ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA
ROCKHOUSE CANYON
MARCH, 1985
INTRODUCTION
I had explored here several times in the
past, but always by 4wd vehicle. Always anxious for another
desert trip, Bob and I decided to explore a small area of
this park on foot. Having only enough time for a short, two
night outing, we picked this area because of it's
remoteness. We were able to drive quite a ways up the
canyon before finding a good starting point.
Sunday 3/10, 11:30 a.m.
Picked Bob up in Laguna Niguel about 9:30 p.m. Friday
night. Left about 20 minutes later. Stopped at liquor store
for a bottle of cabernet to take with us. Approximately a
two hour drive to Anza-Borrego state park, arriving there
shortly after 12 midnight. We decided to stay in a canyon
near where we came in to the park. We drove a few miles up
Mine canyon looking for a dry spot in case of flash
flooding, but ended up staying within a half mile of the
highway. We had a few hits of brandy and crawled in our
sleeping bags. We awoke about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
Stopped at a gas station, had breakfast in Borrego Springs
and headed for Clark valley about 10:00 a.m.
The road was well graded as far as the split of Butler and
Rockhouse canyons. It was necessary to use four wheel drive
in spots from here. The truck developed a leak in the front
axle vacuum servo necessitating a hasty fix using the clamp
from my jumper cables. We drove as far as the sign barring
vehicles from further travel. I parked it up on a bench
next to the wash. We did final packing, changed into our
shorts and headed out at 11:30 a.m.
Our first stop was Hidden Springs, which came up quickly.
We must have parked within a half mile of it. There wasn't
much water there. A small pool at the base of an outcrop of
rock was surrounded by bees. We continued up the canyon,
gradually climbing. The canyon became narrower with tall
walls. We stopped at one point to climb the side of a cliff
in search of the origin of a large rock on the canyon floor
that showed the distinctive hole of a mortar. The cliff
material was extremely weathered and very crumbly, causing
us to retreat half way up. The canyon widened out further
up, as shown on the map. We picked a bench with some large
Creosote bushes providing a small amount of shade for our
lunch stop. We stayed here for approximately 45 minutes,
then continued up the canyon bearing left. It became
narrower again and we found ourselves doing more boulder
hopping and climbing. At one point we failed to see a duck
marking the route and had to find an alternate way to get
around a small dry fall. The canyon again widened out and
we began to notice cattle droppings. The last mile had
given both of us tired legs. We knew we were near the three
rockhouse ruins shown on the map so we dropped our packs on
a flat grassy area above the main wash and scouted around
the area. We had seen cattle in the area and decided that
where we had dropped our packs would provide good
protection from wandering hooves.
I heard voices coming from nearby, so I climbed a pile of
rocks and spotted two boys heading back to their camp in
one of the rockhouses where their father was. It was
probably no further than a quarter of a mile from where we
dropped our packs. I walked over there and talked to them
briefly. The boys followed me back back to our camp to
retrieve the slingshot one of them had dropped along the
trail and I had picked up. He said today was his birthday
and it was one of his presents.
We set up camp under sometimes threatening clouds. Light
sprinkles fell shortly before we fixed dinner. Ak-Mak
crackers and wine were our appetizers for the evening
followed by a dinner of meatballs and mashed potatoes with
green beans. It was very good. A little Red zinger tea
after dinner completed the meal. As usual we started making
dinner as it was getting dark. I hung my little oil lamp
from a branch of a creosote bush over our kitchen rock. It
provided plenty of light. We cleaned up our kitchen, I
brushed my teeth, took a pee and crawled into my sleeping
bag. It was about 8:00 p.m. It sprinkled on and off through
the night. I had to put my rainfly over the door at one
point. I awoke to what I thought was early morning light
only to discover that it was only 12:30 a.m. I felt rested
and it took me about an hour to fall back to sleep. The
light was moonlight shining brightly between the clouds.
The cattle had stopped grazing at sundown, but were now
moving around again with the moonlight. I lay there for a
while listening to one get closer to us as it passed by up
the wash, bellowing all the way.
Sunday 3/10, 4:00 p.m.
We awoke at 7:30 a.m. Our breakfast consisted of tang,
coffee, Quaker instant oatmeal, and more coffee. it was
very good. We headed for old Santa Rosa at about 8:30 a.m.
We left the main wash too early and ended up heading more
northeast than north. We crossed many washes and gullies.
