Borrego Springs Hike to Ghost Mountain. Marshal South's Yaquitepec Home Site
This is a slide show of a Hike to Yaquitepec the ruins of the Home of Marshal South on the top of Ghost Mountain. Located near Julian, Calif. In the November 1940 issue of Desert Magazine Marshal described constructing a Sundial after his clock died. We set out on this hike with the goal for locating that sundial.
1947 8mm Film: Marshal South Family, Ghost Mountain, Anza Borrego Desert
You can learn more about Marshal South in Sunbelt Publications' Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles ( and also Marshal South Rides Again: His Anza-Borrego Novels (
This is one of the only known films of Marshal South and his family, taken in 1947 at their home, Yaquitepec, on Ghost Mountain, in what is now Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The film is narrated by Rider South, eldest of the children. The film was acquired many years ago by Diana Lindsay, and was subsequently donated to the ABDSP archives. I produced the recording of the narration in 2002 (or thereabouts), at a time when this was the only known film of the South family. I recently was able to borrow the film to make a high-quality scan of it using my Moviestuff Retroscan Universal film scanner. This version is far better than the previous transfer that was made of the film. Thanks to Diana Lindsay and ABDSP for helping make this film transfer possible!
Discovering Ghost Mountain -- Anza-Borrego Hiker Finds Marshal South Ruins
Alan Ingham documents visit to Marshal South at Anza-Borrego
Hiking at Anza Borrego and Ghost Mountain
After a lot of driving around I head back out to Anza Borrego to finally hike some trails there. While at my first camp site I looked ahead and thought it would be awesome to be on top of the mountain in front of me. The next day I was there!! That's how I envisioned my time traveling.
Affiliate links of gear used:
DJI Osmo Pocket -
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 V -
Insta360 One X -
Zoom H1N Handy Recorder -
I also use a GoPro 5 Session but it's an older model and would recommend others for action cameras.
Video editing application: Davinci Resolve 15 (free version)
Music:
Some songs purchased for commercial use from
-Soft Ambient by Fresh_sound
-Acoustic Folk by Fresh_sound
-Fairytale by Fresh_sound
Ghost Mountain and the ruins of the Marshal South house
Hiked up to the top of Ghost Mountain / Yaquitepec in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to view the ruins of the Marshal South house.
For more about Marshal South see At this site you will fine film clips of the family and Yaquitepec taken in 1946. See what the area looked like then.
Hiking in Anza Borrego - Ghost Mountain and the Pictograph Trail
Song:
Walking on a Dream - Empire of the Sun
Split Mountain Anza-Borrego
Located in the southeast corner of the Anza-Borrego State Park, California, the Fish Creek Wash Trail passes through a unique canyon known as Split Mountain. Read more at BackRoadsWest.com/anza-borrego/split-mountain
Ghost Mountain
Went backpacking in Blair Valley with the goal of visiting the home site of Marshal South and family. Who in the 1930 were tired of being slaves to the mighty dollar. Marshal and his wife Tanya raised three children and lives on top of Ghost Mountain for 17 years.
Once we found camp, we decided to lay low and practice some bushcraft skills. We went up to the home site the next morning.
it was a one mile long trail with switchbacks gaining 1200ft in elevation.
Enjoy...
Hills of the Moon in Anza-Borrego
The name says it all – a drive up this wash in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California really makes you feel like an astronaut driving in a lunar rover. Read the full article from our Anza-Borrego Travel Guide at
Marshal House On Ghost Mountain.
A short movie taken at the ruins of the Marshal House in the Anzo Borrego desert.
Calcite Mine Road Trip in Anza-Borrego
This road trip takes you up a challenging 4WD road, through some unusual landscape and to the site of an uncommon type of mine from WWII. Read the full article at
Pictograph Trail - Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
Pictograph Trail is a 2.9 mile hike with 489 feet of elevation gain located at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This hike combines a little bit of history, art, and amazing views!
For all the details and links to the recording and trail head location, visit my blog mentioned below!
Blog: coming soon
Nearby Trails:
Ghost Mountain Trail to Yaquitepec:
The Mortreros Trail:
AllTrails:
Strava:
Instagram:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Newsletter Signup:
Please Note: The Map Overlay, GPS Coordinates, Elevation Change are all custom coded and synced to the video. These values are approximations. I do my best to make them as accurate as possible, and hope to make it better overtime. You may notice some obvious mistakes, it happens... I hope you enjoy, it took A LOT of time to make with the help of several friends! :)
This is presented for informational use only. Please make sure to do your own research before attempting this adventure. While I try to present this information as accurate as possible, I may have missed important details (comment below if that is the case to help others out). I make no warranties on this information as the adventure details could change without notice.
