Anza-Borrego Desert: Lizard Wash Chuckwalla Wash Loop

Rating *****
Length 4.7 mile (Round trip) - 2 Hour, 30 minutes (Round trip). Easy/Moderate.
Elevation 1770 - 2740 feet
Access Drive up the marked Lizard Wash for 0.7 Mile and park. At this point the canyon forks, but not the road. Some ground clearence is needed on this sand/gravel road.

Hike up the right fork of the Lizard Canyon Wash.
The wash is sandy with a lot of small rocks.
Hiking is surprisingly easy keep following the main wash.

As the wash narrows and forks, keep left in a narrow wash.
Even as the wash is narrow, hiking keeps easy, except for an occasional scrub or boulder.

As the washes end or get to narrow, go out of the wash and keep going uphill.
You find lots of natural hiking trails.

Watch out for the jumping cholla, a pair of tweezers are a must.
This time we where not attacked.

On to the saddle, you may end up a bit too high, just in front of a steeper canyon.
Hike downhill on the saddle and turn right into the canyon and hike downhill.

Eventually you end up in the wider Chuckwalla Wash

You can clearly see where the other fork of the Lizard Wash is.
But it's a bit of a cross country hike to actually get into the wash.
Not difficult but you have to find the right canyon. The canyons get steeper and at one point you may encounter a steep fall.
Go back a bit and turn right and cross over to the next canyon and follow it all the way to the road and to the car.

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Hiking the Borrego Springs Area (Anza-Borrego Desert SP, Cuyamaca Rancho SP, Imperial Sand Dunes (Algodones Dunes), Jacumba, Laguna Mountain, Warner Springs) California, Hike with gps, gpx and kml (Google Earth).
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