7 min
Overview
A tour through some of the highlights of the southwestern corner of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, that can be done as a strenuous 14.6 mile hike, or in easy 1-2 mile chunks if you’re willing to drive on dirt roads to get further into the interior of the desert. The landscape is relatively flat and easy if you hike, it’s just the distance that makes it tough. You’ll be rewarded with wide-open vistas of the desert, some historic old post road markers, the ruins of a Depression-era mountaintop homestead, some ancient Native American pictographs and morteros, and a stunning dry waterfall at the end of Smuggler Canyon. A great place to explore in the largest State Park in the contiguous U.S. Ghost Mountain was on my absolute to-do list during my list trip to Anza-Borrego. I was hoping to drive down the dirt road for a while, then stop to hike a few of the shorter trails — but a recent rainstorm, along with some muddy ruts in the washboard road and my forced me to leave my car by the paved roads … which made for a very, very long hike. If you don’t want to take you car up the dirt road, park just off the Great Southern Overland Stage Road. There’s a small pit outhouse and an information board by the dirt road, and more often than not, a few tents pitched among the brush. Take plenty of water and head on the main dirt road, as it follows a low ridge of mountains southward. At about 0.6 miles, there is a small turn-off to Foot and Walker Pass, which has a California Historical Landmark Plaque for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, a mid-1800s mail route from Saint Louis to San Francisco, via Southern California. The plaque itself is just a few hundred feet off the road, so it’s not very out of the way if you’re interested. History buffs and plaque chasers take note. At about 1.2 miles, you’ll pass a large group camping area on the side of the dirt road. Pass by and continue on the road, walking through some great stretches of the seemingly empty desert of Blair Valley — just watch out for the chollas. They tend to
Trail Stats
23.7 km
237 m
1019 m
771 m
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