Explore The Park With Videos

Anza Borrego - The Overview
An overview of all the fascinating places in and around Anza Borrego Desert State Park that you can visit, from the Gomphotherium Park in Borrego Springs to the Pumpkin Patch and much more! Watch this video to get an idea of the range of geologic features available to check out in the Park.

Borrego Badlands
This spectacular area, with its arid rocky geography, sunken mesas and corrugated hills of dry mud, is called the Badlands of Anza Borrego. See the Pumpkin Patch, 17 Palms, 5 Palms, and Arroyo Salado Wash. Conglomerates, sandstones, claystones and mudstones, compressed and hardened, chronicle a variety of landscapes, fossil life forms and climates that no longer exist at Anza-Borrego.

Carrizo Badlands: Mud Caves & Canyon Sin Nombre
Carrizo Badlands- The Mud Caves are found along the walls of Arroyo Tapiado canyon. One of the most extensive mud cave systems in the world, they contain approximately 22 known caves and 9 slot canyons.   Some mud caves extend over 1000 feet and feature ceilings as high as 80 feet. Caves have been reported up to 35 feet wide, and others so narrow, you have to squeeze through openings. Multi-level caves with skylights have been found, where erosion has created an opening, or sinkhole, in the ceiling of the cave.

Coyote Canyon to Lower Willows
Coyote Canyon is a 4x4 route in Anza Borrego Desert State Park whose entrance is marked by the Borrego Angel. This canyon was a corridor that was used by Anza in 1775 to bring settlers to California. Come along with the DesertUSA crew as we navigate this trail, cross a flooded wash, and encounter equestrians.

Fish Creek Wash
Fish Creek Wash is an easy 4WD route that passes through Split Mountain, winding through a gorge between the Vallecito and Fish Creek Mountains. View this area, including the "anticline," an unusual formation created during an earthquake 5 million years ago, the Elephant Knees mud hill formation, and the Wind Caves.

Fonts Point
Join the crew of DesertUSA and take a trip to Fonts Point in the Borrego Badlands. Font's Point may be the best place in North America to view sediments of the Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs.

Are You Riding Your ATV Over Gold?
One of the most famous prospectors of the time, trapper/gold seeker “Pegleg Smith” traveled through the Anza-Borrego Desert region. It is rumored that he discovered black gold somewhere in the east part of the Park. Where Pegleg Smith found his gold has never been discovered, or if it has, the location has never been published or verified.

Ocotillo Wells SVRA
Located off of California SR 78, Ocotillo Wells has quickly become a preferred destination for ATVs, dirt bikes and dune buggies. Join DesertUSA as we take a look at what draws so many people to this location - almost 2 million people in 2007! Points of interested included in this video include the Gas Domes' mud pots and the Pumpkin Patch's mysterious round rocks.

Borrego Springs, CA - Free Standing Art Structures
History is unfolding in Borrego Springs with the placement of the Gomphotherium free standing art structures. These creatures lived in the area about 3 million years ago. Dennis Avery, landowner of Galleta Meadows Estates has added 'free standing art', original steel welded sculptures created by Perris Jurassic Park's Ricardo Breceda.

The Desert Bighorn Sheep Video Watch a Desert Bighorn grazing on grasses on a rocky hillside, then gamboling up the hill. Great shots of this beautiful animal against the skies of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.