Canyoneering to the Mexican Border

One of the intriguing ideas of the Sycamore Canyon route was that at the end was the international line separating Mexico from the United States. With the continual fight and debates over illegal immigration from Mexico, I couldn't pass up the idea of myself hiking to the border to see what is there.

A note about Sycamore Canyon: it may be the least technical canyon I have down yet; it is the most abusing on the body of any outdoor activity I have done. I have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and hiked plenty of more strenuous miles before in a day though I wasn't prepared for what 10 plus miles of constant hiking in sand, rocks, boulders, and water would do to my feet and my hips on down. I was never physically exhausted just physically worn down.

Sycamore Canyon runs straight into Mexico so if you follow it long enough you will reach the Mexican border. I had read that there is fence protecting the international border and this is something I wanted to see. I wanted to see what is blocking people from crossing into the United States.

It was almost laughable once we arrived. My first view of the fence was that there was a ditch underneath it that allows anybody to easy slide underneath the fence. It is possible that the ditch underneath was man made.

It gets better when I look to my left I see this fence of international protection just lying on the ground. This is the photo shown in the post. Yes, you don't even have to go over or under the fence to get in you just have to step over the fence.

I find it literally fascinating the big official borders with all the officers asking you questions when just a few miles away you can just walk in and not even have to figure a way around a fence. Not that the fence would really stop anybody who wanted to get in just the personal idea that you can bypass the lines at the gate to just walk across yourself.