Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Box Canyon and Meccacopia Trail

 

We set out yesterday to hike Painted Canyon. We crossed highway 10 and drove into  Box Canyon.

We took the Meccacopia Trail which turned into quite a ride.

The wash was quite wide at the beginning

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Pretty Brittle Bush Flowers

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Gnarly Mesquite Tree

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The road quickly got rougher

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In some places it went straight up

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And straight down

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The little Sunrunner did really well

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This  little canyon was so narrow we couldn’t open the doors.

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We could see the Salton Sea when we came out of the little canyon

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More rocky cliffs

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Until we came to another view of the Salton Sea

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We didn’t see any signs so we kept going and came out beside this church that didn’t appear to be in use anymore

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Pretty bush

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We found a road that took us to highway 111 along the north shore of the Salton Sea, nine miles from the town of Mecca. We didn’t see the sign to Painted Canyon until we drove through Mecca and entered  Box Canyon from the opposite end we started from. By that time it was too late to doing any hiking. Meccacopia Trail is 11 miles long and is for 4 wheel drive only. It took us over two hours but was it ever fun. We will do Painted Canyon another trip. We left Joshua Tree this morning and headed south,hopefully the wind won’t follow us, it’s hard to sleep with the wind howling all night.

Jean

4 comments:

  1. Surprised to hear you guys are heading South. Thought you were on your way North to BC. One sure has to be careful in Box Canyon not to pull off the road onto the soft sandy shoulders. Had an email from some friends with a big Class A last week who did that & got stuck in the sand. Don't think we've been in a narrow spot yet where we couldn't open the doors. Yikes.....

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  2. Box canyon is something we have yet to do on our trips to this part of the world, but once again I am reminded that we need to do it. Looks like my kind of place.

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  3. a great four wheeling adventure!!!..

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  4. Sounds like a lot of fun except for not being able to open the doors..... talk about being hemmed in!!

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