Split Mountain

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

This morning, when I looked out at the rising sun around 6:30 am, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and no wind.  It is going to be a beautiful warm day.  Yuma and I decided to drive over to Split Mountain about 20 miles southeast of here. 

We left at 9:30 and took Borrego Valley Road south to Borrego Springs Road.This is the same road we took yesterday through the Texas Dip. 

Did that again and turned left at the stop sign and headed east on highway 78 to Ocotillo Wells, a very small community in the desert.   On the left side of highway 78 is the Ocotillo Wells airport.  That white thing is the tram taking passengers to the correct terminal.

We turned right at this community going south on Split Mountain Road for about 5 miles and turned off this road at Fish Creek Wash heading into the mountains.

This wash goes through Split Mountain and into the Badlands.  This wash is the main one for all of the badlands in this area, so it has the potential to be dangerous when it rains around here.

About 4 miles into the wash are wind caves.  Unfortunately, they are a mile into the mountains and dogs are not allowed on the trail.  We just drove on past and went further into the badlands taking photos as we went.

The map I have does not give an easy way out of these badlands and based on prior experience, this time I turned around and Yuma and I went back through Split Mountain and headed home.  No wandering around sandy washes for us today.

I am out of bacon and eggs, my breakfast staple, so we went into town to get some.  And of course as soon as Yuma saw the grass at Christmas Circle, we had to make a pit stop.

He found lots of friends today.  I could not get him to leave for a good hour.  That guy can make friends faster than any dog I know.

Made it home by 2:30 and we were ready for a little rest.  I know I was.

See you later.