Slot Canyon and Kelly the Flying Ranger

The weather here at Borrego Springs has been perfect.  Rarely a cloud to be seen, and temps just warm enough at midday that shade looks inviting, and windows are down to drive.  And no wind.

I had tried to do the Slot Canyon hike last year, but found that the trailhead parking had no shade at all, and it would have been too hot to leave Hailey in the truck.  Knowing that, I left her behind this year and headed out to check it out.  On the way however, I spotted a plane fuelling up at the airstrip, that had ‘Ranger Patrol’ in huge letters on the wings.  So I stopped to talk to the pilot Kelly, who told me she was giving a presentation in an hour on her job as a Park Ranger Pilot.  So I stopped by and took in her interesting talk.

I could tell you all about her talk, but I was apparently not alone there.  RV Life on Wheels was also present and has better photos and description of Kelly’s work on his blog, so go there and read about it!

And if that isn’t enough information, you can read Al’s excellent description of a similar tour last year on the Bayfield Bunch blog.

Wow, this blogging business is really easy, when others do all the work for you and take better photos.  All I have to do is provide the links!

Ranger plane in the foreground.

After the presentation, I resumed my original plan and headed out to the trailhead, passing through ‘Texas Dip’ along the way.

The ramp down to canyon bottom is a steep trail, but once down it is flat walking, but very narrow in many places.  Unlike up above, it is refreshingly cool in the depths of the canyon.

The route is very very narrow in some spots, not a good place for large backpacks or camera cases.  Several places, I had to turn sideways to squeeze through, and I am not exactly overweight.

There are no signs on the trail at all, other than a few tiny rock cairns, so you are not really sure when the hike is done, and when you are starting to explore random side canyons.

In keeping with this blog’s theme of letting others do the work, here are some more links to the Slot Canyon trail!

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=940797

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/slot-canyon-anza-borrego-desert-state-wilderness/map

http://www.efmer.eu/trails/usa/ca/borrego/slot_canyon.html

I had some space to fill at the end of the blog, and these photos were making my camera sort of heavy, so I thought I would put them here and solve both problems .