Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK
Shaped by an ancient sea and tectonic forces, enormous and little-developed
Anza-Bor-
Dr; park 24hr, visitors center 9am-5pm daily Oct-Apr, Sat, Sun & hol only May-Sep; )
covers
640,000 acres, making it the largest state park in the USA outside Alaska. Human history
here goes back more than 10,000 years, as recorded by Native American pictographs and
petroglyphs. The park is named for Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, who arrived in
1774, pioneering a colonial trail from Mexico and no doubt running into countless
borre-
gos,
the wild peninsular bighorn sheep that once ranged as far south as Baja California.
(Today only a few hundred of these animals survive due to drought, disease, poaching and
off-highway driving.) In the 1850s Anza-Borrego became a stop along the Butterfield stage-
coach line, which delivered mail between St Louis and San Francisco.
Winter and spring are high seasons. Depending on winter rains, wildflowers bloom brilli-
antly, albeit briefly, starting in late February. Summers are extremely hot; the daily average
temperature in July is 107°F (41°C), but it can reach 125°F (51°C).
Sights & Activities
The park's main town,
Borrego Springs
(population 3429) has a handful of restaurants and
lodgings. Nearby are the park visitors center and easy-to-reach sights, such as Borrego Palm
Canyon and Fonts Point, that are fairly representative of the park as a whole. The Split
Mountain area, east of Ocotillo Wells, is popular with off-highway vehicles (OHVs), but
also contains interesting geology and spectacular wind caves. The desert's southernmost re-
gion is the least visited and, aside from Blair Valley, has few developed trails and facilities.
Many of the sights are accessible only by dirt roads. To find out which roads require
4WD vehicles, or are currently impassable, check the signboard inside the park visitors cen-
ter.
