Overnight hike advice for teenage crew

[u/ingyhere]

Hi All,

In early March I'm planning an overnight weekend hike for a 10-ish member group of Scouting America teenagers. We're hoping for a moderate hike where we can spend a single night at a dispersed, primitive location (e.g. continue off a road or trail and keep going a bit). I'm hoping for something in the 6-8 mile round trip range for this first expedition. We're seasoned campers with high desert experience. Having never been to ABDSP myself, I was wondering if I could get a little advice on route planning, please.

Here are some options that I thought might be promising:

• Hellhole Canyon to Maidenhair Falls (Extended): Start from a parking lot trailhead, hike through open desert into the canyon then to Maidenhair Falls. Keep going upstream for another mile or so and setup camp at a primitive site 100m from the stream.
  • Is it hard to get to MH Falls with a regular size backpack? Scrambling?
  • Is parking at the Visitor Center OK overnight? Somewhere else recommended?
• Beyond Borrego Palm Canyon: Start at the Borrego Palm Canyon trailhead (near the campground). Hike the 1.5-mile one-way trail to the waterfall oasis, but continue farther up the canyon or into a side drainages for solitude.
• Coyote Canyon: From either north or south (Borrego Springs side). Is it open to hiking and primitive camping right now?
• Any other suggestions would be immensely appreciated!

I am partial to the Maidenhair Falls option, just don't know if parking and hiking with a backpack is viable. I had thought about doing a reconnaissance run to scout the area but that itself is round trip of a few hours. We'll be starting early on a Saturday AM.

Thanks for any advice. This subreddit is fantastic.

[u/Due_Ad7492]

Drive into Coyote Canyon. Once you get to the locked gate at the end, park and hike from there. The first mile or so will be rocky uphill (old road), but a good trail. At the top of the hill it flattens out for miles and miles, into Cougar Canyon, Sheep Canyon, Indian Canyon, and more. You will be the only one out there probably. Lots of history in this area you can find out about with a good google search.

[u/ingyhere → u/Due_Ad7492]

How are the road conditions up to that third crossing? Does it really require a 4WD?

[u/Due_Ad7492 → u/ingyhere]

A decent high clearance vehicle will be okay. You’ll have to cross the stream a couple of times, but it’s not too deep. The road in is not too sandy….firm the whole way. You can also park near the first crossing and hike from there, but it adds a few miles to your hike.

[u/DudeNiceCow → u/Due_Ad7492]

I used to work for the park years ago and coyote canyon by far is my favorite part of Anza Borrego.

We used to have scout groups park at 2nd crossing when the water was too high. If the water is minimal, you could make it to 2nd crossing pretty easily, as long as most of the road in is hard packed

The scout groups would hike out towards cougar canyon and explore "the valley of a thousand springs".

It's probably 5-6 miles one way from the first crossing, to the entrance of cougar canyon, with the hardest climb being the bypass road up from third crossing. The bypass is about 3/4 of a mile long with 300-500ft elevation gain.

Have fun!

[u/Jacsmom]

Coyote Canyon will give you the most camping options. The mountains surrounding Palm Canyon are very steep and don’t really have much in the way of camping options unless you go much much farther up the canyon.

[u/the-es]

Maidenhair Falls are likely to be a muddy puddle in March unless there's a lot of rain. Coyote Canyon will give you more options.

[u/SanMiguelDayAllende]

I'm not sure it's easy to hike past MH Falls. It's a wall with a falls. Maybe you can backtrack and get up out of the canyon, idk. I also believe they lock the parking lot up at night. I'm not sure if they allow overnight parking there. Maybe.

I agree with consensus that Coyote canyon is probably a great location. In Coyote canyon is Cougar canyon which couldn't be more kick ass during times when water is running. One beautiful pool of water after another, surrounded by giant boulders. There is an official primitive camp nearby.

Arroyo Tapiado is another option. Park at S2 and hike in to where the mud caves are. If Scouts can't find endless fun there, then idk what to say.

[u/ingyhere → u/SanMiguelDayAllende]

Thanks for suggesting Arroyo Tapiado and Cougar Canyon, both superb spectacles of the park's grandeur. Because we are trying to stay closer to the LA side this trip I've narrowed it down to a couple hikes around Culp Primitive Campground and Sheep Pass / Cougar Canyon. Much appreciated.

[u/EntrepreneurOld4895]

Have you researched the Canyon Sin Nombre area? It’s one of my personal favorites. Here’s a discussion about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/AnzaBorrego/s/Y5tQoc4JUV

[u/ingyhere → u/EntrepreneurOld4895]

Thank you. It looks fantastic.