Anza-Borrego Desert State Park California

Blair Valley Area

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Blair Valley is situated between Granite Mountain and Whale Peak, accessible along County Road S-2 south of California Route 78. This region offers two-wheel drive accessibility, hiking trails, primitive camping, and cultural and natural history resources.

Blair Valley contains four established hiking trails: Marshal South Home, Pictographs, Morteros trails and a branch of the California Riding and Hiking Trail, which descendsfrom the Cuyamaca region and passes through Blair Valley on its way to the Visitor Center in Borrego Springs. This, the longest trail in the park, rises to nearly 5,000 feet and drops to below 1,000 feet in Borrego Valley, exhibiting a wide variety of different habitats.

Recreational vehicle campers enjoy the flat areas surrounding the Blair lake bed, while tent campers disperse farther out into the nearby covesaround Little Blair Valley. These two playas were connected lakes during the ice age. A rocky ridge now separates Blair dry lake bed (about 2,500 feet in elevation) from that of Little Blair. A dirt road, accessed from Highway S-2 at mile marker 23, makes an 8-mile loop around the ridge and passes by both lake beds.

 

Characteristic plants of this region include Creosote Bush, and perennials like the Mojave Yucca and Juniper, while Goldfields, Filaree, Thistle Sage and Windflower are the common spring wildflowers here.

 

 

With more than 600,000 acres, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, has 7 unique areas that you can explore.

 Anza /Visitor Center Area | Blair Valley Area | Borrego Badlands Area
Bow Willow Area | Fish Creek Area  | Santa Rosa Area | Tamarisk Grove Area

 

 

 

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