Anza-Borrego Desert: Flat Cat Canyon Palms

Rating *****
Length 7.2 mile (return) - 4 Hour, 40 minutes (return trip). Moderate/Hard.
Elevation 900 - 2400 feet
Access All cars, start at the Hellhole Canyon parking.

The third Palm grove close to town.

When you hike west, you see two canyons, left the Hellhole canyon and a bit to the right the Flat Cat Canyon.

The Flat Cat Canyon is closer by and looks wider.

Follow the Hellhole canyon trail for a short while.
Go cross country towards the Flat Cat Canyon.

As you can see from afar, this is a canyon with some boulders.
Find the sandy wash going into the canyon.

But that is close to all the sand you find.
After entering the canyon, the best place to be is out of the canyon wash.

Sometimes you may be tempted to go down into the sandy wash. But everything looks better from afar.

The wash itself is filled with huge boulders and has some steep drops, hard to get around.

First you see one or two palms, but that means you are getting real close.
Around the bend there are more palms.

Alternative starting point:
Starting at the Visitor center parking and hike south/west, following the Hellhole canyon wash, maybe an even better route, this is our preferred route right now.

Warning:

Some may find it a difficult hike.
If you have problems with boulders, it may take up a lot of your energy.

A hiking guide mentioned 6-7 hours. But that is probably for inexperienced hikers, who tend to climb boulders, instead of finding a way around them.
We stayed well under 5 hours.

Still a lot of boulders and above all cat claw that tends to grow where you want to go.

Disclaimer: Read this first before you start your hike. Contact: info/at/borregohiking/./com (leave out the /)
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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