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Dec 10, 2019 — Although I've hiked Borrego Palm Canyon multiple times, I never continued past the palm oasis. It's a gorgeous spot where native palm trees live, and the trail leading from the Borrego Palm Campground to the oasis is well-maintained and pleasant. From the oasis, Austin and I set out to hike to Indianhead. A park ranger, convinced the hike would take us 12 hours, was concerned we were starting too late and took our information. She was very sweet and covered all her safety bases. Thanks, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for looking out for people!
From the palm oasis, we back-tracked to the main trail (please don't continue up-canyon from within the palms since they're fragile and whatnot). A social trail continued on the north side of Borrego Palm Canyon and dropped us down into the canyon shortly after the palm oasis. Almost immediately, we were faced with a massive blockade of granite boulders. We were convinced the whole canyon would be slow-moving, since car-sized boulders pose all sorts of fun (but time-consuming) obstacles. I immediately regretted not starting earlier, but late starts are my forte. The difficulty was short-lived, though, and soon the canyon mellowed out into a pleasant wash with the occasional Class 2/3 move. Water was flowing on our visit, and it was a lush and wonderful desert experience. Borrego Palm Canyon continued to be gorgeous the entire route up and I was definitely a little sad when we got to the standard ridge ascent we would use to eave the Borrego Palm Canyon to head up to Indianhead.
Our ridge started off as a steep slope, slowly introducing a bit of Class 2 until we reached the ridgeline proper. Although route-finding was easy along the ridge, there were definitely a couple of low Class 3 moves to look out for, and in general we were rock-hopping quite a bit. The ridge curved to the east and began to get more steep. We got to a false summit, where white granite boulders marked the start of more fun micro-route-finding (similar stuff to what was in Borrego Palm Canyon) as we continued up the ridge. If careful, you could keep it at Class 3. The boulders slowly weeded out and we got to the Indianhead summit, where the views were wonderful. I loved this route.
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Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!
