Anza Borrego and Julian California
November 8th – 14th, 2021 (6 nights)
After recently returning from cool Oregon, we thought it might be nice to take a warm sunny trip to the California desert followed by a visit to a local mountain town. Since we really enjoyed the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground in Anza Borrego State Park a couple of years ago (our very first Scamping trip), we scheduled a return visit. The campground is only a couple of hours drive from our home in San Diego and offers some great hiking and biking as well as a cute desert town (Borrego Springs) with its fun shops and tasty restaurants. When we arrived in the late afternoon to our full hookup site (#A26), it was warm (in the low 80s) and the sun was casting a red glow on the desert sand. Surrounded by cactus and wide open space, there is a unique kind of vibe in the desert which one feels as soon as stepping outside. Tall mountains serve as a dramatic backdrop to the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground whose campsites are nestled right up to rocky mountain’s edges. After setting up our Scamp 13’, we took a long walk around the campground before watching a movie and going to sleep.
The next morning our goal was to hike the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail, a 2.9 mile trail that leads to the third largest palm oasis in California (with California’s only native species of palm, the Fan palm). The trail was closed when we were at the park our first time a couple of years ago due to recovery from a fire, so we were looking forward to seeing the oasis. We left early to avoid the heat and followed the trail up to a v-shaped gorge where we glimpsed the palm grove (note: the waterfall wasn’t visible when we visited). Along the way, we kept our eyes open for bighorn sheep on the mountain ledges above us, but these elusive animals remained out of our sight during our hike. When we reached the oasis we spent a few minutes appreciating the spectacle of the huge grove of tall palm trees in the middle of the desert. A handful of other hikers were also enjoying the same experience at the viewpoint. We didn’t spend too long at the top because it was starting to get hot and we still had about an hour hike back to the campground. Returning to the campground was easier than reaching the palm oasis because it was mostly hiking back down the mountain to the desert floor. Note: always hike with a partner and bring plenty of water if attempting this hike because it can get very hot here and there is no cell phone reception on this desert/mountain trail.
Once rested after our morning hike, we decided to ride our bikes into town and have lunch at Carmelita’s (Mexican food). We were really glad we brought our bikes along because the roads are mostly wide open and flat and having bikes makes it really convenient to explore. We even road our mountain bikes across portions of desert sand and it was really fun. The bike trip into town was an easy 15 minute ride. We sat with our bikes at Carmelitas on their outside patio and enjoyed a fantastic lunch (chips and salsa followed by excellent chicken mole enchiladas). After lunch, we browsed items at the Borrego Outfitters shop next door (two years ago we purchased really interesting metal interlocking canteens and UV sun sleeves here). Then, we biked to the Anza Borrego State Park Visitor’s Center on the West end of the park and purchased some t-shirts. After all the day’s excitement, we enjoyed watching the stars in the evening. Anza Borrego State Park achieved its International Dark Sky Park rating in 2018 and, as such, is recognized as a premier place for stargazing. We retired in the Scamp after a long and fun day and watched a movie before bed.
We asked one of the park rangers if it would be OK to delay checkout from Noon until around 12:45 p.m. and we were told that was fine. We wanted to eat lunch before stopping off at Bike Borrego (a local ebike tour company) to pick up a new bike lock (the one we recently purchased had failed). The owner could only meet us at 1 p.m. to sell us one of his locks (and there are no other bike stores in town). After purchasing our new bike lock, we drove an hour and a half to our next destination, the Salton Sea. Unfortunately, conditions were not pleasant at the Salton Sea. It was 88 degrees with many small flying insects and the air smelled of rotten eggs. The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, was formed from runoff of the Colorado River in the early 1900s. In the 1950’s and 60’s it became a resort destination. Bird watching was also popular as the wetlands were a major resting stop on the Pacific Flyway. In the 1980s, contamination from farm runoff promoted the outbreak and spread of diseases. Massive numbers of birds and fish died. During this time, large amounts of water evaporated which resulted in very high salinity, further destroying fish and other wildlife. What remains is a toxic wasteland. It’s not recommended to go into or touch the water and the air often smells. The air smell is caused by elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide gas coming from the Salton Sea (it’s a highly toxic gas created by organic decay in the absence of oxygen at the bottom of the Salton Sea). Needless to say, we left the Salton Sea Mecca Beach Campground after only about 5 minutes. We called ahead to our next planned stop in Julian, William Heise County Park, and fortunately were told we could arrive a couple of days early as our campsite was open!
We arrived at William Heise campground in the charming mountain town of Julian right around sunset after a two hour drive from the Salton Sea. We usually like arriving to campgrounds earlier in the day as it’s easier to see the campsite, locate a good pad position for the Scamp, and set everything up. However, this was an unusual circumstance and we didn’t have much of a choice on timing. Fortunately, we were able to quickly find our campsite (#41) and get everything in order because as soon as we finished setting up, it became extremely dark. We chose a non-hookup site because the hookup sites at this campground are only partial (water & electric) and generally not as spaced out as the non-hookup sites. There are water spigots located throughout the campground which we used to fill our Fresh Water tank daily. And, we used our solar panel briefcase and Jackery 500 lithium battery to supply all the power we needed. There is also a free central dump at this campground (which we used in combination with our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution to avoid having to move our Scamp). The weather was nice and cool in the afternoon and evening (a relief from the 88 degree temperatures we left a couple of hours earlier). Daytime temperatures, in the 70’s, were also much cooler than the desert as Julian is located at over 4,000 feet elevation.
Julian is an old gold mining town where the gold rush happened in the 1850s. Since then, apples and tourism have become the town’s new gold, and pie and gift shops line main street. Julian is a very popular day trip destination for people who live in San Diego and Los Angeles because it’s only a two or three hour drive respectively. People come here for the day to visit the apple orchards in the early Fall and throughout the year to eat apple, apple berry, and other varieties of pies. Downtown Julian is about a 12-minute drive from William Heise County Park, which we found was good because downtown was very busy when we visited! We did venture downtown a few times for the mandatory sampling of some of the different types of apple pies at both the Julian Pie Co. and the Julian Café and Bakery! But, we mostly enjoyed staying in the campground and hiking the numerous trails (e.g. Cedar Creek Trail, Canyon Oak Trail, Desert View/Glen’s View Trail). The Desert View Trail with a hike up to the Glen’s View outlook is notable because at the peak one can see both Anza Borrego and the Salton Sea on one side and San Diego and the ocean on the other. Because we arrived two days early, we had ample amount of time to explore Julian and the William Heise County Park. One interesting stop before leaving on our last day was the Julian Wolf Center. We were able to observe a couple of wolf packs on our one hour wolf conservation tour ($30/each). The center seeks to breed wolves and release wolf pups back into the wild. We found the wolf center to be an interesting experience.
This relatively short trip reinforced a couple of our Scamp travel principles. First, travel to locations which have favorable weather conditions for a more comfortable trip. We did find both Anza Borrego and Julian to have very favorable weather conditions this time of year (Fall). Second, be open-minded and flexible if you don’t feel comfortable at the campsite to which you pull up. And, have your usernames and passwords with you for all your campground reservation websites in case you need to cancel your reservation, make a change, or make a new reservation. If you do need to cancel at the last minute because you don’t want to stay at the campsite (like in our case with the Salton Sea), you will likely forfeit at least a day’s campsite fee (which usually isn’t much), but it will be worth an overall more enjoyable trip!
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