Heading down Sweeney Pass.
Airing down at the trail head.
The name "Vallecito," which means "Little Valley," dates from Spanish times. The salt grass "ciénega" made the valley the goal of travelers to California from Sonora in the early years of California, as it held the first good water in any quantity to be found on the west side of the forbidding Colorado Desert.
During the Gold Rush period immigrants in large numbers stopped to refresh themselves and their animals after what was called "The Journey of Death" across the Imperial Valley. The road through this valley was the great southern immigrant trail via the only wagon road into Southern California.
Things start to get interesting in Arroyo Seco del Diablo Canyon.
Here in the midst of the Carrizo Badlands, we find ourselves on part of an ancient alluvial fan from the ancestral Colorado River, which emptied into the Gulf of California as a delta outlet. Arroyo Seco del Diablo has cut through the hardened sandstone concretions carried downstream from afar to create the deep-sided canyon this trail follows today.
The loose and fragile walls of the canyon mean that rock and sand falls are common. Flooding through these areas compounds the problem for vehicles trying to make their way through.
Let's go for it!
You can see how the water cut a trench through the trail.
Once out of the trench I ran into some very deep and sticky mud. Forward movement came to a halt.
Its tunegoon to the rescue!
Strapped up. It took several tries for us to get through this section.
Here's the raw video footage I have of tunegoon attempting and then finally making it through. Afterward, he was on standby for recovery duty in case anyone else couldn't make it.
Here's the rest of the group making it through.
We encountered a few more washed out areas but nothing as bad as the first big one we ran into. What was great about this run was that we got to see conditions in the desert here that are not all that common.
Middle section of Diablo Drop Off.
Group shot just below Diablo Drop Off, on our way out to Fish Creek.
We ran into a bit of a traffic jam. Ten trucks ahead of us and several Jeeps waiting to head in around us.
This was nicknamed Broken Shaft Gulch. Here we are coming through one of the rockier areas.
Here is where tunegoon (sorry I only remember his screen name) got into trouble.
Thankfully no one got hurt. After righting the vehicle and cleaning up the mess we were on our way again.
Fish Creek runs through Split Mountain here.
Railroad trestle over Carrizo Wash.
Meeting up with the other group for a moment.
Lunch in Painted Gorge.
Climbing the shelf roads to Carrizo Mountain.
Parked at the summit. Barely enough room for 11 rigs.
On our way down. It was getting late!
We had to wait here for a bit while two other Jeeps on the trail repaired a flat tire. They then followed us out.
Coming down into Plaster City OHV Area.
From here it was a short drive out to the highway to hit the gas station and then about 40 miles back to camp. I had a great time leading this run and hope everyone else had a blast, even with the flop!
