Hellhole Canyon, Maidenhair Falls

Place- Hellhole canyon, Maidenhair Falls
Camping- Culp Valley campground
Roundtrip- Around 4 miles
Difficulty- Can get difficult depending on time of the year


You can drive to the Hellhole canyon trailhead directly, or decide to camp at Culp valley campground. Culp valley campground is great, free and lot of empty spots to pitch the tent. 

Once you start the hike, you have amazing views ahead and behind.

Looks like a painting.

Its amazing seeing the varied vegetation in the desert. You would think nothing grows there but cactii. I was so wrong!!

below picture is Teddy Bear Cholla. It looks so warm, fuzzy and adorable. But they have a way to getting stuck to you and it is tough to get rid of the thorns! :-O

Our first look from the canyon.

En route to Maidenhair Falls.

Beautiful wildflowers blooming.

Oasis in the desert- Pam groves!! God bless them.

Perfect spot to have lunch and take a nap :)

We reach the destination- Maidenhair Falls, named after the plant Maidenhair. they grow everywhere around the falls. It was disappointing as the Falls hardly had any water. 

A croaking frog was the only guest other than us ;-P

Back at the camp, looking forward to the evening dinner and campfire! ;-)

Just when the moon was rising up. Got a perfect shot!

You would kill to have this view out of your tent in the morning!

Anza Borrego  is a beautiful place with varied terrain, plains, peaks, springs and vegetation. before I visited this, I had the notion of desert to be an arid place with unbearable temperatures. I was wrong. They have thousands of species of plants and animals. They have an amazing wildflower season provided there were enough rains. It is accessible easily from the San Diego county. Great for practising your wilderness skills. I thank WBC (wilderness Basics Course) for opening my eye to this area. 

Happy Trails!