Stage (SDC #61, 2817′) • map • directions
Mine (SDC #70, 1850′) • map • directions*
Red Hill (SDC #73, 1720′) • map • directions
Piedras Grandes (SDC #78, 2601′) • map • directions*
Anna arrived at my house at 6am on New Year’s Day, neither of us with the sleep we wanted for our 2-day trip to Anza Borrego. We were looking forward to starting the new year off with a peakfest though, based around the southern end of County Highway S2. We had a total of 7 peaks or benchmarks left on the San Diego peaks list accessible from the S2 and we hoped to get them all in this trip. Collectively the peaks add up to 22 miles of hiking and 8100 feet of elevation gain, with more than 75% of that being off-trail. Not an un-reasonable plan, the success of which probably depending on getting between trailheads efficiently as much as our speed on foot.
Stage
With plans to start north and work our way south, our first peak of the weekend was Stage Mountain. Stage mountain’s summit is located just a few miles from the S2, so we parked on a dirt shoulder just about even with the start of Stage’s northeast ridge. We left the truck for obvious wash running along the north side of Stage Mountain and started hiking up the ridge when it looked good.
The first mile and a half or so was straightforward desert hiking, dodging teddy-bear cholla and other cactus on sandy slopes. At the 2400 foot contour the ridge turned rocky, perhaps class 2+, and we scrambled over a 100 foot bump to a saddle before climbing another 20 feet through some large boulders to a false summit. From the false summit, the actual highpoint is a quarter mile west, a 10 minute walk across another small saddle got us there at 9:58am.
Anna and I enjoyed the desert views while thumbing through the register, which like a lot of the peaks in this area, had seen about one ascent per year. After a few minutes we started back, stopping only once so that Anna could get her trekking poles out after clearing the rocky section. We didn’t waste any time starting towards the next hike…
Mine
After leaving Stage Mountain, we drove south on the S2 through Sweeney Pass and found the turnoff at mile 53.4 for Mine Peak. With high clearance I was able to drive the West Dolomite Mine Trail all the way to the actual mine, making the hike to Mine’s summit under a mile each way (a standard vehicle would put you on foot about a half mile from the mine).
Leaving the truck at 12:14pm, Anna and I followed a dirt road to the right of and behind the leftovers of a concrete building, then continued northeast up the ridge behind the mine. We eventually came across a use trail which we followed through a drainage until we found ourselves on top of the broad summit plateau, just a quarter mile east of the actual summit. As the trail disappeared we continued towards the highest point, taking in views from all directions.
We reached the summit at 12:43pm, in awe of the torn up earth that is the Carrizo Badlands below Mine Peak to the east. We snapped a few photos and reversed our route, making the brief roundtrip to Mine Peak in under an hour.
The summit of Mine Peak and the view east
Red Hill
Upon reaching the highway after leaving Mine Peak, we drove one minute to a huge circular dirt lot on the west side of the highway, seemingly a good starting point for Red Hill. Anna and I made it to the base of Red Hill without paying much attention, we hadn’t taken the time to figure out exactly where the summit was before getting too close to tell. We started north through a wash that twisted back and forth along the north side of the mountain, finally just picking a slope and heading up.
The summit was closer than we thought, just 500 vertical feet above the wash, we made it to the huge plateau littered with volcanic red rock at 2:17 pm. We looked around a bit before finding the register, and we recognized a few names from the other desert peaks we’d visited in the last few months. We opted for a direct route down from Red Hill, taking easy slopes southeast, making it back to the truck in no time.
Piedras Grandes
I’d expected Mine and Red Hill to take longer than they did but it turned out that we had time for one more hike provided that we could find it in time. We drove towards Piedras Grandes since it was the closest, a peak we’ originally planned as part of a large loop the following day.
Piedras Grandes is part of the Jacumba Mountains, and we drove to its base via the Dos Cabeza Rd off of the S2. The road wasn’t terrible but high clearance was nice to have. It took us half an hour to navigate the 7 miles of dirt road and to locate a good starting point for the hike.
We located a closed dirt road that ran up an easy slope towards the summit of Piedras Grandes, so we parked the truck and started off, aware that we may be pushing a nighttime descent. The old jeep trail was a huge timesaver to get through the vast amounts of teddy-bear cholla, we followed it as it wound its way around massive piles of Joshua Tree-ish rock, an impressive part of Anza Borrego.
With just 200 vertical feet to go, we left the convenience of the road and traversed north to a saddle just southwest of the summit of Piedras Grandes, from where we scrambled up the final slope to the high point. We found a register on top of some large boulders at 4:42 pm and put our headlamps on just in case we needed them for the descent. We made it back to the road before dark and had a nice star-lit stroll back to the truck.
After reaching the truck, we drove just a few minutes away to the start of tomorrow’s hike, celebrating our successful first day of 2011 with pasta and beer before slipping into the warmth of our sleeping bags.
Red Hill stats: 3.2 miles roundtrip, 650 feet gain/loss
*-The driving directions for Mine Peak will get you to the turnoff for the Dolomite Mine. Continue east and then north to get to the mine and the base of Mine Peak. Regarding the driving directions for Piedras Grandes, I’ve added an intermediate point to keep you away from the rough northern section of Moretro Canyon Rd (the section between the S2 and Dos Cabeza Rd).