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Welcome!
Welcome to the Anza-Borrego region and welcome to a new way to learn about a place you will soon be visiting by using our Virtual Tour Guide.
Within a one to three hour drive from nearly any point in Southern California is a forgotten frontier of desert discovery. It is a diverse land of beautiful landscapes with views that stretch to the horizon. There are many places to visit that possesses unique and oddly-shaped features that were created by Mother Nature and then eroded by wind, water and sun. Pockets of plant and animal life cling to hidden desert oases and washes. And, in the center of this fascinating place, is a small resort town with, shops, eateries, golf courses, along with fancy and classic hotels to stay in.
Our guide is designed to help you find what strikes your fancy to plan your trip. Whether you are visiting for a day, staying at a hotel in Borrego Springs or camping in one of the many campgrounds, all of the trips in our guide takes you to one of the scenic wonders of the Anza-Borrego region.
In This Section
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The \”Other Death Valley\”
We like to call this place California’s “other Death Valley”. Anza-Borrego is very similar to this other, more popular desert destination, but holds a very different kind of beauty. Like Death Valley, Anza-Borrego gets little rain. It experiences extreme heat in the summer time and is a great place to visit during the winter. Its landscapes are sculptured by strong winds and occasional intense cloudbursts result in flashfloods that rearrange the region’s canyons and valleys.
The region of Anza-Borrego lies in eastern San Diego County (see map). It is located south of Palm Springs. The region includes the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is the largest state park in California. It also includes the town of Borrego Springs, which is located in the middle of the state park. East of the Park boundary is the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area which, not only is an attraction to dirt bikes and quad runners, but also contains interesting geological features such as Gas Domes and the Pumpkin Patch.
Lesser Known Region
Although many Californians know of Death Valley, they are not familiar with Anza-Borrego. Because it is less known, the region is less visited making it more enjoyable for those that wish to get away from the crowds.
Anza-Borrego offers many attractions to the visiting tourist. These attractions include scenic drives, rewarding hikes, colorful and unique geologic formations, abundant desert flora, fantastic wildflower blooms and more. Anza-Borrego is often out shadowed by other more popular desert parks such as Death Valley and close-by Joshua Tree National Park.
The region of Anza-Borrego lies in eastern San Diego County (see map). It is located south of Palm Springs. The region includes the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is the largest state park in California. It also includes the town of Borrego Springs, conveniently located in the middle of the state park. East of the Park boundary is the Ocotillo Wells SVRA (State Vehicular Recreation Area) which, not only is an attraction to owners of off-highway toys such as dirt bikes and quad runners, it also contains more interesting geological features such as Gas Domes and the Pumpkin Patch.
Colorado Desert
Anza-Borrego lies in what is known as the Colorado Desert (see map). This region is a sub-section of the greater Sonoran Desert, which is one of the four great deserts of North America. While the Colorado Desert covers roughly 8,000 square miles, the Sonoran Desert covers a whopping 120,000 square miles of the United States and Mexico. Even though Anza-Borrego lies in the Colorado Desert, it is technically part of the Sonoran Desert.
Thanks to Anza-Borrego State Park, much of the Colorado Desert’s unique flora and fauna, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth, is preserved within its boundaries. Its geography is unique too, with the San Andreas and other fault system shaping the mountains and basins, along with much of the desert’s soils being sediments washed down by the Colorado River, much of it dug out of the Grand Canyon.
Getting There
This section suggests the best routes to the Anza-Borrego area from three different populated Southern California areas. Before starting your journey, we strongly suggest looking at a paper map to get an idea of where Anza-Borrego is located. GPS and Internet maps, such as Google Maps, are great tools, but we feel that one doesn’t get the scope of distances until consulting a paper map.
There are about five paved roads giving access to the Anza-Borrego area, three of which connect to Borrego Springs. There are a number of dirt 4WD roads also accessing the park from outside areas.
Christmas Circle, a traffic circle intersection in the middle of Borrego Springs Community, is an important navigational feature. Most roads in Anza-Borrego lead to Christmas Circle. It has a park in the middle of the circle and is often the location of local festivals and open-air markets. When navigating the Anza-Borrego area, familiarize yourself with where Christmas Circle is located.
Map of where Anza-Borrego is Located in Southern California:
Getting There From Popular Regions
Click desired origination area to expand:
What To Do in Anza-Borrego
Anza-Borrego offers many attractions to the visiting tourist. For visitors seeking the great outdoors, attractions include scenic drives, rewarding hikes, colorful and unique geologic formations, rugged mountains, slot canyons, abundant desert flora, and more. For visitors that prefer to relax and enjoy the desert air, there are several high-end resorts, complete with fine dining, swimming pools and golf courses.
If Anza-Borrego State Park were a donut, then the town of Borrego Springs lies within the donut hole. Borrego Springs, has a resort-like atmosphere with small shops, a mall, lush desert plant nurseries, cafes and hotels. Anza-Borrego is often out shadowed by other more popular desert destinations such as Palm Springs, Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks, making Anza-Borrego less visited by mainstream tourists.
