california - Borrego Springs - Bighorn Canyon to Blue Spring

More Anza Borrego Hiking

A hike in a stunning canyon to a spring.

On HWY 78 close to MP 81, turn in the dirt road signposted Pinyon Wash.
This is a nice dirt road, but you need a bit of clearance.
Follow the road up to the first fork.
Take the right fork and park.

Start hiking west, for about 200 yards, until you come in the sandy wash out of the Bighorn Canyon.

The Bighorn Canyon is hard to spot, because it's in the wrong angle.
Hiking up the canyon (no cars allowed), you will see the canyon entrance to the left.
The hike up to the canyon entrance and in the canyon is mostly firm sand.
Probably due to the fact that it's not reachable by car and less hiked.

Follow the main wash, but it's sometimes hard to tell if you follow the right one.
Follow the foot and hoove prints.
First you will spot the water tanks, at this point there is a drinking box.

You can see the pipes running up into the canyon. The pipes end in a small dry waterfall.
This ends the easy part of the hike.
Further on there are some more falls, but when you can cross this one to the left, you can cross the others as well.
In spring the soil may be moist and insects will drink the water.
In February 2011, there was no water, but the ground was moist enough for the bees.
Further up the wash there is an even higher fall and it looks pretty steep further on.

Turn back the way you came. But you must turn right at the next wash and take a short look into this spectacular canyon.
Wind and rain formed holes in these mountains.

This is also the way to go, when you decide to loop into the next Nolina canyon.


Pictures

Hiking time: 4 Hour, 30 Minutes (return the same way.)