Borrego Springs & Anza-Borrego
A cool-month desert day of palms, badlands, steel creatures, and carefully chosen roads.
Every list that covers Borrego Springs & Anza-Borrego
Updated as places change
The neighborhood itself
7 verified places · 0 eat & drink and 3 things-to-do listsAnza-Borrego is worth the drive for the landscape, but the good day is smaller than the map suggests. Start at first light with the three-mile Borrego Palm Canyon Trail, use the visitor center for current conditions, then choose either the Galleta Meadows sculptures or Font's Point—not every distant pin at once. Keep Carlee's Place for dinner in Borrego Springs.
Font's Point requires an appropriate 4WD vehicle in deep sand, so keep a paved-road backup and check the State Parks road report. Plan active stops for November through March, carry extra water, and stay out of washes when rain is forecast nearby.
If you only do 5 things
1Anza-Borrego Visitor Centerorient2Borrego Palm Canyon Trailhike3Galleta Meadowsart4Font's Point4wd5Carlee's PlacedinnerKnow before you go
Heat: summer hiking here is dangerous; plan active stops for the cool months and carry more water than the route appears to require
Dirt roads: Font's Point requires an appropriate 4WD vehicle in deep sand — check the State Parks road report before leaving pavement
Flash floods: skip washes and slot canyons when rain is forecast anywhere nearby; mobile service disappears across large parts of the park
Where they are — 7 verified places
The index
Ranked places pulled from all 3 listsOnce you're back on pavement, head for the Anza-Borrego Visitor Center at the west end of Palm Canyon Drive in Borrego Springs.
Borrego Palm Canyon is the park's signature hike, and the trailhead is at Borrego Palm Canyon Campground, at the far end of the same road as the Visitor Center.
Across the valley floor around Borrego Springs stands a menagerie made of metal: horses, elephants, hawks, a scorpion, a grasshopper, a giant ground sloth, dinosaurs, even a serpent.
After a morning of rock and sand, lunch at Carlee's Place is the reset the whole day leans on.