Exploring
Whether it is on wheel or foot, the Anza-Borrego area (not just the Park) offers a lot to explore. You can certainly see some of it in a weekend, but definitely not all of it.
There are so many places in Anza-Borrego that feeds our urge to explore and see what’s around that next corner. Sometimes, it’s not so obvious to find those special places, simply because they might be hidden from the beaten path. Using our guide as your tool, you can find those places that make exploring more satisfying.
Anza-Borrego is a place that you’ll want to return to and continue exploring all of what it offers. With our guide you’re reading now, we’ll show you those offerings and then you can decide which of those places you want to visit and experience when you return.
Helpful Signs
One bonus to Anza-Borrego State Park that is different than other areas or parks that we have explored, is that the State Park staff have inserted small brown signs to virtually every place of interest that someone may wish to explore. Be on the lookout for these signs, because some of them are small brown sides that are installed close to the ground, whereas other signs are posts with place names scribed vertically on the post.
Hiking
We believe that exploring an area on foot is really the best way to fully experience it. Of course, there are times when driving is your only option (weather, physical conditions, time limitations, etc.) but you miss so many of the little details, even when you drive slowly. There are also times when walking is the only option, like when the 4WD road you\’re on gets too rough or narrow to drive.
There is a variety of terrain that hiking trails take you through in Anza-Borrego. Whether you enjoy exploring deep, dark slot canyons, hiking to native palm oasis or looking for desert flora and fauna, you’ll find plenty of hiking trails to entice your feet into action and experience the unique deserts of Anza-Borrego.
However, before setting out on any hikes in the harsh desert environment, we encourage you to read the Hiking in Anza-Borrego chapter. There is important information there that you should know about including the potential dangers that exist when hiking.
Before heading out on any hike in Anza-Borrego, you should honestly assess your fitness level and compare it to our description of each hike in our guide. The pictures and video tour will give you an idea of the terrain, slopes and obstacles encountered in each hike.
Road Trips
Paved roads are the easiest way to access and enjoy some of the sites in Anza-Borrego. Many of these sites are along established highways and paved roads. Our guide also recommends a few scenic routes to take, such as Hwy S2, often referred to as the Carrizo Corridor.
Some of the sites involve driving on dirt roads able to accommodate street-vehicles (low clearance 2WD). However, when driving on dirt roads, remember that they behave much differently than paved roads. A driver needs to use common sense when traversing dirt roads because the road’s condition can quickly change due to weather making the road impassable.
Cycling
Unlike more popular desert parks like Joshua Tree and Death Valley, there are many cycling opportunities in Anza-Borrego for both road cycling on pavement and mountain biking. And, because Anza-Borrego is less crowded, there is less vehicular traffic to worry about.
The paved roads radiating out of and around Borrego Springs are ideal for road cycling. Many roads have a wide portion of pavement between the dirt and the white line on the side of the road. Although it isn’t considered a bike lane, it certainly is a nice buffer to have away from vehicle traffic.
Another nice attribute to road cycling around Borrego Springs is that the area is relatively flat. There are a few roads that have some mild hills and others that have climbs that would make the thighs of most cyclists burn.
Mountain bikers will enjoy the various dirt roads in Anza-Borrego. There are some roads with very sandy stretches, making riding impossible, but surprisingly, there are many roads that pass through the various badlands where the dirt is quite compact.
One great mountain bike ride is Coyote Canyon. We spent all day on our mountain bikes on a ride starting where the pavement ends on Di Giorgio Road, headed north into Coyote Canyon, passed Desert Gardens, peddled through Santa Catarina Spring in foot-deep water, and all the way into Collins Valley. We followed a similar route explained in our Coyote Canyon chapter.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
At over 600,000 acres in size, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) is the largest state park in California and the second largest of any state park in the contiguous United States. Along with numerous paved roads, ABDSP includes 500 miles of dirt roads and 110 miles of hiking trails, allowing abundant access to many of its scenic places.
Not to be mistaken by a National Park, ABDSP is managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Although ABDSP is the second largest state park, Death Valley National Park out shadows ABDSP’s size with its total of 1.3 million acres.
Early on, the State of California had the wherewithal to preserve this unique patch of desert in 1933. Keep in mind that this is decades before the Federal Government began preserving such lands in the Southwest, such as the Desert Protection Act of 1994. Today, we are fortunate to have this large chunk of scenic land that has been unchanged for so long and will be here to enjoy for years to come.
The name “Anza-Borrego” is derived from the union of an ancient Spanish explorer’s name and the Spanish word for sheep. Juan Bautista de Anza was a Spanish explorer that led an expedition from Mexico to San Francisco in 1775-76. The trail that Anza took passed through a large swath of today’s park. And, although borrego is simply Spanish for sheep, its real emphasis is on the peninsular bighorn sheep, which are well-known in the surrounding mountains.
The park headquarters and visitors center is located just west of downtown Borrego Springs. Any visit to the region should start with a stop at this unique visitor center, which is built partially underground. Its uniqueness rivals any National Park visitor center. The rangers and park staff have a wealth of information, along with current road and hiking conditions that are very helpful to know before starting any of the trips described in this guide.