Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Anza Borrego Desert → Rabbit Peak

Location: Northwest Anza Borrego Desert, California

Time Required: 12 hours (well conditioned individuals carrying day packs) – 2 days (overnight on Villager or Rabbit Peak)

Distance: 21 miles

Elevation Gain/Loss: 8,300 feet

Red Tape/Notes: Trailhead is about 13 miles east of Borrego Springs on the north side of the S22; there’s a parking area just prior to the 32 mile marker (directly opposite a sign for the Thimble Trail). There are numerous posts available covering this trail, but my favorite is the one on Modern Hiker.

What’s Nearby?: Villager Peak, Borrego Palm Canyon, Lower Coyote Canyon, Galleta Meadows Sculptures, Calcite Mine & Slot Canyons, Cougar Canyon, Salton City

If you’re looking to make a sacrifice to the conditioning gods, the hike to Rabbit Peak via Villager Peak is a good option. At 21 miles and 8,300 feet of elevation gain, this hike covers significantly more elevation than the standard Mt. Whitney summit hike – in less distance (and you don’t have to deal with the elevation factor, so you can pour all your energy into training those glutes, calves, and quads). You’re assured of a pretty good burn, particularly if you decide to do this as an overnight and are carrying a heavy pack. There are up sides to this hike, other than the conditioning – every time you pause to catch your breath, you have beautiful views across the desert in multiple directions, and Rabbit Peak feels like some kind of other-worldly sky garden – kind of like being on a tepui.

This hike can absolutely be done as a day hike, but most places suggest doing it as an overnight, where you summit Villager on the first day (5,000 feet of elevation gain), then summit Rabbit (3,300 feet of elevation gain round-trip to/from Villager) with day packs, return to Villager, break camp, and hike down, all on the second day. To me this doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you start mid-day on your first day. Otherwise you’ll be at Villager Peak by mid-day, and then what are you going to do for the next 6 or 7 hours? I’d rather have a short second day and be able to get home. So we opted to hike to Villager, took a break for lunch and to make camp, then ditched most of our gear and summited Rabbit, returning to Villager in time to enjoy the sunset. In the morning we only had 7 miles of downhill and we were back at our car before 11am. The downside of doing it that way is that it’s probably harder than doing it as a day hike, since you do nearly all of the work in one day, and carry a much heavier pack. But at least you get to enjoy the stars from Villager and watch the sunrise.

For reference, our hike times were as follows: car to Villager Peak (overnight packs, 8 liters of water EACH) – 5.5 hours; Villager Peak to Rabbit Peak (day packs, 3 liters of water each) – 2.5 hours; Rabbit Peak to Villager Peak – 2.25 hours; Villager Peak to car – 2.75 hours. So our hiking time was only 13 hours, although we obviously took a number of breaks as well (most notably, the overnight break!). Also of note, we didn’t cache water along the way since we were looking to maximize our conditioning. Perhaps next year we’ll do a day hike version to compare times.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → Anza Borrego Desert → Rabbit Peak