Sqeezing Through the Tight Spot Once More: Hiking The Slot at Anza Borrego State Park

The Slot

 

Date: November 22, 2023
Place: Anza Borrego State Park, Borrego Springs, California
Coordinates: 33.182012, -116.214109

Length: 2.8 miles
Level: moderate

Pappa Quail haven't been to Anza Borrego since 2012, and since desert bloom wasn't on our agenda for this visit, he wanted to revisit some of the trails that we've hiked then. I had visited Anza Borrego on the previous spring but then I did focus on the desert super bloom and hiked where the bloom was, so I too was happy to revisit some of the fun trails I remembered from our 2012 trip. 

We arrived at Anza Borrego in the afternoon, after a fairly dry and somewhat disappointing (birding-wise) visit at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge in the south of Salton Sea. We had enough day light hours left for a short hike and Pappa Quail suggested that we'd hike The Slot. We all agreed immediately - we all remembered fondly that hike as being much fun and not difficult at all. It was easy to find the coordinates - I had published them here on my blog post of our 2012 hike.  

Even before going on the dirt road that leads to The Slot the elder chika found a bird and asked that we'd stop to take a photo. 

House Finch (before the hike)

When we arrived at the small parking area of The Slot we saw that we weren't alone there - a number of cars were already parking there. We found a spot, parked, and looked around. The area was of low hills with disperse vegetation comprised of mostly creosote and ocotillo bushes, and dry grasses. The canyon itself wasn't visible from the parking area.

At the trailhead

The trailhead wasn't marked very clearly and our memory of the hike 11 years ago didn't kick in yet so we did a little scouting upstream before we found where to descend into the slot canyon. We encountered a few other hikers who seemed at loss as to where they should be going. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 Going down into the slot canyon meant going into early dusk. It was about 4 pm when we started our hike and the late afternoon sun no longer penetrated the canyon bottom. 

In places at the higher part of The Slot the canyon opened up a bit to let more sunshine in. A desert holly growing on the south-facing slope shone brightly in the light like the biblical burning bush. No, I did not hear any voices coming out of it. 

Desert Holly, Atriplex hymenelytra

Very quickly we were engulfed by the canyon, as the rock walls closed in and towered over us. Not too high at first - the band of bright blue sky was still wide enough above us, and there was plenty of light yet to see the fine details of the layered rock sediments through which the canyon was cut.

The Slot

I am by no means a geology specialist, but rock formations and geological processes have always fascinated me. One of the joys of hiking in the desert is in seeing the earth naked - her rocky bones uncovered with continuous vegetation cover, her bones rugged and sharp, not softened and rounded by frequent precipitation and runoff.

Rock coloration

The trail isn't designated as a one-way. I intended to hike it in the uphill direction as usually I consider it easier, but in our initial confusion as to where to get into the canyon we ended up hiking it in the downstream direction. Most other hikers we saw there also did it in the same direction as us, but we did encounter a few who were going uphill. In the beginning it was possible to simply squeeze to the walls and let each other pass through, but further down the canyon the narrow places were narrower and more frequent. Encountering other hikers meant looking for a place to step aside momentarily, or getting really really close in order to allow the others to pass.

The Slot

Nearly all the walk through The Slot was easy, and we moved fairly quickly down the path on the fine gravel of the dry wash bed. If it wasn't for the late hour I would have liked to slow down a bit and enjoy more the time inside this pretty canyon. In one place though, we encountered a large boulder that blocked the path. We had to go around it, then descend from the ledge it formed, which was as high as an average person. Some of us jumped down, others lowered themselves slowly to the pot where it felt more comfortable to let go and drop to the bottom. Either way, it didn't slow us down much.

A more serious point of concern (not really) was the narrowest part of The Slot, where we needed to really squeeze ourselves sideways. We all passed through successfully, although the elder chika's camera got dinged a bit from hitting the rock.

Pappa Quail passing through The Slot (posted with his permission)

Further downstream the canyon became much deeper, and the strip of sky thinned and dimmed. Now it truly felt as if we were walking through a tunnel. I looked warily at a column of rock that split off the south wall of the canyon and leaned precariously on the north wall. I hoped it wouldn't succumb to gravity while we walked underneath it.