Make sure to drop a comment below and let me know what trail you want to see next!
Petroglyphs of Anza Borrego
Ghost Mountain Christmas
A clip from my feature documentary, THE GHOST MOUNTAIN EXPERIMENT, a story of a family's 17-year back-to-nature dream destroyed by isolation and betrayal.
Anza Pictographs & petroglyphs 10-26-14
SCORE trip to find ancient Native American pictographs & petroglyphs in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
1 Mile Hike up GHOST MOUNTAIN TRAIL and RUINS: Caravan Group Hike: ABZ
1 Mile Hike up GHOST MOUNTAIN TRAIL and RUINS: Caravan Group Hike: ABZ
????“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
1 John 4:7 KJV
????GHOST MOUNTAIN????
“Visit the silent ruins of one man’s dream.”
When most people visualize living off the land, the first thing they’d want handy is a good water supply. Not so with 1930s-40s artist and writer Marshal South, who decided to homestead on Anza-Borrego’s Ghost Mountain. South and his wife built an adobe home on top of the arid mountain and lived there with their three children for 17 years. The family tried to live simply by emulating the spartan style of early Native Americans, inventing systems for storing precious rainfall, tending a vegetable garden, and harvesting seeds and fruits from desert plants. To earn money, South wrote articles about his family’s back-to-nature lifestyle for Desert Magazine and Arizona Highways. An Australian who was an accomplished poet, South inspired a huge following of readers who eagerly awaited his next installment.
South’s wife eventually grew weary of the rugged desert life and her husband's odd idealism, and the family split up and left the mountain in 1947. The short Ghost Mountain Trail visits their old homestead, climbing gently through a series of switchbacks to the mountaintop. In spring, the ocotillos and yuccas put on a colorful show. At the summit, you’ll find a few partial walls, an old mattress frame, and some cisterns and barrels, all that remains of South’s utopian dream.
????SOURCE: Spotlight: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: ????
????In this video we Camped for Free in the Anza-Borrego Desert on BLM Land for 2 weeks with a Group of wonderful people in the Caravan formed by Bob Wells at Cheaprvliving (
????Information regarding the Caravans and travel route are available on Bob Wells CRVL Website (
????Randy The Poet (in this video)????
????Thank you for being here. You are wonderful, and blessed????????
...God is Love.
❤️1 John 4:8
Please Follow Us on Social Media:
????Twitter @RvAbz
????FaceBook: Abzminimalist Rvlife
????Instagram: Abzminimalist
????
#RVtravelWithKids
#ABZ
#FullTimeRVLiving
Music ???? Credits
Music: All I Love
Musician: Philip E Morris
????PLEASE LIKE????and SUBSCRIBE ???? ????
????Hi Guys it’s so great having you all here sharing your precious time with us always and leaving such wonderful, amazing and uplifting comments. We appreciate you in every way and enjoy and invite your presence here. Thank you ever so much.????
Ghost Lights of Anza Borrego Start Park - Carriso Gorge
This video trys to explain strange lights that frieghtened railroad workers during the construction of the Impossible Railroad (SD&AE).
Ghost Lights of Anza-Borrego
On dark nights in the remote desert of Anza-Borrego, mysterious ghost lights appear over the slopes of Oriflamme Mountain. From the 1880's to the present day, strange balls of light have been observed on this mountain, whose name means golden flame.According to Native American legend, they are spirit lights attributed to the ghost of an Indian chief who died there many years ago. Others suggest they're money lights and mark the location of buried treasure or gold. The land was found to contain ore deposits and has been mined for gold since the 19th century. The exact cause of the lights remains an unsolved mystery...The following video shows the first known footage of the Anza-Borrego ghost lights as seen from Highway S2, near Julian, California.
Blair Valley in Anza-Borrego
The Blair Valley area of southern Anza-Borrego in California is comprised of two small valleys with several attractions to see including Ghost Mountain and two rock art sites. Learn more using our guide at
Wind Caves Hike in Anza-Borrego
Near Split Mountain, there are some formations that have a sinister look to them. This is known as the Wind Caves and can be visited with a loop-trail hike. See our on-line travel guide on Anza-Borrego in California at