Anza Borrego Desert and its Unpolished Allure

In my mind, Anza Borrego Desert State Park was always a ‘springtime destination.’ The season’s not supposed to be very hot, and it also means having an opportunity to see some desert wildflowers. Although I knew that last year (2022) wasn’t the best for wildflowers, we still tripped to the desert state park over spring break. We missed the flowers, and one of our days there was a bit too hot for us but it still was a great trip!

Anza Borrego State Park

Anza Borrego State Park lies in California’s Desert Region — in the Colorado Desert to be precise. It is California’s largest State Park, too. All of 600,000 acres, this park has desert fauna and flora, badlands, a dry lake, a slot canyon and dark skies to show you, when you visit.

The Anza in Anza Borrego is from Juan Bautista de Anza, the Spanish explorer who crossed the area in 1775 when he made his way up to San Francisco from colonial Mexico. And the Borrego refers to the sheep — the Big Horn Sheep — that is native to the area. We weren’t lucky enough to spot the sheep that the park was named after so I had to make do with a fridge magnet that had a picture of the park’s mascot.

Now the attractions of this state park are spread all over its acreage and it is not exactly easy to cover all of it in a day or maybe even your first visit. There are a lot of hikes you can go on, and there are some opportunities to do some off-roading, too; just make sure you have a 4-wheel drive or see if you can rent a vehicle for the purpose.

Sights from the visitor center area

Our first stop was the visitor center, which is in a quiet and concealed corner of the park. And I would say that was a great place to start because not only was it a place to ask about the current conditions of the park and clear my doubts about the hikes and POIs, but it also has a garden you must see.

Just in front of the visitor center is a desert garden that showcased all the plants that are endemic to the area. Having gone in spring but not in a super bloom year, this was where I got to see some desert wildflowers. I may not have had my fill of the desert blossoms but it sure satisfied my curiosity about desert wildflowers. And the plants were all labelled so it helped to get an understanding of the vegetation of the Colorado Desert.

I also slipped away from the family to peek out at the views from the top of the visitor center. There on the bridge, I caught some sweeping views of the vast desert region, its limited greenery and the mountains that fortress the area.

Borrego Badlands

One of the best views from our visit to this desert state park was that of the Borrego Badlands. To see this place we got on to S22, drove eastward (on the road to Salton Sea) and went off-road to Fonts Point.

It is recommended that you have an all-wheel-drive vehicle to visit this area. We were in an Acura MDX and it worked just fine. The drive was through a close-to-4-mile unpaved path. However, it took us a good 20 minutes through sandy-rocky desert terrain spotted with shrubs and fairly-short trees.

The drive to the parking area of Fonts Point gave us no hints of what we were about to see. And then we parked, walked up a sandy slope and stopped short at a deep drop in front of us! I had done my pre-trip homework and knew I was there to see some badlands but it was still a jaw-dropping sight  — the expansive badland that stretched out from where my feet were, the vastness of the land before me and the details that nature etched into the badlands!

Erosion Road

The part of the park that takes you towards Salton Sea is also called Erosion Road. And it was from this road that we had turned off to Fonts Point. However, Erosion Road itself is a 21-mile road and it’s paved so you don’t need a 4WD vehicle to drive through it and take in the crude beauty of the landscape.

When we drove this way, we found that most of the points where you get off Erosion Road did not have signs, and the mile markers didn’t exactly match with the leaflet we had picked up at the visitor center. It was a good drive though because it was an unhurried drive. There weren’t many wheels on the road and there were places where we could stop and take in the sights and take pictures, too.

Now even if they were all marked, we’d have only gotten off at a couple of points as it was a hot day. With the temperatures flirting with 90 degrees, I was thankful that Fonts Point was not one of the sights we missed!

Towards the end of the drive, we passed a few areas where you can go dirt driving on ATVs and there seemed to be different areas for drivers of different experience levels. We drove all the way eastward to Salton City and set eyes on the saline lake there, before we drove back to Borrego Springs.

The Slot

Another thing that was high on my list of things to do in Anza Borrego Desert State Park was to hike through its slot canyon.

Now The Slot as this canyon is called, is situated off Highway 78 (CA 78) and also requires a bit of going off the paved roads to get to it. And yes, like several other areas in the park, a four-wheel-drive vehicle is needed here, too.

The drive was shorter and through a more open area as compared to the Fonts Point Drive. At the parking area, we paid a $10 fee for day use and set off on the hike. We were thinking of doing just a part of the hike through the slot and then retracing our steps. But the weather was good and we enjoyed the narrow trail that squeezed through the light-colored canyon, so we ended up doing the whole loop which came up to around 3 miles.

I was so so thankful for the winds that blew that way that day. It did blow some dust around, sand onto our faces and hair but it was a blessing considering we were in the Colorado Desert with no shade once we were out of the slot canyon. And 3/4th of the hike was out in the open. Let alone make it bearable, the wind actually let us enjoy the hike through the desert. I must warn you though that there is a part of the trail where you have a fairly steep sandy slope to go up, halfway into the hike.

I got tired towards the end of the ascent but a 5-minute stop, a water break and the whistling wind at the end of that ascend energized me for the rest of the walk through the arid landscape. I thoroughly enjoyed the hike. So did the kids. We then went and treated ourselves to some Pizza at Carleez.

On the way out of the area, I got my turn at the wheel to do some Anza Borrego off-roading. And there was a little more of it when we left the paved roads again at Galena Meadows to see the metal Sculptures that Borrego Springs is known for.

That, in another post.

More Trip ideas:
Deserts
Another must-see Slot Canyon – Antelope Canyon

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