Anza-Borrego Desert: Carrizo West Fork Palms - Four frogs canyon

Rating *****
Length 5.2 mile (return) - 3 Hour, 20 minutes (return trip). Easy/Moderate.
Elevation 940 - 2000 feet
Access Take the signed exit Carrizo wash close to mile 48.5. Drive the wash road for about 4.1 mile and park before the road dips into the wash.

Start hiking up the sandy wash (West).
The wash narrows considerably and soon you see the first palms.
That's always a good sign, to see a couple of palms, at the beginning of the wash.

The further you go more rocks and eventually some boulders and of course some dry falls.
We found one dead Borrego in the wash, the smell is hard to forget. As we saw Coyote in the same wash, they may have caught up with him.

As more and more boulders fill the wash, look for trails on the left side of the canyon wall, it's probably time to get a bit out of the wash.

All of a sudden palms far away, actually a very healthy population of palms over a hundred in a quick count, but most likely more.
No running water at the palms.
At the first small oasis, a short but steep scramble up the left canyon wall up to the next much bigger oasis.

Expect sand, rocks, boulders and some dry falls along the way.
Carrizo Canyon is a smuggler route, we did see man made improvements on the trail (Scrubs cut down with a saw).
How to get here:

Take the signed exit Carrizo wash close to mile 48.5, just past the Bow Willow camp ground (from the North)
Drive the wash road for about 4.1 mile and park before the road dips into the wash.
Road conditions change a lot, I've seen regular cars on part of the road, but in 2014 the soft sand warning was warranted.
A 4x4 is highly recommended.

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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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