to rain heavily.

Monday I hiked hiked up Smoke Tree Canyon to check out the Natural Water Tanks (or "Tinaja" as some say) and then freestyled it up an unknown peak and back down thru Coachwhip Canyon. This was a great hike of about 10 miles and as a bonus I saw a herd of Bighorn Sheep. It looked like 3 adults and 2 younger ones. The views were awesome from the peak (which I believe was right next to Pyramid Peak). Tuesday I hiked out near the Calcite Mine area and thru one of the slot canyons. I returned back down thru Palm Wash and more slot canyons.

It was a great trip and I can see tons of great hiking possibilities all thru the Santa Rosa Mtn areas. I also decided to borrow a Canon DSLR from a friend on this trip. Without this camera I would not have been able to photograph the Bighorn sheep.

Here are a few pics from the trip