2010-02-20 & 21 Blair/Little Blair Valley Sites and Camping

[OLLIE]

I need to get my son (4 yrs old) out of the house and want to take him camping. I was originally going to take him to the Mojave but a personal issue has me lacking in money to do so. Instead i want to take him on an inexpensive Anza Borrego trip. It won't really be offroading, we probably won't even need 4WD. I want to go see the threee main attractions of Blair/Little Blair Valley. Then camp out in a primative camp site in Little Blair or Oriflame Canyon. Three sites i want to see are the Marshall South Cabin, The Morteros, and The Pictograph Trail. Below is a map of the area. The Jeep symbols indicate parking for each of the hikes. In the upper middle of the map if the Little Blair primative campsite and all the way to the left is the Oriflame Campsite. Which one we camp at will be determined by the amount of people that show up and the types of vehivles.

MEET & GREET:
Julian Gas Station
1913 Main Street
Julian, CA 92036, United States
+1 760-765-0774

Time: 9:00 am
CB Channel: 34
2M Simplex: 147.510
Repeater: Laguna 147.150+ (PL: 107.2)

Below is the info on the sites I'm talking about.

Marshall South Cabin
Hiking Distance: 2 miles Round Trip (Out and Back)
Hiking Time: 2 hours Round Trip
Trail Use: Good for Kids - Like hiking to the Windcaves
Elevation Gain/Loss: 400 ft / 400 ft
Link: http://www.caliberdt.com/~bill/anza2007/ghostmtn.htm

The Pictograph Trail
Hiking Distance: 1.6 miles Round Trip (Out and Back)
Hiking Time: 1.25 hours Round Trip
Trail Use: Good for Kids
Elevation Gain/Loss: 300 ft / 300 ft
Link: http://www.petroglyphs.us/photographs_k ... ley_bv.htm

The Morteros
Mortero Trail (half a mile round trip) leads to dozens of grinding holes in the boulders, where Kumeyaay women pulverized seeds and pods, such as chia and mesquite beans.

Blair Valley Camping Trip Map.jpg (307.65 KiB) Viewed 4050 times

[Chazz Layne]

I didn't know about Marshall Cabin when I was out there. We've done the other two though. It's true you won't need 4WD, but the scenery is beautiful. There's also some fun rock scrambling to be had on the trail to the pictographs, and some other historic sites on the drive in to the trailhead.

[BorregoWrangler]

That sounds good, Ollie. Sometimes its nice to just sit back and relax in the desert instead of constantly being on the move. I know there's quite a few spots to camp in Blair Valley and Oriflamme Canyon has a really nice oak tree-shaded site. I'll plan on being there.

[OLLIE]

If BW is in then it looks like I've got at least 5 vehicles, 7 adults, 4 kids (4, 5, 6, and 14 yrs old) so far.

[OLLIE]

Map and meet and greet info added to first post.

[Skytrax]

Great Idea. Ive lived in San Diego for 25 years and still haven't seen these sites.
Count on Brad (son age-14) and myself in!

[OLLIE]

Great Idea. Ive lived in San Diego for 25 years and still haven't seen these sites.
Count on Brad (son age-14) and myself in!

Great to have you abiard sir. Both on the run and on the site.

[FunJunkie]

We are in for sure, Kinda stinks cause I was gonna volunteer for Off Road Days at the lakeside rodeo grounds but I couldnt gather enough interest to set up a booth. Oh well, Time with the kids is definitely time well spent. Also Ollie, are you biringing your wire repair kit?? My switch for my air pump needs to be rewired, I had some trouble with it and yanked the wires, but now I cant seem to get it working again. Just thinking mabey in the morning we could take a look at it.

[BigDave]

My son Travis (age 3) and I will be coming along on this trip.
I don't know if we will do any hiking as I have a bad knee.
Maybe we will just stay with the vehicles and be the "command post" for the hikes.
I have been looking for an opportunity to take my son on a camping trip for a while. I go at least once a month by myself and it kills me to have to keep leaving him at home all the time.

Count us in!!

[OLLIE]

We are in for sure, Kinda stinks cause I was gonna volunteer for Off Road Days at the lakeside rodeo grounds but I couldnt gather enough interest to set up a booth. Oh well, Time with the kids is definitely time well spent. Also Ollie, are you biringing your wire repair kit?? My switch for my air pump needs to be rewired, I had some trouble with it and yanked the wires, but now I cant seem to get it working again. Just thinking mabey in the morning we could take a look at it.

I generally have that stuff with me. I'll make sure I bring some stuff to try and address it.