We planned a full day trip to the Ocotillo Wells area for this Saturday. Our plan was to go from Butte’s Pass across the Cut Across Trail over to the various Palms oasis and then down to the Pumpkin Patch from the Salton Sea side. Absolutely wonderful day to go, with nice calm winds and low 80’s temperatures.

Pictures of The Slot from above.

Looks so “normal”, but will go just about anywhere

Wendy drooling over rocks.

Wendy’s first knarly downhill. The signs so it’s prohibited to go up this slope, but you can go down to get into the wash. At the bottom you make a right to go up to The Slot. A left, allows you to follow the wash out to the San Felipe Wash. The exit is a tight technical run. I would only recommend vehicles with skid plates or a little height as the first part your likely to drag bottom.

A shot of the hill we just came down.

Wendy walking into The Slot

We could have driven a little farther in as Wendy is pointing out a turn around spot.

Various shots of The Slot as you walk back into it. I climbed about half way up the wall to get the last shot. Probably not the brightest idea as it was hard getting my 250lb frame back down the slippery sandstone wall without busting a leg or something vital.

Running across Cut Across Trail we ran into this mud cave way up on the banks. We decided to take a side trip and go exploring.

Lunch at an “oasis”, what a perfect way to spend the day. Unfortunately due to the dry years we’ve been having there wasn’t any water at any of the Palm sites. It’s still really neat to be driving along in an alien moonscape type terrain and then turn the corner to find a couple of Palm trees growing out in the middle of nowhere.

This is the pumpkin patch. These rocks are formed by sand collecting around a small object (a shell, an insect etc).

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