This past weekend (10-25-08) I did some camping in the Fish Creek area of Anza Borrego Desert State Park. This is a beautiful wash/slot canyon with many opportunities for camping. Hiking, climbing and wheeling. I know many of you, especially So-Cal have at one time or another wheeled in Fish creek or one of its tributaries.
On this trip we wanted to do some climbing and hiking in some of the off shoots of Sandstone Canyon, a tributary of the main Fish Creek wash. This long narrow canyon has always been very enticing to wheelers due to its beauty and technical nature.
Anyway, I drove several miles of wash to get to the canyon mouth only to find that it had just been closed. We could tell that the stakes had only been installed that morning or the day before because there were fresh tire tracks on both sides of the signs and stakes. We ended up hiking the canyon anyway, but didn’t get as far as we would have liked because the canyon is a bit longer that a comfortable day hike. I have driven much farther back several times before, and it is a really enjoyable trail.
Ok, so what I’m wondering. Does anybody know if there is anything that can be done to reverse these kinds of things? I really want to go to the head ranger station and ask them why this canyon was closed to vehicles. Its not like there was any vegetation in there (or was ever any). Maybe because it is in a State Park, they have the sovereign right to close areas at will for no reason.
I was thinking that maybe CORVA might be some help. They might be wrapped up in bigger issues though.
How bout if we as a group bombard the ranger station with requests for a reopening and no more trail closers.
This is one reason why I get so absolutely pissed when I see 4wheelers not treading lightly, acting foolishly or not respecting the land. They are a big reason stuff gets closed.
Here are a couple pics just so you can see what it really is.
These are the worst signs ever.
Just a couple from last time I was back in Sandstone Canyon.
[img width=800 height=600]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/dieselzee/TDS%202008/IMG_0100.jpg?t=1225422035[/img]
[img width=800 height=600]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/dieselzee/TDS%202008/IMG_0092.jpg?t=1225422112[/img]
[img width=800 height=600]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/dieselzee/TDS%202008/IMG_0073.jpg?t=1225422229[/img]