We stopped once to get our bearings for where we thought
the site was. We hiked closer and finally determined that
we were off by about a quarter of a mile. We eventually saw
the ruins in the distance through the binoculars. It took
us 2 hours to get to this point and another 20 minutes to
get over to the ruins. I sat down to write notes while Bob
explored the area. He found the main seep above the big
rockhouse mentioned in the guidebook. I stopped writing to
go see. There was quite a bit of cattle droppings around
the water hole. We found two other smaller seeps in the
area. We spotted a total of six rockhouses. The were some
mortars here also. I took a few pictures and we headed down
about 1:30 p.m. We followed the obvious wash and trail down
to the main wash, passing the dry Cottonwood spring. It
took exactly one hour to hike down. We encountered two
other hikers up there for the day and directed them to the
three ruins nearby. We went back to camp, had some water
and snacks and rested.
Bob has taken off to explore around our camp. It is getting
cooler; the sun is behind clouds and the wind is gusting.
The temperature last night was 46 degrees. We saw very few
cattle today. We saw what we thought was sheep scat in the
wash on the way down from Santa Rosa. Some coyote scat
also. I saw one squirrel today and have heard and seen a
few birds. There is abundant creosote, silver cholla, and
some sage.
Note: Rubber bands for sealing packages like prips. Still
talking of freeze-dried beer and a hand operated portable
refrigerator.
Sunday 3/10, 7:50 p.m.
Bob and I walked across the wash to a peculiar looking
natural cave. It looks as though someone could have used it
for shelter. There were rocks piled at one end to seal it
off. Some small animal nests were evident in it now. I took
some pictures. We found some pottery pieces laying on the
flats at the base of the hill. We watched the sunset in the
valley from the hillside. We went back to make dinner. It
consisted of chicken soup, and enchiladas. We polished off
the wine. Had some Red Zinger tea. I have about 1 quart
water left. The wind has died down. It is now 56 degrees.
Some high clouds tonight. In bed at 8:45 p.m.
Monday 3/11, 8:10 a.m.
43 degrees last night.
Monday 3/11, 12:30 p.m.
We talked last evening for about an hour and a half hours
after getting in our sleeping bags. We were awake between
7:30 and 8:00 this morning. I hiked to the three ruins
nearby after having a light breakfast of Guru chews and
coffee. We hiked together across the wash to some holes I
saw from the ruins. One of these had a bees nest in it.
There were pieces of honeycomb on the ground below it with
small animal droppings nearby suggesting an invasion. We
also found more pottery pieces. We climbed to the top of
the point above us jutting north from Buck ridge and sat
there for a while. We climbed back down on the east side of
this point and in doing so discovered some large pieces of
pottery in a crevice below what appeared to be a shelter or
hiding (water collecting?) place. We spent some time
scouring the area and turned up enough pieces to make
nearly a whole pot or jug. The niche it appeared to have
come from was approximately 2 feet wide by 2 feet tall and
3 feet deep and was formed naturally by falling rock. On
the floor of this niche rocks were placed to perhaps make
it level or give support to the jug to prevent its tumbling
out. We discussed leaving this find here but decided that
we had already collected most of it so decided to document
where we found it. We went back to camp to get some water,
snacks, my camera and a sack to carry the pieces.
Monday 3/11, 2:40 p.m.
We picked up the pieces and packed them in Bobs fanny pack.
I looked around, sifted through the sand in pockets below
the niche and found some more pieces. Bob explored above
the site. We went back to camp and marked as best we could
on the map were the site was. We packed up and are about to
leave at 2:45 p.m.
Wednesday 3/13, 10:00 p.m.
It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to hike out of the canyon,
reaching the truck at 4:30 p.m. We stopped once for water
and tightening of shoe laces. The wind was gusting very
strongly in the narrows of the canyon. We could see storm
clouds in the distance. It took probably 45 minutes to
drive out of the canyon. We showered at Borrego Palm Canyon
campground and headed out at 6:30 for a Mexican restaurant
which we finally found in Escondido. We reached Laguna
Niguel by 11:30 p.m and I headed home at 12:00 midnight,
arriving shortly before 1:00 a.m.
End Note
A few days after we returned from this trip, I contacted
the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and reported our find,
and eventually donated the pieces of pottery we found to
their collection, along with a marked map and some photos
of the area where they were found. Invited to view the
storage area of the museum, I was amazed at how many of
these pots had already been found.