How hiking San Ysidro Trials Area is like staring down middle age

A cottontail bounds along a rim that looks like a steep canyon’s edge, but isn’t.

Birds wing along another rim that looks like a steep canyon’s edge, but isn’t. It’s a shallow arroyo. A pinyon jay squawkfest erupts from the bushes.

No sign of the huge slot canyon we managed to find last time, after several journeys like this one.

To the east, volcanic humps everywhere, relentless sun. We head west, intersect trails, follow some with cautious hope.

Then we’re back at the parking lot where we started.

I sit under a rare and precious tree.

Hiking San Ysidro Trials Area can feel like staring down middle age. Your experience ceases to resemble what’s on the map. Things you know how to do, have done before, elude you.

We do know this: Just to the east runs a smaller slot canyon, the one that would have completed our loop, if we’d made it.

We find water there in rock pools, rippling blue-green. Six months ago, the slot canyon pools were deep reddish-brown, silt and clay stirred from snowmelt.

Tadpoles wiggle toward mosquito larvae. A small gray frog catapults himself into the curve of a slot. A blue-eyed dragonfly buzzes the water.

We clamber, photograph, watch creatures, reorient.

Hike length: 5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: none

Wildlife spotted: cottontail, pinyon jays, butterflies, dragonflies, tiny horned lizards, tadpoles, frog, beetles