Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Since moving to San Diego, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has quickly become my favorite hiking and camping destination. Personally, I like it even better than Joshua Tree and Mojave national parks. Anza-Borrego is especially great if you have a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle since there are so many OHV trails in this park. Anza-Borrego is massive, covering over 600k acres. I’ve visited a handful of times now, and still have more that I want to explore.

So, here are some of the highlights of my experience in this amazing desert park.

Carrizo Canyon and Goat Canyon Trestle

I discovered this trail on social media, someone had posted a photo of one of these abandoned rail cars with a short description of the hike. From there I spiraled into my research of the trail which is how I first learned about Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and decided I must go.

This is a 16 mile trail that follows along the Carrizo Gorge Railway, which originally connected San Diego to Yuma, but it has been long since abandoned and has become a very popular hike and urban artist’s canvas.

The trail begins on the southern border of the park, near Jacumba/Ocotillo. Driving there you will definitely pass a border patrol check point as it is only 15 min from the border to Mexico. You can pay $5 and park at the De Anza Resort where the trailhead begins. There are other starting points that take you to the Trestle, like Mortero Palms, but I wanted to see all the abandoned rail cars so I took the long way.

You just follow along the rails the whole way, but be careful because (allegedly) this rail line was recently purchased and there are plans for rebuilding the railroad… so there have been instances where people are caught trespassing. Legally you are supposed to be 15 feet to either side of the rails, but in most areas that is just impossible.

You will walk across many smaller trestles along the way, as well as walk through 10 or so tunnels of varying lengths. One of them was almost 1/2 a mile long and took me 15 minutes to walk through it! Make sure you bring a headlamp or flashlight because those tunnels are pitch black!!!

The trail is relatively flat, but there are some climbs along the way. A few of the tunnels are closed off due to collapse, but there are detours you can take around them.

At the end of this trail, you come to the Goat Canyon Trestle, the largest, free standing, wooden trestle in the world! 600 ft long and 200 ft high. It was built in 1933 and if you’re feeling brave enough, you can still walk across it today. I’m pretty sure I held my breath the whole way across, with sweaty palms and shaky knees. You can hear the wood creaking beneath your feet and the wind whistling between the beams. Don’t look down!

It was a pretty epic hike but I was exhausted by the end.

Mountain Palm Springs

This has been my go-to campground in the park. You can pretty much camp anywhere you want in the park (check the website for details before you go because I know that camping is closed right now due to Covid). There is a short trail, maybe 1-2 miles long that takes you to a lovely palm oasis. You can park in the parking lot, set up your tent and explore the oasis before settling in to your tent for the night.

This sight has a composting toilet and trash cans. It’s very close to some other great trails like Canyon Sin Nombre and the Arroyo Tapiado Mud caves, which I hope to go back and explore in the near future.

I usually set my tent up in the sandy wash, then climb to the top of the hill (behind me in the photo) to watch the sunset and observe the wildlife. I’ve seen coyotes, jack rabbits, and lots of hawks in this area.

The Slot

Another of the most popular places in the park is the Slot trail. It’s a short loop trail, maybe 2 miles long that takes you down into a slot canyon. There is no single clear trail here, and you can really explore the land as much as you want. Having GPS or a pre-downloaded map is very helpful if you are not familiar with the area. In fact this is a good thing to have anywhere in the park. I like to use AllTrails or the Hiking Project for tracking my hikes.

You begin on top of the canyon and can follow along the ridges until you dip down to the canyon floor. As you explore you will find some very wide canyons as well as slot canyons. I even got to see my first tarantula on this trail!! That was very exciting for me.

Galleta Meadows Sculpture Garden

Galleta Meadows is a super accessible feature of the park, you can drive right up to each of the sculptures, hop out and admire! They are huge metal “sky art” sculptures of different animals, mythical and not. The art is inspired by late artist and landowner of Galleta Meadows, Dennis Avery.

For a map of all the sculptures, check here: https://underthesunfoundation.org/content/1-visit-us/sky-art-map.pdf

Clark Dry Lake

Clark’s Dry Lake is very easily accessible if you have a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle, which I do not. I started driving down Rockhorse Trail road, a sandy dirt road. The sand got progressively softer as I continued along and I didn’t want to risk getting stuck, so I pulled into a turn-out and parked. I walked the rest of the way, following atv trails, really just wandering through the desert, just heading in the direction of the lake. I even saw a coyote trotting from bush to bush. The lake itself is hard, dry, cracked, earth and so fun to run around on.

Fonts Point

I backpacked and camped on this trail, and it is by far my favorite memory from this park. I parked at the trailhead (again, because I do not have a 4WD vehicle) and hiked the 4 miles out to Font’s Point.

The road/trail is very soft sand and pretty difficult to hike through. I found it easier to stay on the edges, or on harder earth to the sides. The lookout over the badlands at Font’t Point is breathtaking, especially at sunset (and sunrise!).

I continued on the trail which follows the ridge towards Vista del Malpais, until I found flat ground that looked like it had been used for camping before. You know, trying to make minimal impact.

It was a very windy and cold night, but the views were so incredible that it was worth waking up numerous times throughout the night from the tent flapping violently in the wind, and having to pee about 4 times.

Calcite Mine

Further down the road from Fonts Point is another awesome trail, the 4 mile Calcite Mine Trail, or the longer, 8 mile Palm Canyon Trail, both start at the same trailhead. You begin above the canyon and quickly dip down into it, getting deeper and deeper into the canyon, as the walls narrow in around you.

I think there are geodes and crystals you can dig up in this area, I saw a lot of smashed remnants along the trail. I gotta look into that… I’d love to dig up my own crystals.

Closing Notes:

Located only 2 hours from San Diego, I am looking forward to getting to know this park better over this coming year. It’s already my favorite and I haven’t even explored the pictograph trail, mud caves, wind caves, or flower fields! Hopefully it opens back up soon and I can go camping again!

Links

Check this link for a map of the park: https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/638/files/abdsp_Park_Map201704.pdf

The park is currently closed to camping, so make sure you check the website or call the office for info before you go! https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638