galleta meadows

Why We Prefer Primitive Campsites in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
January 25^th – 28^th, 2022 (3 nights)

Having already enjoyed this beautiful desert state park a couple times in the past, we thought it would be fun to come back and try out the primitive campground area within the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground.  We like this campground because it’s only a couple of hours drive from our home in San Diego and has a nice warm desert vibe.  There’s great hiking and biking as well, along with a cute town which can be reached by bike.  There are numerous good restaurants along with interesting shops.  We stayed at the hookup area on our previous two visits.  The hookup area campsites are relatively close together and offer direct connections to electric, water, and sewer.  Many “snowbird” campers staying a week or longer to escape miserable winters at home (and often with large motorhomes) are common visitors at these sites.

On our first visit a couple of years ago, we admired some of the more private and scenic campsites in the “primitive” area of the campground at the base of the mountains.  These “primitive” sites offer no hookups, but there are water spigots near the campsites and a central dump station at the campground entrance.  At that time, we walked the entire campground and wrote down in our travel log all of our favorite primitive campsites, hoping to try one on a future visit.

When we received a text from friends in Sept. 2021 saying they were going to Borrego Palm Canyon campground in January 2022, we immediately reserved site #108 (based on our best campsite notes from our log book).  At that time, “dry” sites like this one without hookups cost $25/night with a $7.99 online reservation fee.  The hookup sites were $35/night.  But, just recently, prices for both types of sites increased $10/night (now $35/night dry and $45/night hookups)!  Some of the nicest primitive campsites are located at the back of the campground adjacent to the entrance of 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 desert pup fish pond is also near the entrance of the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail.  These tiny (about 2.5 inches in length) rare endangered fish are able to survive in environments of extreme salinity, pH, and temperature, and low oxygen content.  You may have to be patient, but if you walk around the pond you will likely see some darting about.

When we arrived on a late January afternoon at our primitive campsite (#108), it was warm (in the low 70s) but the campsite was already in deep shade as it is at the base of one of the tall mountains behind which the sun sets in midafternoon.  The first thing we noticed is how roomy and private the primitive campsites are compared to the hookup area.  There are water spigots throughout the primitive campground and there is one right next to site #108.  Since we had a water spigot and also set up our solar panels, we had no issues with water or power during our three night stay.  We did bring our “holy grail portable grey water tank solution”, but decided instead to use the free central dump station at the entrance to the park since we also wanted to dump our black tank.   It only took us about thirty minutes total to hitch up our Scamp, drive down to the central dump, dump, and then set the Scamp up again on a weekday morning.  The primitive sites are still within walking distance to the main campground, so we were able to visit friends by taking a 15 minute walk or riding our bikes down to their hookup campsites.

On our second day, we had fun touring the metal sculptures (over 130 of them) in Galleta Meadows on our bikes.  These large metal shaped sculptures of people, animals and fantasy creatures are spread out over miles of desert, but the terrain is on flat quiet paved back roads, making the bike ride easy.  The metal artworks were created by artist Ricardo Breceda for Dennis Avery (of Avery labels), owner of Galleta Meadows.  It took us several hours to see almost all the sculptures.  We started our ride in the morning and ended with a nice late lunch at Pablito’s Mexican Bar & Grill in town.  By the time we finally made it back to the campground, we were tired as the gentle grade down to town turns into a lengthy gradual climb on the way back!  The entire loop is around twelve miles, which isn’t too much when on a bike, especially given most of the ride is very flat.  We were really glad we brought our bikes on this trip because the roads are mostly wide open and flat and having bikes makes it really convenient to explore.  The bike trip into town is an easy 15 minute ride.

In addition to the privacy and space the primitive campground provides, we also found it to be quieter as well as darker at night.  We noticed that the population density of campers in the primitive campsite area to be significantly less than at the hookup area.  Probably as a result, the area seemed more peaceful without noticeable campground noise.  In addition, because RVs aren’t lined up close together in rows like at the hookup sites, some with outdoor lights on, the primitive area seemed much darker.  This is really important when enjoying the stars, which is particularly significant at this park.  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 experienced wonderful stargazing first hand during nights at the primitive campground.

A visit to Anza Borrego Desert State Park wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the Visitor’s Center.  This time, we walked the short flat paved trail from the campground to the center.  There are placards along the way with descriptions of the plants and animals seen in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  The center has a theater, gift, and book store filled with great things related to Anza Borrego Desert.  The staff in the store are also really helpful if one has questions about trails or anything else Anza Borrego related.  On this trip, we picked up one of the current season’s Anza Borrego t-shirt designs along with a warm knit beanie with a bighorn sheep logo.

Now that we’ve tried both the hookup and primitive campgrounds at Borrego Palm Canyon Campground in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, we can certainly recommend staying in the primitive campground for the many reasons explained above.  Overall, we found the stay at the primitive campground to be many factors more peaceful than our previous stays at the hookup area.  To be clear, we enjoyed our previous stays, but the primitive campground takes the desert experience to a new level.  Some nights we even heard animals (likely bighorn sheep) right outside our Scamp!  The quiet, the space, the peacefulness, and the darker skies without bright RV lights, definitely elevate the camping experience.  In addition, it’s also nice that it’s $10/night cheaper (at the time of this writing)!  Of course, there would be times when staying at the hookup campground might be preferable.  If we were planning on staying for an extended period of time and didn’t want the hassle of having to haul water from the spigot and driving to the central dump every four or five days (or needed power to run an AC or other energy hungry devices), then having hookups certainly makes things easier.  But, for us, we generally only stay a few days, and our main goal is to be in nature as much as possible.  And, that’s why we prefer primitive campsites in Anza Borrego Desert State Park … with more chances to see bighorn sheep!

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