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Anza Borrego Backpacking - The Domelands

November 26th, 2007 by James
 
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Before the Thanksgiving holiday, Sarah and I were lucky to get to go backpacking with my sister and Ben in the Anza Borrego State Park. The domelands are a series of weathered sandstone domes way out in the middle of the Coyote Mountains near Ocotillo. It’s about a 3.5mi backpack from the trailhead w/ a bit of elevation gain. We hiked in during the afternoon and it was nice and cool - which was good because we were each carrying 8 liters (that’s 17 lbs!) of water, plus our backpacking gear. We had a great campsite, and crystal clear skies to enjoy the panoramic view of the milky way, as well as the Leonids Meteor Shower.

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Hiking up a wash, then up and into the Coyote Mountains

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Our group at camp, and a view of a few of the sandstone domes
Before hiking out, we explored the canyons between the domelands and the Borrego Badlands below. The area is full of fossilized shells and sand dollars, and we found some amazing specimens (which we photographed and put back). Kate had heard of a slot canyon below the Domelands and we found it! The temperature was great inside the canyon, which narrowed to less than 2′ at some places, and also contained a few large bird nests amongst the crags.
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The slot canyon, and a fossilized gastropod
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The slot canyon, and fossilized Sea Biscuits

A special thanks to Kate for going with us on a wonderful trip!


Posted in Friends and Family, Travel |

One Response

  1. Two-Heel Drive » Blog Archive » Backpacking in Anza-Borrego State Park Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 11:17 am

    [...] Found this blog posting from some folks who went backpacking to the dome country at Anza-Borrego in Southern California. Includes some nifty pix, plus this: It’s about a 3.5mi backpack from the trailhead w/ a bit of elevation gain. We hiked in during the afternoon and it was nice and cool - which was good because we were each carrying 8 liters (that’s 17 lbs!) of water, plus our backpacking gear. [...]

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