12 mile - 5 hour (Round trip, including the detours). Easy/Moderate.
Elevation
550 - 1170 feet
Access
All Cars, Sweeny Pass Road/South Carrizo Creek road.
Lots of canyons on this hike, wide, narrow, slots they are all here.
Starting at South Carrizo Creek road head north east on a dirt road until a T junction (point D). A lot of green plants (scrubs, trees) here and flowers in March 2009.
Now head south for a short while on a barred dirt road. But leave the road after about 200 Yards to the left (south east) heading for a wide wash.
The canyon is rather difficult to follow from this side because there are lots of canyons going in the same general direction.
A good indication: any barred canyon (for cars) is not the right one except for some extra exploring.
There are some nice Ocotillo concentrations (e.g point E) They where in full bloom at the end of March 2009.
At point F there is a nice slot canyon worth exploring (and lots of shade). But there are lots of other canyons along the way.
At point I we took a detour into another canyon up to an overlook.
Back to the main canyon that becomes easier to follow because of the increasing amount of footsteps.
Until now the footing was mostly firm sand (there is normally a good firm path to be found) from this point on we get some more sandy stretches making the hike a bit more difficult.
To the end we are forced to go on the dirt track until we reach a rough spot just before point N were there is plenty of parking space.
At point O leave the main dirt road by going strait ahead as the main dirt road moves to the left uphill to the S2.
Follow the dirt road, almost immediately a small wash uphill. After reaching the top, go a bit left (south) to find a place to enter the wash below.
Follow the wash on an easy hike downhill on firm sand. Crossing the S2, not a busy road (only in weekends), but be careful and follow the wash downhill.
Don't get too far away from the S2 at the end, because the wash heads more and more in the wrong direction. But cross country is easy here.
The end of the hike runs far enough away from the S2 to hardly notice it.