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| Hiking | 6.00 Miles |
900 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.00 Miles | 2 Hrs 44 Mns | | 2.77 mph |
| 900 ft AEG | 34 Mns Break | 8 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | It's my belief that these two hikes are essentially the same, with "lower" Hellhole Canyon having the palm grove as the turn-around point, and "upper" Hellhole Canyon going all the way to Maidenhair Falls.
There's not much information on the internet about this hike -- a few scattered trip descriptions that warn that this is an off-trail bushwhack and if you hike it alone, you will be eaten by a mountain lion, and the Anza-Borrego SP's own website that describes the hike as "difficult". The ranger at the park HQ didn't exactly put those ideas to rest; she said that 2/3rds of the hike would be bouldering and/or boulder-hopping.
All of that is total hogwash!
The first 1.5 miles is easy going on a wide, sandy trail. Around the 2 mile mark, the trail starts dipping in and out of a drainage with a few rocks, but is still easy going with minimal route-finding challenges. At around 2.5 miles, you reach a lovely palm grove. I'd classify the hike up to this point as easy. Turn around here or push on to the falls. Route finding is a little more challenging here, mostly due to the multitude of use trails. Some are better than others, but they all converge on the falls. There is some scrambling over rocks required, but nothing here is scary or difficult, just slower going.
I didn't get eaten by a mountain lion. And coming back down around noon, there was a virtual highway of day-hikers going up the canyon. |
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