Anza-Borrego Desert: Pinyon Spring Loop

Rating *****
Length 4.3 mile (return) - 3 Hour (return trip). Moderate.
Elevation 2420 - 3600 feet
Access Exit grapevine canyon and drive for 4 mile, any car with some ground clearance.

Hike up the wash (continue as road you came on).
At the spring, take the fork right, keep on going until you meet the main wash.
The wash is not always that distinct, sometimes it's sand, sometimes scrubs, of the friendly kind.

At the first fork, turn left, follow the hoof prints along the boulders.
The spring if it is one, is a bit hard to pass.
Most scrubs are harmless, but it's sometimes dense and there are some small (dry) falls.

A bit past the tree, turn right uphill. It's steep but sandy with rocks, so not much of a problem.
On top you find a patch of sugarbush. Point "spring 2" and "spring 3" should be place of the spring, but we found nothing.

Hike back in the other canyon, towards the road and head back to the car.

The most likely place for the spring is where the tree is, the other locations are from various maps, where the spring should be.

In 2012 the Angelina Spring burnt down, but it's growing back strongly.
So it will not take long to make the passage along the spring impossible.

How to get here:

Drive for about 4 miles until you reach a bend in the road that turns to the right and uphill.
Don't go any further unless you have a real AWD car.

At first the road is sand but after 4 mile the road turns into something really different.

I wont recommend a street car this far on the road, but some will drive it nonetheless.
Any car with some ground clearance should be able to make it.
Bring a shovel with you, just in case.

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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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