Anza-borrego Desert

Introducing Anza-borrego Desert

This untamed desert - centered on 600, 000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - has some of the most spectacular scenery and wildlife in southeastern California. While it lacks the magnetism and facilities of Death Valley or Joshua Tree, it has myriad untrammeled byways to explore, all within reach of the retro delights of Borrego Springs resort.

The human history here goes back more than 10, 000 years, as recorded by Native American petroglyphs. Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza passed through in the mid-1770s, pioneering a colonial trail from Mexico. Borrego is the Spanish word referring to the millions of Peninsular bighorn sheep that once ranged here as far south as Baja California. Now only a few hundred survive, mostly inside state park refuges.

The enormous and little-developed Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (the largest in the USA outside of Alaska) occupies over a fifth of San Diego County. Depending on winter rains, the park’s spring wildflowers can be absolutely stunning. The flowers blossom in late February at lower elevations and reach their best over the next two months at successively higher levels, but the peak typically lasts less than two weeks. Summers start in May here in the low desert and are extremely hot, more so than in Joshua Tree. The average daily maximum temperature in July is 107°F, but it can reach 125°F.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009