4 min
Overview
Of all the things you might find in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the least likely and most unexpected feature has to be water flowing over polished stone into cool, secluded, and heavily shaded grottos. Vast, sun-blasted aridness dominates so much of the park that you’d be excused for not knowing that the Sheep Canyon area, which includes similarly hydrologically blessed canyons like Cougar, Indian, and Salvador Canyons, would have some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the county. Yet, here they are in such abundance and of such sublime beauty that you almost start getting bored and blasé about them. No big deal; just another gorgeous Anza-Borrego waterfall. Ferns and mosses at the first waterfall Of course, if you want to see the waterfalls of Sheep Canyon, you’re going to have to work for it. Getting here is no picnic. You’ll have to follow the rough dirt track of Coyote Canyon Road from the north end of Borrego Springs. You’ll cross Coyote Creek at least twice – more if the creek is gushing. One of the numerous small falls in the canyon Unless you drive a lifted 4WD vehicle, you’ll be extremely lucky to drive past Third Crossing. Beyond this point, the Lower Willows Bypass Road, dubbed affectionately as the “Granite Staircase” by off-road enthusiasts, is passable, and only barely so, by the most experienced of drivers. Fall color and gleaming granite And should you make it to the mouth of Sheep Canyon, you’ll have to deal with the usual desert obstacles, magnified by the presence of water: heat, exposure, steep slopes, anger bushes and danger poofs (that’s cholla and agave to you desert novices), scrambling, dense riparian vegetation, and route-finding. If you’re going to try to find the waterfalls in Sheep Canyon, be sure that you are prepared for what the desert will throw at you, otherwise you’ll go down swinging like a San Francisco Giant facing Clayton Kershaw. The rugged walls of Sheep Canyon This is a difficult hike even for experienced desert travelers, and hikers coming into this route assumin
Trail Stats
5.1 km
335 m
701 m
500 m
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