Help me plan a 3 day desert run end of this month!

[ChuckQue]

Hey all, I need to throw together a three day camping trip with my 8 year old son and could use your help! I rented an off-road tear drop camper from Off-Grid Trailers to pull behind my JLURD. Since it’s just him and I, I want to keep it pretty safe as far as breakdown risks in case I need to hike out with him. I’m an experienced backpacker and outdoorsman and he’s a stout little kid so I’m not worried, we always carry emergency gear with us. Ideally I’d like to hit a desert area out here in SoCal. We are in the Whittier area of Los Angeles County, so perhaps Anza Borrego? I have the trailer starting Monday the 26th through Thursday the 29th. I figure that will give me Monday to practice hooking it up, prepping it, etc. We usually pull a 35’ bumper pull travel trailer so I’m not worried about the driving aspect.

Anyways, if anyone here has any cool spots we can hit I would appreciate the suggestions! I also considered Afton Canyon.

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[CaJLMetalHead]

I recently went to Cougar Buttes... I thought it was a really cool area..

 

[zouch]

Anza Borrego would be a great choice.
as the largest State Park in California it has lots of room for you to wander, with a nice little town in the middle of it if you choose to avail yourself of its services. you could make your trip feel as remote (or not) as you like, and you could chase down some of the weird metal art spread around the town if the kid's into that sort of thing.

Coyote Canyon could be beautiful if the creek's not too high, and The Slot would be a neat trip except that you might want to leave the trailer behind before running the South end of it. (there are some narrow spots, and one pretty good drop-off might be a little tricky while towing.)

 

[Beachcomber72]

Check out some good spots with OnX off-road app. Or utilize the others recommended spots but use the OnX software to pre download the area suggested and plan ahead accordingly. Always have a plan B and C.

 

[Mx5red]

Lots to do in Anza. Probably couldn’t take the trailer through Diablo drop off, but maybe? Especially if it’s a rental!
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...n-diego-orange-county-area.99004/post-2063311

Highlights are arroyo tapiado mud caves (bring headlamps), slot canyons like through Arroyo Seco Del Diablo and driving up through fish creek wash, hike through slot canyon trail.. I’ve done drive south to north on that road past slot canyon trail which is harder and don’t know if trailer would make it without scrapes or getting stuck down the steep hill at 33.185831, -116.223828, similar to Diablo dropoff except longer and thicker sand.
Also could go up to ocotillo wells and see stuff like the pumpkin patch

fish creek

Pumpkin patch

 

[wibornz]

We spent a couple days hiking and wheeling in the Anza Borrego desert. The wheeling is not over challenging, but still fun. We pulled our off road camper in and set up a base camp by the Mud Caves and then hiked and camped and explored with the Jeep there.

A video from our time at the Mud caves. I can drop you a pin if you need it.

 

[ChuckQue]

Wow, these are some great suggestions! Thank you everyone thus far. I’ve always wanted to visit Anza, y’all are making that an easy choice. I’m no stranger to wheeling or hiking alone and use Gaia in conjunction with Trails Off-road and I always download the maps of the trail/large general area @Beachcomber72. I haven’t tried OnX yet though! Typically I use an iPad mini for navigation with a GPS receiver.

The trailer is a SoCal teardrops Krawler 459 (or something to that effect). I’ll probably pull it out to wherever we are camping for the day, drop it, chain it up and then go exploring. I’m not opposed to moving spots each day.

 

[ChuckQue]

We spent a couple days hiking and wheeling in the Anza Borrego desert. The wheeling is not over challenging, but still fun. We pulled our off road camper in and set up a base camp by the Mud Caves and then hiked and camped and explored with the Jeep there.

A video from our time at the Mud caves. I can drop you a pin if you need it.

That would be great! It looks amazing.

 

[ChuckQue]

Shoot, if anyone here wants to join I have an open invitation! Bonus points if you have kids around my son’s age (eight), we are always looking for like minded folks to make friends with.

 

[wibornz]

That would be great! It looks amazing.

Here you go.


https://goo.gl/maps/yLu7YwfGKY9UGBcR8

 

[ChuckQue]

Just a heads up that our trip was great! Our plans to pull the trailer were squashed when the rental company told us the day before the trailer had come back to them with major electrical issues and they couldn’t rent it to us. We switched gears and rented a hotel room in Borrego Springs to use as a launch point for our adventures. This limited our amount of time we had to go out and see the sights but we still had a blast.

My son got an absolute kick out of the slot canyon. He’s eight and is highly impressed by so much and it makes my heart swell seeing him in total wonder at nature. We hit up the Pumpkin Patch, also really cool! Trail wise we mainly bombed around on the easy dirt roads getting around but we did try out Jasper Trail to Grapevine Canyon Road which was absolutely beautiful and solitary. Having a picnic lunch up on a ridge with breathtaking views was a real treat. The little guy even got a chance to “drive” a bit on one of the flat desert roads. He did well until we got bogged down in some sand

LOTS of Jeeps in town and everyone was very friendly. We ate at the Red Ocotillo restaurant, not bad at all! Hotel wise we stayed at Borrego Springs Resort which while dated was clean, friendly, quiet and not badly priced. We will certainly be returning to explore more.

On the return home we swung through Julian and attempted to visit the California Wolf Center but my idiot self missed that you needed an appointment to do a tour. My son was very bummed but I was proud of him when he told me, “It’s ok dad, we can come back another time, we still had a great trip!”

I am truly blessed to be able to afford to take my son on adventures in our Jeep. Thank you again everyone for the recommendations. I’ll be checking out more of them on the return trip!

 

[wibornz]

I love that area. Awesome being able to share it with your son. Perfect way to build memories.

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