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| Hiking | 5.91 Miles |
1,508 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.91 Miles | 2 Hrs 49 Mns | | 2.35 mph |
| 1,508 ft AEG | 18 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to Blue Angels Peak (elevation of 4,548 feet and prominence of 53 feet), the highpoint of Imperial County. Imperial County is in the SE corner of California, and Blue Angels Peak is in the southwestern part of the county near the community of Jacumba Hot Springs . The summit is about a 9 iron shot away from the United States-Mexico border.
Blue Angels Peak is named for the famed Blue Angels Navy Squadron, which was based in nearby El Centro, CA.
Most vehicles could drive to where I parked, which is a half mile or so past an information kiosk for the Jacumba Wilderness. You'd need a 4WD vehicle to drive past where I parked. I thought about driving further but didn't know what the road was like, and since the hike wasn't all that long anyway I was happy to park where I did. As it turned out, I could have easily driven further, but eventually the road got rougher than I would have wanted to drive anyway.
I hiked on the road for a little over 2 miles, and then went on a use trail next to where a junk vehicle with bullet holes in it was parked. The use trail led to the summit area. When I got there I could see the border monument off to the south, so I went over there first. The monument was just past the border fence, which was a barbed wire fence with the upper strands broken. So to cross the fence was a simple matter of stepping over a strand of barbed wire that was about 18 inches high. When I crossed the fence I went over and sat down on the base of the monument and ate lunch.
This was monument #231. Border monuments are strung out along the US-Mexicao border and are numbered consecutively from Monument #1 east of Brownsville, TX at the Gulf of Mexico to Monument #258 at the Pacific Ocean near Imperial Beach, CA.
After eating lunch and enjoying the margarita they brought me (I wish!!), I crossed back into the US to hit the highpoint. There are 3 distinct bouldery knobs: the one to the north has the survey markers, and the one in the middle is the highpoint. I went to the highpoint first, and had to do some class 2 (or maybe 2+) boulder hopping to get to the highpoint. Then I went over to where the benchmark was and did some easier class 2 boulder hopping to get up there.
The flivers all say "Smuggler" on them -- given the close proximity to the border I can see how they came up with that name.
After all that, I went headed back to where I parked and continued on to hike to Carrizo Mountain, which was my 2nd peak of the day.
I enjoyed this little hike. There were a few people hiking on the road, but they all went someplace other than the highpoint, so I had the place to myself! |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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