Borrego Springs: Butler Canyon - Hidden Spring - Rockhouse Canyon

Rating	*****
length	10 mile - 4 hour 10 minutes (Return trip). Easy/moderate.
Height	1330 - 2250 feet
Access	Take the S 22, close to mile 26, take the Rockhouse Canyon TL. A higher clearence vehicle is needed, sometimes a 4x4. Warning the "dry lake" may be muddy.
Other Trails	C
Data	To download these files, right-click the link and choose 'save as' |--| .GPX (GPS file) |-----| .KML (Google Earth file)

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Take the S 22, close to mile 26, take the Rockhouse Canyon TL.
This road leads past a primitive campground. Follow the wide dirt road and turn left at the marked Rouckhouse crossing.

The wide road leads towards the installation of Sand and Rock (A Mixer?)
At that point you man run into trouble, even months after heavy rain.
As the road crosses part of Dry Lake, that wasn't that dry in February 2010, but completely dry, the same time in 2011.
So you may want to check to road condition at the visitor center.
And at least drive carefully into the lake.
On the other side the road is more narrow and filled with gravel.

Further on the road is sandy, with some rocks. And the rocks are the reason you need an higher clearance car.
But normally any SUV should do.

The road is about 8 miles long and it will take up to 40 Minutes, to reach the trailhead.

About 400 Yards past the Butler Canyon / Rockhouse Crossing, park.

Hike up to the canyon, the Butler canyon on your left is the one with the boulders.
The road goes a bit further, so don't go too far.

The canyon entrance may be marked with cairns at the right side, where the sandy wash exits the canyon.

The first part of the canyon looks more troublesome than it actually is. There are several easy ways past the boulders, mostly following the sand and the footprints of others.

Soon after the boulders the narrow canyon looks more and more like a normal sandy wash.
At first the sand is loose but becomes more firm, further into the canyon.
At a branch of the canyon take the left one.

Eventually the canyon widens into a sort of valley. This is Jackass Flat.
Keep to the right and head east.
Eventually you can see the Rough Rockhouse canyon entrance ahead.
Keep going that way, as the only? way down is in that direction.

Suddenly the steep canyon wall appears, looks hard to get down.
But there is a nice trail leading down. It's close to the point where the Rockhouse Canyon bends to the right (North/East).

A couple of yards, further up into the canyon, you find the marked, not so hidden "Hidden Spring".
Hardly a stream, but you will notice the bees and see the Southern Cattail.

Head downhill towards the car.
A bit further and you meet the first jeep trails.
There may be some cars out here, but they can't go very fast on this very rocky road.

Directly opposite the parking we took a shortcut. But going on to the crossing is a lot easier.
Because the shortcut presents a problem, another steep canyon wall. There is a "relatively" easy way down along a faint ridge.
But it's better to hike along the jeep trail, up to the crossing.









Disclamer: Read this first before you start your hike.
Contact: usa/at/e/f/m/e/r/.eu (leave out the /)
All hikes recorded on pocket loox (pocket PC) using gpsTuner(.com)
Hiking Butler Canyon - Hidden Spring - Rockhouse Canyon Borrego Springs Area (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park) California, Hike with gps, gpx and kml (Google Earth).