Located a few hours east of San Diego and Los Angeles, and about an hour and half drive south of Palm Springs in the state of California, is the largest state park in all of the lower 48 states, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK
At 935 square miles, it would take some serious time to explore, and likely the desert would consume you before you got to the point of bragging about being an expert on it.
For the purposes of today, we will set out to show how you can explore one small area of this true remarkable space in a day, with time to spare to even see the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain if you are ambitious…as I am when it comes to checking out new places!
BORREGO SPRINGS
I suggest you find your way to Borrego Springs first. There are a few places to stay that have good reviews, although I chose to drive from Palm Springs where I was staying and make it a day trip. Because of time restrictions, I didn’t get to do all the things on my bucket list for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, so I do recommend staying overnight at least one night to be able to thoroughly enjoy the area. I have to come back and see a few more trails and areas. When I do that, I will either stay at the Borrego Valley Inn, or the La Casa Del Zorro.
GALLETA MEADOWS
Hopefully you’ve set out early, because the desert can get VERY hot! I suggest checking out the metal sculptures of Galleta Meadows scattered in the desert landscape off roads near the town of Borrega Springs. For a map of locations for each of the 130 I suggest taking a screenshot of the map on their website https://underthesunfoundation.org/ and picking out which sculptures you’ll want to see. They are spread out over 1500 acres, so it would be challenging to see them all in a day! We decided to see the ones located nearby and all within a general area, along Borrego Springs Road and Bighorn Road.
We stuck to the ones close to the road, so we weren’t hiking deep into the desert in the heat of the day, since we’d already been exploring at the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain, so it was early afternoon when we arrived.
Some of our favorites were the Serpent (which is on both sides of the road and is truly massive!), Sabertooth Cat, Mammoth, and Scorpion/Grasshopper.There was a motorcycle club gathered at the Serpent so we weren’t able to get the best pictures of it, but clearly we had a lot of fun with the Scorpion/Grasshopper, which reminded me of an old sci-fi movie prop.
On another trip, I will check out the dinosaurs, but those weren’t near the road and we weren’t up for tackling that on this venture. We cleverly never told our son about those sculptures. After taking your time looking at the sculptures, head back into town for some lunch at Carmelita’s, facebook.com/carmelitasborregoCarlee’s carleesplace.com, or Red Ocotillo
TRIBAL TRADING POST
Be sure to check out the Tribal Trading Post that has smaller versions of the sculptures displayed on a cute little trial and inside a shop, and maybe take home one of your own. Might I suggest the T-Rex or Phoenix?
Pro Tips:
- Go early in day, or just before dusk – makes for great pictures and keeps you out of the heat.
- Park along the road, do NOT drive into the sand, people frequently make this mistake and get stuck.
- Be respectful of the sculptures, do not touch, climb or otherwise damage them.
- Be courteous to others. I’ve found that a great way to make sure you get a chance to get your photo in, is to offer to take a picture for the people taking up the space. They usually love it, and then will take your pic or nicely move aside so you have your turn.
- Think ahead to which ones are on your “must see” list and focus on that area.
Have you been to Galleta Meadows or Anza-Borrego Desert State Park? Please, leave a comment and let me know what needs to be on my must-do list next time I visit!
1 comment
Greg
Love it!