Andrade Canyon
Coyote Mountains Wilderness, Anza Borrego Desert, Imperial County, California
Andrade Canyon starts wide and gets narrower as it approaches a 30 foot dry waterfall, for most this would be the end of the line, if you continue the trail continues down to the desert floor. The canyon is a jumble of contorted rock layers that speak of the tectonic forces that formed these mountains. The layers of stone, all around, are jumbles and contorted layers from the horizontal to vertical, others folded into the weirdest of shapes. Mixed into this are the layers from when this was ocean bottom several million years ago,and also when The Colorado River flowed over this land. As one walks signs of fossilized marine shells can be found about, from loose shells to compressed layers of crushed shells.