TR: Anza-Borrego, Cougar Canyon, January 15, 2011

[jfr]

I'm a bit late getting the pics and TR together, but that shouldn't matter much, as the stream and waterfalls are flowing well in Cougar Canyon, so there's plenty of time to visit.

The short report: We backpacked (from as far as our car would go on Coyote Canyon Road) into the desert under a glorious gibbous moon late Friday night. We spent all day Saturday exploring the waterfalls, palm groves, sycamore trees, psychedelic hippie art, and authentic Indian pictographs in Cougar Canyon. We listened to Coyotes that night (in Coyote Canyon, naturally), and hiked back out Sunday morning.

It was a beautiful place, and we've already decided that we're going back there soon.

As usual, I wrote an excessively long trip report (helpful to those with insomnia), and took an absurd number of photos and videos (for those with some time on their hands).

Acme Mapper link to our trip. We drove to A, backpacked to B, and day-hiked up Cougar Canyon as far as C.

[Sally]

Hi jfr,
I thoroughly enjoyed your TR and pics. I loved the video of the moon with the frogs ribbitting in the background. I did a backpack up Sheep Canyon with my daughter years ago and your pics brought back memories. It looked like you really dealt with some rough terrain going up Couger Canyon.

I got up early to do Skyline today, went to sleep before 8:00 tonight and woke up wide awake about an hour ago. Thanks for helping me out with the insomnia! Guess I'll try to go back to sleep now.

[Ulysses]

Thanks for posting the trip report. I love Cougar Canyon and the whole Collins Valley area. Planning to get out there this spring and was wondering what the water flow was like. Don't see any vehicles in the pictures at Sheep Canyon. Did you run into any off-roaders?

[jfr]

Sally - glad to help with the insomnia!

Ulysses - Here is a link to a video showing the recent waterflow. The water had a slight brown color of tannins, but it tasted just fine. The creek continued to flow out toward Collins Valley for about a half mile before sinking into the sand.

There were no campers or vehicles at Sheep Canyon early Saturday morning, and we only saw a few cars all weekend. There were less than fifteen cars parked along Coyote Canyon Road when we hiked out Sunday, and this was MLK weekend, a three-day holiday for some folks. The insanely rocky 4WD section of road after the third crossing keeps the visitors to Collins Valley to a minimum. That's some hardcore four-wheeling!

All in all, I was surprised at how few people there were. Nothing like the hordes that were present last March during the peak of the flower bloom. We only saw a few flowers, but the grass was very green...

[KathyW]

Thanks for the report and pics. I'd like head up into that area when the flowers are blooming this spring.

[bluerail]

Ulysses, it was so cool running into you out there on saturday. Looked like you were set up for a goonnight out there, after we saw you, we headed straight across to the Guadalupe along the base of Martinez, and got hit by dark before locating the "trail"...spent a couple of hours trying to run it down in the dark and got lucky.

Once again Brett, really good to meet you and I felt bad about telling you about the dead deer...hope you slept ok.