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| Hiking | 9.40 Miles |
1,854 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.40 Miles | 3 Hrs 39 Mns | | 2.70 mph |
| 1,854 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I was heading to California to Blue Angels Peak, the highpoint of Imperial County CA, and since it was only about a 6 mile hike I was looking for another peak in the area to hike later in the day. I noticed that Barbara Lilley and Gordon MacLeod had hiked Carrizo Mountain together in January of 1950, which peaked my interest in this pique...or something like that.
Carrizo Mountain (elevation of 2,408 feet and prominence of 1,248 feet) is in Imperial County, near the town of Ocotillo. I drove in on EC 236, which also known as the Painted Gorge Road. I parked at a closed gate at the entrance to Painted Gorge. The gate is only open to vehicles from July 1 - December 31 each year. Vehicles are not allowed from Jan 1 - June 30 in order to protect big horn sheep during lambing season. The best time to hike is in the first 6 months of the year since there are no vehicles to deal with.
I hiked about 1.25 miles through Painted Gorge and then hiked up a fairly serious 4WD road to within about 1/4 mile of the summit, from which point I went on a use trail the rest of the way.
Painted Gorge has some amazing geology with rocks that are various shades of yellow, tan, dark brown, blue, red, and green. I was so mesmerized by it that I missed the turn on the 4WD road and had to backtrack to get on the correct route.
There were quite a few vehicles parked at the gate. Most were jeeps and such, but I did see a Crosstek and a Forester parked there; however, I was glad that I had a 4WD vehicle to make the drive. I met several people as I was hiking in, and they all seemed friendly and happy, and I think that everyone said hello. I think that even Ebenezer Scrooge would be jovial while hiking through the Painted Gorge!
It was well into the afternoon before I got there so I had to hustle a bit to get back before dark. In fact, it was almost dark when I got back to the TH. It was kind of spooky walking back through the gorge with very little light.
I really enjoyed this hike, and I would not mind going back to do it again when not pushed for time so I could enjoy spending some more time in Painted Gorge. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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