The Slot

At home I compared the photos I took on this hike with the photos I took on that same trail 11 years before that. That leaning pillar wasn't there then, it was a newer erosion outcome. On the other hand, a large boulder that was resting above the slot in 2012 has since then found its way down to the canyon bottom. It might have been the very same boulder that blocked our path earlier, or that it had since washed down the canyon, falling apart on its way.

The Slot

Almost without noticing, we passed through the narrow part of the canyon. The Slot has widened. A little at first, then more. We could now walk all of us abreast. The sun was lower now too, but enough light could penetrate the canyon depth and I could see better the intricate erosion patterns on the rock walls. I called my young chika and together we named the figures that came up in our imagination when we looked at these patterns.

Stone people figures marching down the rock wall

The sun was on its way to set but the moon was already high in the sky. At the waxing gibbous phase, the moon was nicely visible against the deep blue of the clear desert sky.

There were no plants in the narrow, slot part of the canyon because of the low illumination and the occasional flash flood that would erode rocks and uproot plants. In the wider part of the canyon had also more room for vegetation.

Plants have established themselves mainly in the quieter, lass flood-affected sides of the canyon, secure between less mobile and prone to tumbling rocks. Some of them were even blooming.

Emory Rock Daisy, Perityle emoryii

I saw there one of my all time favorite desert bushes - the desert holly. It's little red buds looked very pretty against the plant's gray, furry leaves.

Desert Holly, Atriplex hymenelytra

The trail continued near the north side of the canyon for some distance, and followed the curve when the canyon itself turned north. The rock formations of the canyon sides were now less approachable, but no less interesting. Still I saw some nice erosion formations near the trail.

Rock knob

The canyon widened even more, and the lowering sun lit the eastern walls. We picked up our pace figuring there wasn't much daylight left.

When we neared the place where we would exit the canyon the chikas asked fora break. A wide dirt road descended from the west side of the wash and continued north in the wash in the downstream direction, which was north. A few concrete cubes separated the road from the wash upstream of the road - blocking vehicles from entering The Slot part of the wash. These concrete cubes were of perfect size to sit on, so we did.

Pappa Quail and the elder chika didn't stay sitting for long - there were birds hopping in and on the bushes nearby, enjoying the last moments of direct sunlight to reach the wash bed that day.

Rock Wren

These little birds are right at home in the arid desert habitat. Their colors were perfect to blend them in with their surroundings, giving them the camouflage they needed to avoid predators. Except when they make themselves conspicuous, of course.

Brewer's Sparrow

While my family borders were trying to get the best photos of the little desert birds, I enjoyed the colorful sediment layers that were visible in the western wall of the wash. When we hiked this trail 11 years before we were joined by another family whom we met at the Palm Canyon Oasis and made friends with the day before. On that hike one of their kids asked me a riddle - which stones were older: those embedded in the top sediment layer or those in the bottom? I admit I flanked that riddle, saying naively that the bottom stones were older. It is, of course, the opposite, because the top layer was deposited later, therefore the stones embedded in it were dislodged from an older bedrock somewhere upstream,

I returned my attention to the local wildlife, the anthill that my young chika found and asked that I'd photograph for her.

Ants

We watched the sun disappear below the west wall of the wash. It wasn't the official sunset yet but it sure felt like it. We got up and continued toward the dirt road that would lead us up and out of the canyon.

The road west cut straight up the steep hill. It looked pretty steep for vehicles but the road looked like it was being in regular use of OHVs and Pappa Quail said that even our car could do it. I thought to myself that I'd rather not be the one to try this. I sign posted at the bottom of that slope said that this road was one way - people were allowed to drive it downhill only. We weren't about to drive it at all, be were going up on foot.

Uphill Road

All the way up I was worried that a car would come charging down the slope> Thankfully, none did. There were a few plants growing on the slope near the road - mostly plants I've seen earlier on the hike, but some others too.

Indigo Bush, Psorothamnus emoryi

\on the way up I paused a few time to take photos of the view. I feared that by the time I'd reach the height of the ascend the sun will have already set and the pretty illumination would be gone. I remembered the large slab of 'Swiss cheese' rock layering the opposite slope. It looked the same as it did a decade ago.

Surprisingly it was the young chika who reached the top first. This steep uphill part wasn't long but it did get all of us panting.

