Distance: 7 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 1617' (Ship), 3398' (Yaqui)
Elevation Gain: 2125'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.7
Round trip time: 4 hours 40 minutes
Recommended water: 104 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Highway 78 Turnout
Difficulty: Moderate
Yaqui Pass Road connects Highway 78 with Borrego Springs. I parked at a turnout below Ship Benchmark. The hike up to Ship was about 200' of gain and less than fifteen minutes. It had a couple of registers, the oldest going back to 2007. It appeared to get about four visits a year. From the top of Ship, I couldn't pinpoint the top of Yaqui Peak. I debated whether to take on the gullies up or stick to the ridges. There were three major gullies, two that ended on a ridge south of the summit and that ended to the north. I took the middle gully. It had the usual sharp denizens: cat claw, barrel cactus, agave, and dreaded cholla. There were also a series of class 2 dry falls that made it fun. I spotted some cairns at a few falls marking bypass routes. This gully was not a stranger to humans. After intersecting the ridge, I continued another mile weaving around cactus. ON the way, I stumbled across a rosie boa, the first I'd seen in Anza-Borrego in over 100 trips. The snake was sluggish and barely moved when I nudged it with my foot. Maybe it had some prey, but it didn't come out of the hole nor go further in. I let it be and weaved my way around cactus to the top. Yaqui Peak had a metal ammo box containing several registers going back to 1997. Yaqui sported a beautiful view of Borrego Springs to the north and some of my favorite desert mountains: San Ysidro, Indianhead, Coyote, the Santa Rosa ridge, and even snowy San Jacinto. Yaqui exceeded expectations.
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