Cañon Guadalupe is known for its aguas termales,
or hot baths. The road leading into the canyon
begins just west of Mexicali. It begins with 28 miles
of the deepest washboard I have ever encountered,
crossed by wide deep sandy washes. What follows is a
somewhat firmer dirt road strewn with watermelon
sized boulders. The edge of this stretch apparently serves
as the local dump, so if you were to leave the
road your choices are cactus or broken glass. The washboard
itself was not to bad. If you could get going
fast enough you could set up sort of a resonant frequency
skimming along the "peaks." But as soon as you
did get up to speed you would hit one of the dozens of
sandy washes, and soon the bike was behaving like
a surfboard. After falling four times on the big "boat"
I was beginning to feel quite foolish, not to mention
weary of picking up that heavy beast. Besides it was
starting to get late, and this 35-mile stretch had taken
us more than 3 hours. But the view above from our campsite
as night was overtaking the canyon helped
make the days trials worthwhile. The 105 degree water
in our own private hot tub helped ease the pain.
The canyon area was full of traces of its previous residents,
and everywhere you looked you could find
where the area's natural granite had been used as grinding
"mortars" or as "canvases" for images such as
this pictograph. We found this one etched into the rock
high in this natural hueco (hollow).
