12/17 Anza Borrego State Park, Borrego Springs, CA

I have been here before, but it is a very scenic and peaceful place to spend a few days, so I invited a friend from New York to join me, so I am back for 9 days.  Because this is not quite the busy season, the campground had empty spaces.  However, the second day after we arrived, the power went out because of Santa Ana winds.  The county of San Diego and the power company wanted to make sure power lines that might fall would cause fires.  And this part of California is under a severe drought right now. 

However, I have a generator and good house batteries, so we did fine.  Power came back a little sooner than expected, so that was nice. 

The drive into Borrego Springs is over a range of mountains and steeply downhill for the last few miles.  In fact, I was not careful and my brakes ended up smoking a bit about 3/4 of the way down.  I called CoachNet, and they said it was OK to drive my vehicle as long as my brakes were working well, which they were. 

As you can see, this is desert, and there has been no rain here for many months.  Also too early for any cactus or other plants to be in bloom, but it is still a beautiful place.

Looking down to the small village of Borrego Springs.  The state park campground is only about a mile from the town, but a large part of the area is part of this very large state park.

A close-up of Borrego Springs.

The state park visitor center is mostly underground, with the entrance on the opposite side from the parking lot. 

 

 

There is a very nice paved sidewalk to the campground from the visitor center.  It is about 1/4 mile long

The campground in the distance.

 

 

Some large California palms.

The campground itself. 

 

 

 

Individual restrooms and showers, but the showers take tokens--2 minutes for 25 cents. 

 

 

Two more, even bigger California palms.  They can be identified by their thicker stalks than the Mexican palms that are common in Florida.  

 

 

We drove back to San Diego by a slightly different route, but even it was beautiful.  A bit more curvy than I expected, but not too steep.  Only problem is that after a hour or so of this driving, your shoulders and arms get tired of steering around all the curves. 

Next stop today was Cabrillo National Monument, but I will post about that tomorrow when I am less tired!!