Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California is the largest state park in California and the second largest state park in the United States (after Adirondack State Park in New York). The park is located on the eastern side of San Diego County, with portions extending east into Imperial County and north into Riverside County. It is about a two-hour drive from San Diego, Riverside and Palm Springs. The park is named after Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and the Spanish word borrego, or Bighorn Sheep.
500 miles (804 km) of dirt roads, 12 wilderness areas and miles of hiking trails provide visitors with an opportunity to experience the wonders of the Colorado Desert. The park features washes, wildflowers, palm groves, cacti, ocotillo and sweeping vistas. Visitors may also have the chance to see greater roadrunner, golden eagles, kit foxes, mule deer and bighorn sheep as well as iguanas, chuckwallas and the red diamond rattlesnake. Listening devices for the hearing impaired are available in the visitor center.
Most visitors approach from the east via California Highways S22, S2, or 78. Visitors from San Diego via Highways 79 and 78 have the added pleasure of driving through the mountainous Cuyamaca Rancho State Park—quite a different experience from Anza-Borrego. The highways from the east climb to 2,400 feet (731 m) or so and then descend about 2,000 feet (609 m) to the valley. Where the highway breaks out of the high-country vegetation, it reveals the great bowl of the Anza-Borrego desert. The valley spreads below, and there are mountains all around. The highest are to the north—the Santa Rosa Mountains. The mountains are a wilderness, with no paved roads in or out or through. They have the only all-year-flowing watercourse in the park. They are the home of the peninsular bighorn sheep, often called the Desert Bighorn. Few park visitors ever see them; the sheep are justly wary. A patient few observers each year see and count them, to learn how this endangered species is coping with human encroachment.
There are 500 miles of off-road trails in the state park, and 110 miles of bike and hiking trails.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is one of 55 California State Parks with wi-fi access in one or more areas.
[edit] External links
- Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association
- Photos of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - Terra Galleria
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
- Official park website
- Anza-Borrego on Dirtopia
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
[edit] Bibliography
- Halford, Robin (2005). Hiking in Anza-Borrego Desert: Over 100 Half-Day Hikes (Anza Borrego Desert Natural History Association, Borrego Springs). ISBN 09180513X .
- Lindsay, Diana (2001). Anza-Borrego A to Z: People, Places, and Things (Sunbelt Publications, San Diego). ISBN 0932653421.
- Lindsay, Lowell and Lindsay, Diana (2006). The Anza-Borrego Desert Region: A Guide to the State Park and Adjacent Areas of the Western Colorado Desert. Fifth Edition (Wilderness Press, Berkeley). ISBN 0899974007.
 Penninsular Bighorn Sheep in Anza-Borrego. ©2005 Eric A. Schiff. |
 An Ocotillo plant common in Anza-Borrego. ©2006 David Corby. |
 A lone Desert Marigold pushes its way through the cracked, sun hardened desert after a rare and substantial rainfall (Spring 2004). © 2004 Dean Syrengelas. |
