Imperial County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: July 16, 2006
Author: Benjamin Stein
It is worth reinforcing the point that this short and easy HP should not be
underestimated. At 9am on July 16th, as I left the car, it was already over 90 degrees.
I ran through my two quarts of water in the hour it took me up and back.
I strongly recommend bringing a real map and compass as route finding is
an issue. There are many dirt trails and the hp is not easily identifiable.
Nor is the way back down.
I drove a Toyota RAV4 quite far up the dirt road but almost got it stuck in the
sand while turning around. That would have been bad in the heat, plus since I
didn't have extra water in the car. As for route finding, I hiked a hill too
far to the west. There are no hills for scale so things looked farther in the
heat than they were. Sweated it out to cover all the hillocks around the
benchmarks. This is a really neat area. I'm encouraged to explore more south
of the border too. Lots of wildlife and I was struck by a little girls shoe
left behind in a shady nook near the border.
I hope she was here on a cooler day.
Spent the night in El Centro below sea level where it was 108 degrees at 8pm.
Washed the dust off the rental car before returning it the next day.