Glorietta Canyon Revisted Posted
9-29-2013
One of the very visible after-effects of the heavy rain that
fell on the Borrego on August 25 is a new and very wide
wash, clearly seen on the landscape at the south end of
Borrego Springs, coming out of Glorietta Canyon and
stretching to Borrego Springs Road.
We went to
Glorietta Canyon today to check it out. The popular
hiking trail (shown left) is little-changed but the flood made major
changes to the roadway leading there.
This
used to be a roadway suitable for two wheel drive cars,
but a large section of that road has been completely
obiterated and replaced by a very wide and very sandy wash.
The wash continues all the way down to Borrego
Springs Road, where it interects the highway just south of
San Pablo Road. Lots of tire tracks indicate that many
vehicles are now getting to Glorietta via that wash instead
of the old route.
This photo taken from Montezuma Grade shows where the new wash
intersects Borrego Springs Road.
View from Borrego Springs Road; the path of the floodwater is
clearly visible.
This photo is taken just off of Borrego Springs Road looking
towards Glorietta Canyon. The area that was cleared by the
flood waters is hundreds of feet wide in places.
This is the upper part of the road to Glorietta Canyon.
The old roadway is completely gone; replaced by this big and very
sandy wash.
One of the interesting things to see on this trip is how
localized the flood really was. Most of the water came out of
just one wash. You can see that just a few hundred yards
before you get to the Glorietta Canyon trailhead.