At the top of the ascent was a small parking area, empty of cars. The place was already under the shade of the evening but the east was still lit with the red evening light. The view was much wider from the top and the large wash that The Slot spilled into was huge.

We started back south on the dirt road and were able to catch the last sunlit patch of the trail. Cholla cacti were glowing in the sunset light, which made each of their thorn very visible.

Rock Horn Cholla, Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa

Beautifully lighted in the sunset were the tall and stringy Ocotillo bushes. Usually at the end of the dry season the Ocotillo are bare of leaves but the past summer brought some monsoon rains and it was lovely to see at least some of the Ocotillo bushes foliaged.

Ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens

 My family birders found a Say's Phoebe bird and followed it to another Ocotillo bush where it settled comfortably between the plant's thorns.

Say's Phoebe

 

The younger chika called me over to where she was - she had found yet another wildlife. Beetles might not seem as fancy and attractive as birds but they still are an important part of the local fauna.

Beetle

The trail curved a bit, bringing use close to the edge of the cliff. I stepped off the dirt road and went over to look down into The Slot, where we had passed through earlier. It looked empty - no one else was going through in this hour. 

The Slot

I raised my gaze looking over the jagged terrain above the canyon. Once again I admired the way in which the desert shares the sight of the powerful erosion force of once in a long while flash floods.

The young chika waited patiently for me until I finished looking into and over the canyon. I joined her back on the dirt road and we hurried after Pappa Quail and the elder chika, hiking the last leg of the hike under the quickly disappearing post sunset light.

The drive back to the pavement and the town of Anza Borrego we did in the dark. It was a long day and I was glad we got to hike this lovely trail before it ended. On the morrow we planned to hike the very same trail where we had met our friends from 11 years ago - the trail to the Palm Canyon Oasis.

The Water Lifeline of Palm Desert: A Lovely Fall Hike by Hurkey Creek

Hurkey Creek

Date: November 22, 2023

Place: Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument, Palm Desert, California

Coordinates: 33.680260, -116.681916  

Length: 2.2 miles

Level: easy

 

 

The first hike we did on our 2023 Thanksgiving family road trip was in Idyllwild Regional Park, up Mount San Jacinto. From there we descended down towards the town of Palm Desert, where we had hiked numerous trails when we were in the area on the winter of 2012. At that time the chikas were small and the weather cold, and we were looking for bog horn sheep. This time I wanted to hike anew trail and I chose the Hurkey Creek Trail, which was basically an in-and-out easy hike near a running creek about midway up the mountain. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

The trailhead was at the end of the local campground. We parked at the small day use area and started off on a lovely, easy sandy trail. There were a few other hikers there as well, but not many. Some of the hikers simply came from the campground, walking their dogs. 

Hurkey Creek Trail

It looked like the area was burned in a wildfire sometime in the past few years. The charred remains of many trees still stood erect along the trail and near the creek. The creek itself was not visible yet, but it was well marked by the yellowing arroyo willows that lined along the desert's water life line.  

The birds were much more visible on leafless trees. In this case - leafless due to the fire. Pappa Quail and the elder chika immediately got to photographing the little birds in the bare boughs. 

Pine siskin

`some of these birds were quite common and very familiar to us from the Bay Area. Even so, they were lovely to see and to hear their chirps. 

White-crowned Sparrow 

Then there were the birds that are of the desert and that we get to see only on road trips in the desert. The cactus wren welcomed us from the top of its perch. 

Cactus Wren

Eventually the trail neared the creek, which was running still, even so late in the dry season. The flow was gentle, almost unnoticeable. 

Hurkey Creek

For the most part the willows covered the water entirely, and the flow was visible only through the gaps in the riparian vegetation. It was lovey to see the fall colors here too, somehow it's even more striking when seen in unexpected places. 

Arroyo Willows

The area surrounding Hurkey Creek was even drier than the Idyllwild Park where we hiked earlier that day, but even there I found a plant that was blooming still.  Not surprisingly, it was of the aster family. 

Aster

We continued at an easy pace along the sandy trail. The trail was mostly level, but ahead of us it looked like it might get a bit more hilly. Farther beyond loomed the mountains of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument, all part of the San Jacinto range.  

Hurkey Creek Trail 

Steady knocking sounds from a distant dead tree got the attention of my family birders. They got as close as they could to that tree and the rest of the distance was covered by their birding optics. 

