Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Poke around Anza-Borrego's Blair Valley for evidence of historic and prehistoric human habitation.

As September grades into October and the sun swings ever lower across the southern sky, the high-desert landscape around Anza-Borrego's Blair Valley becomes comfortable enough for an early-season visit. It's warm, dry, and desolate out there, and virtually abandoned, but that's part of its appeal. Don't forget to bring along plenty of water, especially at this "early" time of year.

The greater Blair Valley area is one of Anza-Borrego's more popular "primitive" camping areas -- those with few or no sanitary facilities but with plenty of open space and an almost infinite number of rocks and bushes. Roads (suitable for all but low-slung cars if driven carefully) and trails radiate out to a number of interesting historic or prehistoric points of interest.

Sponsored
Sponsored

One historic example is Foot and Walker Pass, the spot where passengers on the Butterfield Stage (1858-61) had to walk and sometimes help push their coaches over the low, rocky gap between Blair Valley and the next valley north -- Earthquake Valley.

The 60-year-old ruins of Yaquitepec, the hideaway of the eccentric and resourceful recluse Marshal South and his family for more than a decade, stand atop Ghost Mountain, easily reached by way of a mile-long hiking trail. The Souths raised three children in a manner that emulated the life of the prehistoric Indians. When not consumed with the business of survival, Marshal South wrote magazine articles detailing the family's experiences on what was then an extremely remote mountain top.

Bedrock morteros (Indian grinding holes) can be found at a marked, easy-to-reach site nearby. Note how several of the larger boulders there are pocked with dozens of shallow depressions -- called cupules. They were associated with fertility ceremonies and puberty rites.

At the pictograph site, reached by a well-worn 0.8-mile trail, Kumeyaay Indians left red and yellow painted designs on the face of a large boulder on the wall of Smuggler Canyon. Generations of archaeologists have puzzled over the meaning of these and other pictographs and petroglyphs (etched designs) that appear not only in the Anza-Borrego region but throughout the Southwest. These often-viewed pictographs have apparently been vivified in recent years by some kind of artistic makeover.

From the pictograph site, you may opt to continue hiking southeast down the wide Smuggler Canyon for another 0.4 mile to the top of a dry waterfall. The gap in the canyon there frames a view of Vallecito Valley to the south. Climb the knoll east of there (peak 3237) for a more inclusive view.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life

As September grades into October and the sun swings ever lower across the southern sky, the high-desert landscape around Anza-Borrego's Blair Valley becomes comfortable enough for an early-season visit. It's warm, dry, and desolate out there, and virtually abandoned, but that's part of its appeal. Don't forget to bring along plenty of water, especially at this "early" time of year.

The greater Blair Valley area is one of Anza-Borrego's more popular "primitive" camping areas -- those with few or no sanitary facilities but with plenty of open space and an almost infinite number of rocks and bushes. Roads (suitable for all but low-slung cars if driven carefully) and trails radiate out to a number of interesting historic or prehistoric points of interest.

Sponsored
Sponsored

One historic example is Foot and Walker Pass, the spot where passengers on the Butterfield Stage (1858-61) had to walk and sometimes help push their coaches over the low, rocky gap between Blair Valley and the next valley north -- Earthquake Valley.

The 60-year-old ruins of Yaquitepec, the hideaway of the eccentric and resourceful recluse Marshal South and his family for more than a decade, stand atop Ghost Mountain, easily reached by way of a mile-long hiking trail. The Souths raised three children in a manner that emulated the life of the prehistoric Indians. When not consumed with the business of survival, Marshal South wrote magazine articles detailing the family's experiences on what was then an extremely remote mountain top.

Bedrock morteros (Indian grinding holes) can be found at a marked, easy-to-reach site nearby. Note how several of the larger boulders there are pocked with dozens of shallow depressions -- called cupules. They were associated with fertility ceremonies and puberty rites.

At the pictograph site, reached by a well-worn 0.8-mile trail, Kumeyaay Indians left red and yellow painted designs on the face of a large boulder on the wall of Smuggler Canyon. Generations of archaeologists have puzzled over the meaning of these and other pictographs and petroglyphs (etched designs) that appear not only in the Anza-Borrego region but throughout the Southwest. These often-viewed pictographs have apparently been vivified in recent years by some kind of artistic makeover.

From the pictograph site, you may opt to continue hiking southeast down the wide Smuggler Canyon for another 0.4 mile to the top of a dry waterfall. The gap in the canyon there frames a view of Vallecito Valley to the south. Climb the knoll east of there (peak 3237) for a more inclusive view.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Bob Long played piano for Tina Turner and Ray Charles

And he got the crowd shaking at InZane Brewery
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Jazz jam at a private party

A couple of accidental crashes at California English
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader