Blair Valley Loop trail

Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
February 23rd – 25th 2026 (2 nights)

Sometimes a spontaneous midweek break is the perfect way to take an adventure.  And, fortunately, there are numerous wonderful places for outdoor adventures to be had near our home in San Diego.  Anza Borrego Desert State Park is one such place.  This beautiful desert oasis, located just two hours east of San Diego, generally has great weather in the winter and early spring.  It’s renown for spectacular wildflower blooms in the spring as well as dark skies for celestial viewing, and hiking trails with unique outdoor scenery.  It’s also an escape for many snowbirds from colder weather environments who fill up the campgrounds within the park during the winter.  Palm Canyon Campground is one of Anza Borrego’s most popular campgrounds and offers hookups for water and electric and is located near the city of Borrego Springs.  This campground has an excellent Visitor’s Center, fun trails, and is a quick bike ride to its cute little town.  It was the first campground we visited after we received our 2020 Scamp 13!  Check out our trip report here.

Although traditional campgrounds can be great, sometimes one just wants to get off the grid — get away from neat rows of RVs, get off the asphalt, not see so many people, and maybe just hear the wind, birds, and other wild animals.  And avoiding the daily rate to rent the campsite pad can be a nice bonus as well!  So, how is this done?  Fortunately, there are plenty of resources for how and where to free camp (also called boondocking) online.    Anza Borrego Desert SP has a website which outlines the free primitive campgrounds within the park.  The free primitive campgrounds are called primitive because they lack water, trash collections, and other amenities/hookups.  No permits and fees are needed at any of these campgrounds.  However, there are still rules — such as packing all trash out and not leaving any traces on the ground (along with many others rules).

Before going out to free camp (whether it’s in a tent, car, van, RV, or travel trailer), it’s important to have a good mastery of one’s equipment, be aware of what and the amount of resources will be used (e.g. food and water, clothing, power, etc.), and have backup / emergency plans in case things don’t go according to schedule (e.g. always let someone know where you will be going and for how long).  Free camping in a travel trailer, like the Scamp 13′, is really nice because the Scamp is fully self-contained with it’s own bedroom, kitchen (including stove and refrigerator), furnace, shower, and entertainment system.  Our Scamp has two onboard propane tanks (offering plenty of fuel to power our stove, hot water tank, and furnace for weeks).  There’s also an onboard lithium battery which provides a large power bank for onboard electronics (such as pumps and lights).  We carry an additional battery to power our Starlink for communications when there is no mobile phone service.  We also carry emergency supplies such as a first aid kit, shovel, off-road tire traction boards, lithium battery engine jump starter, and more.  Here’s a list of our essential items.  We use GAIA GPS and download offline maps for all campgrounds we visit as many adventure locations have no mobile service.

Our plan for this trip was to try “free camping” primitive campgrounds within Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  Blair Valley Primitive Campground and Culp Valley Primitive Campground are well reviewed online and within thirty minutes of each other.  Both campgrounds are high above the desert floor above Borrego Springs, offering 5 – 10 degree cooler weather.

Blair Valley Primitive Campground (2,500 feet elevation)
Our first stop (after fueling at a nearby gas station on a Reservation called Santa Ysabel Roadside, off Highway 79) was Blair Valley Primitive Campground.  It’s located right off the Great Southern Overland Stage Route (a small highway).  Access to the campground is hard dirt and was relatively easy to navigate on its roads.  Because of the rain a couple of weeks ago, there were very large and deep pools of water on some of the access roads, but we were able to avoid these by taking higher adjacent tracks.  The campground is located in a large valley and the number of campsites is expansive (but not expensive — since it’s free!).  Beware:  the farther one travels down into the valley’s access roads, the sandier the roads get.  There were lots of nice sites with plenty of site separation right near the entrance, so we chose one of these when we arrived.  There are pit toilets at the front entrance (good for tent and car campers).  It’s best to arrive mid-morning as the sites are first come first served.  Though, there were a number of sites available at all hours the two days we were there on Monday and Tuesday in late February.

