Canyoneer Travelers Peak via Palm Wash Slot Canyons Loop Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA

Dec 11, 2019 — Travelers Peak just looks like a desert hump from the road, but it's got some character along the ridgeline approach. To make the route more fun, Austin and I wanted to make a loop out of the slot canyons at the base of Travelers Peak. The standard route for Travelers Peak avoids the slot canyons, but I really liked our loop addition and I'd recommend it if you have the time. The narrows are known both as Palm Wash Slot Canyons or Calcite Mine Slot Canyons, named after the Calcite Mine at the end of the dirt road. I visited the Calcite Slots back in 2015, but had no idea where I was going. With a much better plan, Austin and I set out into the badlands from the main road and followed a fairly good, though steep at times (AWD required), dirt road. The road is obvious and only goes one way, until a fork just before the trailhead. Keeping left leads to the Travelers Peak route, missing the slots, and to the right drops down into a wash leading to an Anza-Borrego Desert State Park official trailhead. We did the latter, parking a bit before the trailhead because the sandy road looked less good than I wanted to drive on.

Once at the official trailhead, we decided to head up the West Fork, since the East Fork apparently has a couple of handlines/raps that we weren't sure we could ascend. The West Fork narrows were beautiful and longer-lived than I thought they'd be. We passed over the dirt road that most use to access Travelers Peak (the road that leads to the Calcite Mine site), but continued north to explore more narrows in West Fork. We encountered a chockstone obstacle, which required a couple of Class 5 moves to ascend. Shortly after the chockstone was a Class 3 bit on the right which we ascended in order to exit the canyon and get up to the Calcite Mine site. Alternatively, you could backtrack to the approach road and follow it to the Calcite Mine site. Both options lead here.

From the Calcite Mine site, we located the ridge leading generally northwest toward Travelers Peak. The ridge undulated a couple of times over additional bumps. There was also a short section toward the middle that required some thought, where we kept to the right around a rocky outcropping. There was some Class 2+ on interesting conglomerate rock just before the summit. We enjoyed the views for a bit before heading back to the Calcite Mine site, where we would continue our loop down the East Fork, more slot canyon goodness to come.

Sidenote for canyoneers: We initially descended much farther up from the Travelers Peak ridgeline and into the East Fork, hoping to get more canyon time. We encountered a big dryfall, which was unexpected. I rappelled the first of two visible drops and then scouted the second, which was a very long rappel (maybe 150+ feet?). I had to ascend the first rope with a Gri-Gri and then we backtracked to the Calcite Mine, sightly defeated. I've removed our mishap from the attached map (except for a dot marking the spot) to prevent confusion.

Anyway, from the Calcite Mine site, a social trail led east into a small drainage, and we were stopped just before the entrance to East Fork by a drop into the canyon. A little bit of wandering north led us to a crack in the canyon wall (Class 2) that allowed for easier access into the East Fork. The East Fork of Palm Wash was equally pretty to the West Fork. There were two obstacles along the way. The first was a handline, and I was happy we brought a rope for this short descent. Some may want to rap it. The second was a chockstone with some old webbing that we barely trusted enough to descend. More narrows led us back to the junction with the West Fork, and we continued back to the car.