Imperial County is in extreme southeast California, abutting the Arizona and Mexican borders. Most of the county is low-elevation desert, featuring the sprawling Salton Sea. The principal towns in Imperial County are El Centro, Brawley, Calexico, Holtville, Calipatria and Westmoreland, and all are devoted to farming. In winter when the rest of the country is digging itself out from 8 feet of snow, it's nice and warm in the Imperial basin. If you bought some fresh produce in January at your local grocer, chances are it came from out here. A lot of the county is below sea level, but mountains ring the basin on the east and west.

The county highpoint is a small set of rocky hills in the extreme southwest corner of the county, essentially a little carry-over of the rocky ranges from nearby San Diego County and from Mexico. The highpoint is called Blue Angels Peak, but the benchmark reads "Smuggler". I leave it as an exercise to the reader to glean why that name was used. Winter is obviously the best time to be exploring this interesting highpoint, which sits just yards from the Mexican boundary. I have been here twice: in late 1999 and again in 2005.

First visit, December 1999: Ken Akerman and I were on a two-day journey to bag a couple of county highpoints. Yesterday we had success on Signal Peak in Yuma County, Arizona, then drove and camped on the sand of the Algodones Dunes inside California. Early today we continued west along Interstate-8 to the In-Ko-Pah Exit, then followed a series of paved and dirt roads to the south side of the highway. Although the road gets to within a few hundred yards of the highpoint, we decided to park at a convenient pullout below a steep rocky section and hike it from there. It's definitely a road that requires 4-wheel drive after a certain point.

From my truck we started walking up the steep road until it reached a pass. After the initial steep section, the road continued south with mostly lenient grades. Finally, about 1.5 miles from my truck, we were in the general area of the highpoint. Three or four humps of rocks vie for the top and we scaled these, each time thinking the next one was the highest. Finally we scampered up the rockpile containing the benchmark, and called it good. Higher peaks are nearby, but in Mexico. The international border is about 750 feet to the south of the highpoint. After a few minutes, we descended and started out. Ken went south to visit the border post, while I wasn't as interested, and also feeling kind of ill. I just hiked out to the truck. I saw evidence of border crossers: torn clothing and water jugs tucked in some nooks in the rocks, but we saw no people. There were a few other hikers, though. I waited at my truck for almost an hour for Ken, who somehow got lost coming out. After a dinner at El Jalicience Taco Stand in Brawley, we drove all the way back to Phoenix with no difficulties, arriving home about 7 p.m.

Second visit, March 2005: Dave Covill mentioned he was making a quick week-long run through the desert highpoints in Arizona and California, and I expressed an interest to re-visit this highpoint with him and whoever else might be tagging along. I left my home in Chandler on Saturday the 26th and made my way west, catching Interstate-8 in Gila Bend, visiting a confluence (33N, 113W) along the way, then poking around in Yuma and the territorial prison, which is an interesting stop.

I planned to camp again at the Algodones Dunes Area, but when I got there, there must have been thousands of RVs, dune buggies and sand runners. No lie, the dunes were covered as far as the eye could see with people and their vehicles. The place was a madhouse and I opted against staying there so I drove west through Calexico (along CA-98) and eventually getting to the In-Ko-Pah exit on Interstate-8. I figured I'd camp near the trailhead. I talked to the Border Patrol guys on Jacumba Road then found a neat, secluded place to camp in the bush about a quarter-mile back and less than a mile from the Mexican border. Dave and Rick Hartman joined me about 11 that night after hiking Yuma County's Signal Peak. We chatted a bit, then crashed.

We got rolling about 7:30 the next morning and drove a mile to the proper pull-out leading to the highpoint. Rather than parking down low like Ken and I did in '99, we coaxed our vehicles up the steep road and finally parked about 1.5 miles near "Quirk" Mountain, just a mile from the highpoint. We walked the roads and worked our way to the highpoint itself. Everything looked familiar, but over 5 years since my last visit I couldn't recall every last detail. We surmounted the traditional highpoint, the one with the benchmarks, and took some photos. Dave sighted to the nearest jumble and surmised it may be slightly higher, so we descended off and walked up the next pile of rocks, some parts requiring some nimbleness.

Afterwards, we walked over to the international boundary marker and had fun visiting Mexico. We then returned to our vehicles, drove out and had a late breakfast in El Centro. From there they went on to Tucson while I visited another nearby confluence (33N, 115W) in Imperial County. I finally got home about 6 p.m., after having smooshed every bug in the desert with my windshield.

The hike took us 90 minutes total, and along the routes we noted multiple water stashes, empty bottles, shoes and clothing, old batteries, and recently open cans of food. This region is definitely used by border crossers. Rick, a retired cop with a CCW, carried a sidearm in case of trouble, but we encountered none. I wouldn't say that you need to be armed going in but you should be aware of the volatility of the region, especially with some of the unscrupulous "coyotes" who may be hanging out. It's actually a very pretty range. There are also many natural "caves", formed by voids created when big rocks lean up aginst other big rocks. It's no wonder people like to sneak into the country from here. The weather was breezy and sometimes cool and overall it was a very nice hike and scramble. I have a suspicion the original name for this peak, even if unofficial, was Smuggler's Peak, partly due to the fact that's the name of the benchmark found on top. I wouldn't be here at dark, though.