Devils Canyon is a steep

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

in the

Jacumba Mountains The Jacumba Mountains are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges system, located in eastern San Diego County, Southern California, near the U.S. border with Mexico. The mountain range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction, east of the I ...

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

and

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

, United States. Its mouth is located at an elevation of in Imperial County. Its head is at an elevation of at in the Jacumba Mountains in San Diego County.

History

From 1862 Devils Canyon was the route of a wagon road between

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

. The canyon later became the route of the westbound lanes of

Interstate 8 Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, ...

that pass up the canyon to Mountain Spring. The eastbound lanes use a different alignment through the

In-Ko-Pah Gorge In-Ko-Pah Gorge is a deep narrow canyon or gorge in San Diego and Imperial counties, California. Its head is at at an elevation of . Myer Creek flows down the In-Ko-Pah Gorge from its source in the Jacumba Mountains at the head of the canyon to ...

References

Valleys of Imperial County, California Valleys of San Diego County, California Interstate 8 {{SanDiegoCountyCA-geo-stub