6 January 2024
Inspiration Wash to Fonts Point
(5 miles, +500/-500 feet).

Another desert getaway!

This time we went to Anza Borrego. Ever since I left my stake bag at Inspiration Point on a section hike of the San Diego Trans County Trail, I have wanted to return to see if I could find them!

We started with a slow crawl in the Prius Prime as far as we would dare in Inspiration Canyon. We got about a mile from the highway and decided this was far enough.

There weren’t any other vehicles in the wash, but nevertheless we soon branched away from the jeep road to a trackless canyon that paralleled the main route.

There is a decent cliff band below the Inspiration Point mesa, but it’s not hard to find a way up. We did a little class 3 scramble straddling a sharp ridge for about 20 feet. After that it was all class 1 all the time.

At Inspiration Point I looked for my stakes. Not surprisingly, they were gone. I bet this point sees a couple of hundred of hikers a year. I hope someone is getting use out of them!

It was another easy mile to head over to Fonts Point.

Right near the high point we found the smallest rattlesnake I’ve ever seen, maybe a foot long. It’s rattle tail was shaking like crazy, but it made no sound because it was so tiny!

After the excitement we had some lunch and then had some fun finding a different way down off the mesa.

Later that night we had an unbelievably gorgeous sunset as a storm headed in.