Although it’s only two hours east of San Diego’s beaches, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a world apart from the city and coast. On the eastern side of the Peninsular Ranges, which block most storms coming in off the Pacific, California’s largest state park protects 600,000 acres of desert terrain, including dramatic badlands, cool palm oases, twisting slot canyons, and cactus-studded slopes.
A geology lesson in the making, the park’s striking landscape is in continual flux from flash floods, seismic action, and erosion. This once covered mud basin has had millions of years to transform into a beautiful – yet stark landscape of twisted rock, uplifted mud, bizarre features and shapes, along with slot canyons, steep cliffs and narrow crevasses. The covered mud basin has been pushed up by geologic rock formations that thrusted the mud into high twisted sculptures. It was amazing to try and figure out how the rock was able to shape create these beautiful textures and shapes.
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Below is a video of four-wheel travel through the canyons.
Our camp was regularly visited by a little fox hunting for snacks.
Click on a photo below for a larger view.
All of the canyon walls consist of loose mud that has been here for millions of years. Just touching walls shows how unstable and fragile Anza-Borrego is.
While driving out of the park we found the road blocked with a camper trying to be pulled out of the sand. The guys in the truck didn’t know how to pull-out a vehicle but my buddy Jimmy knew everything and had all of the equipment to do the job. The woman took her camper down a road she shouldn’t have. Just six inches of loose sand can trap an unskilled camper in an inappropriate vehicle. Jimmy saves the world.