Coyote Mountains Wilderness - Trail Report

The Coyote Mountains are a fish hook shaped mountain range, and they make up 40% of this BLM-managed wilderness area located south of Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Imperial County, California. Part of the Carrizo Badlands lie within the northern portion of the wilderness, their narrow and twisting gullies giving the landscape its austere, forbidding appearance. Motorized vehicles are not permitted within the wilderness boundaries.

A group of unusual sandstone rock formations/wind caves, believed to be six million years old and known to locals as Domelands was our destination on this hike. The area is also extremely rich with marine fossils, including sand dollars. This is the world renown Imperial Formation, and collecting is prohibited. Despite the regulations and remoteness of the area, vandals have done enough damage in past that the area has been declared an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern".

The rare barefoot gecko is known to make its home among the mountain ridges, and the endangered Peninsular Bighorn sheep live here.

The BLM rates this hike as an 8 on a scale of 10 (with 10 being the most strenuous) due to the steepness of the trail and the elevation gain.

We decided it was time to head back since the heat was really doing a number on Bill, and we wanted to make sure we had enough water for the return trip. In hindsight, even though this is a relatively short hike (about 7 miles RT), I would bury a cache of water in the wash for the return trip "just in case".<br />
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I let Bill take the GPS for the return trip and taught him how to use the go-to and track back functions. If something were to ever happen to me, I want him to be able to navigate on his own. I don't think he was paying attention in our map navigation class we took a few years, so I always end up playing navigator.

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We decided it was time to head back since the heat was really doing a number on Bill, and we wanted to make sure we had enough water for the return trip. In hindsight, even though this is a relatively short hike (about 7 miles RT), I would bury a cache of water in the wash for the return trip "just in case".

I let Bill take the GPS for the return trip and taught him how to use the go-to and track back functions. If something were to ever happen to me, I want him to be able to navigate on his own. I don't think he was paying attention in our map navigation class we took a few years, so I always end up playing navigator.

Coyote Mountains Wilderness lower Colorado River Valley Sonoran desert desert domelands BLM Wilderness BLM wilderness hiking hike California 2007 3021