california state parks

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Date of Visit:  February 24 – 27th, 2020

Our first multi-day trip in our Scamp was in the desert at this beautiful State Park about a 2 hour drive from our home in San Diego. Our neighbor and friend Dewey organizes a trip here every February with a bunch of friends and invited us to come along this year.

We stayed in Borrego Palm Canyon campground within the park. The campground is surrounded by mountains, where the big horn sheep (borregos) can be spotted. We chose site #14 next to Dewey and we had full hookups. The full hookup spot cost us $35 / night plus a $7.99 online reservation fee through the California State Parks website.  If you are good with dry camping, less expensive sites can be reserved as well. There is a central dump and water available for dry campers.

The campground was very quiet and well organized, despite being very popular. We had some cell phone service with Verizon. It can be very hot here during parts of the year (e.g. Summer), so best to reserve Late Fall, Winter, or early Spring. There are nice trails (e.g. Surprise Canyon) and a great visitor center (with some nice t-shirts and other Anza mementos). The visitor center also provides short films on the desert as well as information on Ranger guided hikes.

Our days were spent relaxing in the Scamp, making meals, hiking on the trails, shopping in the visitor center and watching some nature movies there, going into town and visiting shops and restaurants, exploring the metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows, sitting by the campfire and enjoying nightly shared dinner with our bunch of friends, and watching the stars at night. With no moon, the heavens are incredibly bright and one can spend hours looking up and pondering the universe on a dark night.

The little town of Borrego Springs (a few miles away from the campground) offers some nice restaurants and some nice camping supply stores. It reminded of us of an old Western town lost in time from decades ago. We purchased some UV sleeves, UV buff, and a multiple stage metal canteen at one of the shops.

The things that we really enjoyed at Anza Borrego were the dramatic starry nights (pitch black space with millions and millions of stars), hiking on the desert trails, the desert metal sculptures at Goleta Meadows just outside the park, the great Mexican food at Carmelita’s,… and making new friends!