We chose a campsite at the base of one of the boulder mountains surrounding the valley.  Many of the campsites are clearly defined with a firepit.  It was tricky getting our Scamp 13′ level, even using our leveler.  We learned that it’s best to orient the trailer in the direction of the hill as there is much more ability to level front to back with the hitch jack (many feet) than side to side with a leveler (usually only about 6″).  The campsites in the center of the valley, on the flats, were much easier for people to level up.  During our visit, we had 1 to 2 bars of Verizon mobile service — enough to send texts (although sending images was very slow).  There is no water here, nor trash receptacle nor dump station.  We made sure to bring 3 full six-gallon water jugs as well as arriving with our Scamp 13’s 12-gallon fresh water tank completely full.  We saw a handful of other campers during our visit and everyone was very friendly.  Some were travelling across the country.

There’s plenty to do in Blair Valley, and even if you want to just relax it’s great too.  Shortly after we arrived, two F35 fighter jets made a low pass over the valley and pulled out hard, making a radical bank as they turned away!  That was the most noise we heard during our two day stay!  We brought our mountain bikes and road on the Blair Valley Loop trail (sometimes very sandy), which goes on for miles.  There are Indian pictographs and other artifacts to be seen on this route.  There are a number of hiking trails in the area as well.  We enjoyed sitting outside and taking in the beautiful sites and sounds of Blair Valley.  At night, a large owl hooted from a branch extending from a rock outcropping directly overhead!  And, stargazing is incredible as this is a dark skies park.

Culp Valley Primitive Campground (3.400 ft. elevation)
Located about 35 minutes from Blair Valley, Culp Valley Primitive Campground is off Montezuma Valley Road S22 going down into Borrego Springs.  It’s the highest campground in the park and offers cooler temperatures than many of the other campgrounds.  The campground is down a small, almost hidden dirt road and is much smaller than Blair Valley Primitive Campground.  Coming from above, there is no sign, just the dirt road is visible.  A street sign saying Culp Valley Camp is posted for drivers coming up the S22 from Borrego Springs.  There are only about 12 campsites and we estimated only a handful were suitable for small travel trailers.  In turn, arriving here midweek and early in the day is essential.  We would recommend choosing one of the few campsites on the main road and avoiding the lower and higher roads (at least not without scouting them on foot first).  During our visit, the lower and higher roads were extremely rutted and would not be suitable for a travel trailer.

The Culp Valley is not as expansive as Blair Valley, but still is surrounded by mountains with plenty of boulders.  Just like Blair Valley, there are not many amenities other than pit toilets.  And like Blair Valley, the price was right (free)!  There is almost no Verizon service here (we received an occasional one bar).  However, at the top of the Culp Valley Trail, which is a high overlook to Borrego Springs below, there is excellent Verizon coverage!  The half-mile long trail is easy and well defined.  There’s a longer 2.2. mile hike to nearby Pena Springs as well.

Impressions of Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
Free Camping in Anza Borrego Desert State Park is amazing.  There are so many different options for camping and each provides a somewhat different experience.  We really enjoyed Blair Valley Primitive Campground for it’s beautiful natural environment and lots to explore.  Culp Valley Primitive Campground provides a smaller feel with a trail that offers a spectacular view of the Borrego Springs valley floor below.  It also is a bit cooler due to its higher elevation than the other campgrounds within the park.

For ease of access, Blair Valley Primitive Campground is the clear winner between these two campgrounds as it is easy to get into, there are seemingly almost an endless number of campsites (and often can accommodate large trailers), and the roads are in better condition (or were at least during our visit).  Blair Valley also provides a nice loop for mountain bike riding.

Free camping takes the visceral feel of nature to another level beyond traditional camping.  Being immersed in all the scenery — the sights and sounds of plants, animals, and stars — without so many people and asphalt around creates an elevated experience.  For those perhaps intimidated to try free camping due to the isolation, Anza Borrego Desert State Park makes the experience easy as the campsite areas are often marked and there are usually other campers and park employees around to provide assistance if necessary.

We can’t wait to return for the Spring wildflower bloom (and perhaps super bloom due to all the rain)!  Perhaps we will try another one of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park’s free campgrounds!

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