Exploring in Anza Borrego Desert State Park - Inspiration Wash and Borrego Mountain Area

I'm still working on the blog posts for the rest of our California Coast Road Trip, but Saturday looked like it was going to be way too nice of a day to stay indoors. Even though it was raining in San Diego I knew it would be nice on the other side of the mountains in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. I gathered up a few friends and we headed out for a day of exploration. 

Anza Borrego Desert State Park covers over 600,000 acres, making it the largest state park in California, and the second largest in the continental US. It covers 1/5 of San Diego County. There are about 500 miles of dirt roads within the park boundaries - but depending on the conditions sometimes those "roads" can be a bit rough in places. We stuck to mostly easy trails on Saturday, with a few tight spots and soft sand along the way to keep it interesting. Here are a few images.

Inspiration Wash, at the northern end of the Park, starts out wide and flat, climbs up to an overlook point, and then drops down a narrow trail that looks more a like a waterslide filled with soft sand and rocks than a road.

You can see the s-curve of the trail in the bottom center of the next shot, taken from the overlook point. 

The trail is on the edge of an area called the Borrego Badlands. Not a lot of vegetation on the hillsides in this area. It's really soft and crumbly, in places the crust looks like elephant hide from a distance.

We passed by some sand dunes, and found some coyote tracks.

After lunch we stopped at the San Gregorio Monument. Anyone who's been here, and who knows Heather, will realize that she had to be jumping up in order for me to get this picture. The back of the monument is taller than she is, and there is nothing to climb on. I timed my shot just right. The plaque marks the spot where the Anza expedition of 1774 might have been. "Somewhere in this narrow valley, perhaps on this very spot . . ."  Sounds a bit nebulous to me.

Heading east in San Felipe Wash.

Heading up and over the Goat Trail. Great views from up there. The Xterra works really well for this sort of exploring.

A single cholla cactus in the late afternoon sun.

With the low sun at our backs we spotted our shadows across the canyon. Rae and I had to get some pictures - Heather, Jen and Rochelle played along.

As the sun set behind the mountains we headed for the pavement, aired our tires back up, and drove home. Another great day in the desert.

Click here to see a few more images from Anza Borrego Desert State Park on Saturday, December 14, 2012.