Hairy Woodpecker

I don't know when did the fire happen in that area but the bushes were already well on their way to recovery. The trees however, were still too small to be noticed. 

On the other side of the creek was a round hill that looked very pretty with the coat of white boulders and green shrubs in between. I was compelled to cross the stream and go climb it, but I resisted the temptation. Perhaps on the next visit, whenever it'll happen. 

I stopped fantasizing about off trail boulder hopping and continued with my family on the designated trail.

Hurkey Creek Trail

Our progress was slowed down whenever a bird was sighted in the bushes nearby. Sometimes it took a while to find a bird, especially if it was inside the newly grown vegetation. The scrub jay however, was quite conspicuous.

California Scrub Jay

The California towhee also wasn't too shy and presented itself while following us with its gaze. 

California Towhee

Further up the trail was decorated with the rusty heads of the California buckwheat shrubs that had finished blooming earlier in the season and were now going to seeds.

California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum

Other bushes and vines were also in the fruit stage, long past their bloom time. Even without the flowers they looked very pretty.

We passed another water hole. I checked it out to see if I could find any animals in the water but I saw none. As soon as I finished checking out the water hole a couple of hikers passed me and went straight ahead into the water. I suppose this creek is even more popular on hotter days. 

I was happy to see another plant in bloom - a yellow flowering shrub of the aster family that stood out in the fruiting shrubs scenery. Rabbitbrush doesn't usually get much attention from me but it did capture my eyes here because it was the sole blooming plant in the area.

San Bernardino Rubber Rabbitbrush, Ericameria nauseosa var. bernardina

One of the nicest fruit heads I saw on this hike was that of the milkweed. Milkweed fruit isn't edible and doesn't have animal-attracting 'flesh'. The pods contains the dry seeds with their feather-like fiber parachutes. When the pod dries out it pops and the the seeds are carried away by the wind to a different location where they hopefully land in a germination-supportive place. The delicate fibers of the seed parachutes looked in the bright sunlight like angel wings. 

Milkweed, Asclepias sp.

We reached the place where the trail crossed the creek, then continued north towards the mountains. The trail was no longer level. Pappa Quail wondered how long we would continue and whether we had a destination. I wanted to go a bit more to a place where we could have a view before turning around.

The trail was much less maintained past the creek crossing. A deep rut cut through the trail lengthwise, and we had to move to a parallel makeshift trail. Apparently this rut wasn't a new thing but an on-going canyon in formation.

The elder chika found a rock wren under the bushes. I took the chance to catch up with the rest of my family and continue a bit further to scout ahead.

Rock Wren

Pappa Quail and the chikas sat down for a breather and hydration, and I moved ahead a bit until I reached a high enough point from which I could look ahead. I didn't  see much change in the scenery ahead except for the topography, the elevation changes.

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument

I returned to my family and sat next to them. We snacked a bit and had water, and decided mutually that this was a good place to turn about and go back to the car. I also took that time to check closely the nearby shrub, another rabbitbrush I believe, that also was fully in the seed - dispersing phase. The empty fruitheads after the seeds have flown away looked like pretty little stars.

While still on the high ground I viewed the mountains on the west, which were darker. I didn't know if that was because of the afternoon illumination or whether the rocks that made this ridge were in fact, darker. There also seemed to be more vegetation cover of the slopes to the west.

On our way back down the trail we had a great view southwest into the valley of Hurkey Creek. The yellow line of fall-colored willows marked where the creek was but I was impressed by the good vegetation cover of the east-facing slopes, indicating a good and reliable water source and retention ability. 

We didn't stop much on the way back. After crossing the creek again it was merely a matter of striding back. I like to see things from the other direction as well though, and some things I saw only on the way back, such as this lizard in the photo below.

Common Side-blotched Lizard

The trail neared the creek and for the rest of the hike we followed the yellow willows path. Soon their leaves would drop and the stand out color that marked the location of water to far away travelers would be gone.

Hurkey Creek willows

Just before concluding our hike my family birders stopped for a cute little house finch that perched on a burnt tree branch.

House Finch

Harkey Creek is a very nice trail, and it was a lovely easy hike we could do on our way down the mountains. After completing the hike we resumed our descent to Palm Desert where we found a nice place to eat before continuing south to Brawley and the Salton Sea.