Anza-Borrego Desert: North Wash - Inner Pasture Loop

Rating *****
Length 10.9 mile (Round trip) - 4 Hour 40 Minutes (Round trip). Moderate (dry fall).
Elevation 1000 - 1967 feet
Access All cars, roadside, see below.

This hike follows a wash parallel to the Canebrake canyon and eventually ends up in a fork of Canebrake canyon, called North Wash, the route loops back in the Inner Pasture canyon.

Follow the wash up into a narrow granitic rock canyon, very similar to the Moonlight canyon.
Similar also means a steep dry fall. The way around it, is to the south, rather slippery with rock that isn't very stable.
Once out of the canyon, follow the drainage up to a saddle and follow another drainage down into the sandy wash below.

Head down the wash and take the first fork heading west.
A sandy granitic rock wash, moderately difficult.

The next interesting obstacle is a granitic dry fall, luckily this is very stable rock, so climbing it is the best option, but potentially dangerous.
An interesting narrow drainage on top of the fall, that is smooth but not slippery.

Now follow the wash up to a saddle and go down following the drainage, rocky with some Agave, until reaching the North Wash, a fork of the Canebrake wash.
Turn right (North/West) up the wide sandy North Wash.
Keep right around the mountain, entering Inner Pasture.
Leaving the BLM wilderness area and entering the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, but motorcycles found a way to get into the canyon, bypassing the no entry sign.

Follow the sandy well travelled Inner Pasture wash down and cross the S2 until reaching the Vallecito wash.
Turn right down the Vallecito wash back towards the car.
A car shuttle will shave of half an hour of this long hike.

Note:
The more obvious route is the canyon south of the canyon this route takes you.
The obvious route is blocked by a fence right at the Anza-Borrego Desert / BLM boundary.

How to get here:

Park roadside along the S2, close to mile 43 (not exact).
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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