On New Years I was in the desert for 3 days. Watched a truck race at plaster city west (by el centro), rode my friends dirt bike, did some shooting, sat around the fire with my friends and ofcourse went 4 wheeling - had a great time!

Painted Gorge trail (#130 by BLM trail markings) is really cool - hard enough to be interesting, has some cool views of the desert around, canyons at the bottom are multicolored - green, red, yellow, etc., and a couple of trails lead in various directions, although quite a lot dead end, as well as the main one ending at the top of the Carrizo Mountain, I think. To get there - take freeway 8 east for about an hour from San Diego, CA to ocotillo / imperial hwy exit, exit and make a left (north), dirve under the freeway and make an immediate right (east) onto Evan Hewes Hwy., then a left (north) onto Painted Gorge Rd. (trail #236 I think according to the BLM markings) and then follow the road and signs till a little info kiosk with a map of the area, just a little bit further make a left turn onto trail 130 (as far as I can remember at least, but check with the map at the kiosk) and go exploring!







Next day I got somewhat lost tryiong to find arroyo seco del diablo. I followed canyon sin nombre from imperial hwy down into the valley below, drove around thru some cool sand canyons, then ended up in a huge wash, which I think was part of the Old Overland Stage Rt., drove around looking for arroyo seco del diablo, couldn't find a sign and turned east along the wash, followed it for a while, even found some mud and water , explored some offshoot roads, and eventually, after about an hour on a really whooped out portion of the road drove out back to evan hewes hwy.




more pics - http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...20Year%202007/