Hike Northern Fish Creek Mountains Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA

Jan 27, 2026 — After accidentally venturing into a high-hazard bomb testing site in the Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness a few days ago, I made sure I wouldn’t make the same mistake on this outing. Fortunately, the four peaks on my agenda today were outside of the boundary, and while it was clear I wouldn’t be stepping on any unexploded bombs today, there was still a chance I could be shot at. The few miles leading up to the trailhead is a popular BLM shooting range littered with target practice setups, and on my approach I passed a few such targets. On the way back someone had set up somewhat nearby and while I wasn’t near their line of fire, it was still a bit worrisome since I could hear gunshots as I made my way back to the car, so just be aware.

I had a good time in this little range a few days ago reaching the high points, and was looking forward to checking out the even lesser-visited northern summits in the Fish Creek Mountains. I decided to approach via the major drainage at the northern end of the range, Whit Canyon. This is an unofficial name I am using to reference the canyon, adopted based on a benchmark labeled on topo maps at the canyon’s mouth. The plan was to escape the canyon when it felt reasonable to ascend to the right and up to the peaks, forming a counter-clockwise loop.

Any car with at least some clearance should have no trouble reaching my parking spot. Access to the area can be achieved from the north or south along a graded road that parallels an active railway. I drove in from the north via Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I parked and crossed the track. Whit Canyon is mostly just a gravel wash with a few sections of rockier terrain. It was a pretty quick way to get deep into the range, and had some pretty features. I had to bypass a slick dryfall that was possibly climbable, but not easily, and the workaround was trivial. I reached a second impassable dryfall, leaving it on the right in a rocky drainage. I figured since I’d been forced out of the wash, this was a good time to start my ascent up to my first summit, Peak 2182.

There weren’t any surprises on the way up to Peak 2182, just typical Class 2 desert stuff. I dropped down its steeper southeastern ridge, picking my way to the saddle. It was another straightforward hike up to Peak 1924, and then down to the base of Peak 2103.

The highlight of the hike was Peak 2103, whose topography was the inspiration for me wanting to do this hike in the first place. This steep little guy is located at the head of Whit Canyon, and is surrounded by steep and eroded faces. I thought it might be troublesome, but I’d seen it from Eagle Benchmark a few days earlier and determined it looked viable. Its southwestern ridgeline was beautiful, and covered in chunky granite-looking crystal-like formations (that’s my attempt at a geology explanation).

I could see all the way down through Whit Canyon, and pretty much to everywhere notable within the range. From the summit I dropped down east using somewhat loose terrain, very different than the rest of the hike. The eastern summit ridge has been eroded into a narrow ridgeline, compared to the mostly humped summits that characterize the rest of the range. There were two bumps directly ahead, gray and white. I kept to the right of the gray lump, then got back to the crest and ascended the white lump, nothing exceeding Class 2+. Past here, I continued down a Class 2 ridgeline. A particularly steep section led off the crest and down to the saddle below, which I’ll call low Class 3. Really, this was the only section on the loop that ventured into true scrambling territory.

From here there were a couple of little humps along the way to Peak 2089, my final summit. I probably could have side-hilled to save about 100 ft of vertical, but I figured the views would be worth the extra nominal effort and that was definitely the case. It was pretty trivial hiking the whole way up to the peak after that, with some light Class 2 toward the top.

Without thinking about it too much, I wandered down the west slope of Peak 2089 to get back into Whit Canyon, really just taking the path of least resistance. There were lots of blocky boulders to step around, but everything went totally fine. I knew the last couple hundred feet would be much steeper, and while the rock was a bit more loose at times, I somehow managed to choose a decent enough route that left me feeling good about my choices.

I took Whit Canyon back to my car, remembering to bypass the upper dryfall that I had avoided previously. On my way back I wondered if it would have been enjoyable to descend from Peak 2089 via its extended northwestern ridgeline, avoiding Whit Canyon altogether to try a different route, but oh well.