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Hi again!

This is a continuation of the Anza-Borrego Camping Report. I wanted to tell you about the Slot Canyon hike we took, since it’s a very unique place to see when you visit this Campground. You gotta check this out! Just look at the pictures I took!

BTW - If you click on the pictures in this post they will enlarge!

It’s a short drive from the Visitors Center. Take Borrego Spring Rd. through Borrego Springs and out to Hwy 78, make a left and down on your left about 1 mile you’ll see a short brown sign, Buttes Pass. Take that dirt road to the edge of the Canyon and you can drop in there and experience this incredible place. There are spots during the walk where you’ll have to turn sideways to get through the towering 50-foot walls. You can go down and back in about 20-30 minutes. This is truly a memorable hike; unlike any you’ll ever take. Don’t forget your camera!

The Scouts and I just got back from Anza Borrego. We do this annually, in the spring when the wild flowers are in bloom. Sometimes we catch them in bloom and other times we miss them. This year we were lucky and made it in time!

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is California’s largest state park with 600,000 acres of very diverse terrain. You can hike, camp in developed campsites or primitive “backcountry” campsites or even horseback ride on their many trails. We love it for the hike to the Oasis and the Slot Canyon hike. More on that later. Here’s a picture of the sun setting on the hills, from our campsite.

The facilities in this campground are excellent. They have clean, new toilet facilities, with showers, sinks for cleaning your cookware and lots of campsites. But, you must book ahead, because it is a popular spot! Best time to tent camp is spring and fall. It was unseasonable hot when we went it got up to 100°F by noon on Saturday. So, we were pounding down lots of water to stay hydrated. We did the slot canyon hike in the morning and waited until almost 4 in the afternoon to do the Oasis hike.

When you’re there, you need to check out the Visitors Center! This is where you can get information on Ranger-led nature walks, guided hikes, Junior Ranger programs, etc. They have the remains of some prehistoric fossils, a large sea turtle and a Mammoth. I can’t image this whole area being underwater!

This Visitors Center is built into the side of dirt hill to keep it cool! There is also a nature hike that starts here and goes out into the desert showing all the plants that inhabit the area.

Here’s a picture of the prehistoric turtle shell they dug up in the desert!

Lastly, I had to show you this! This long tusk, over 6ft. long.

Here’s the link to the CA State Park site with more information on this wonderful park, maps and how to make reservations. Anza-Borrego

Put it on your “Top 10″ list of campsites to visit. Slot Canyon and Oasis Hike in next post.

Hi there! A number of you asked for reports on campgrounds that I have visited so I thought I would start to do this and will add more over time. If you have any favorite campgrounds or not so favorite, tell the rest of us by commenting on the Blog.

This weekend we went to San Mateo Park, in south Orange County. This park is inland from the world famous Tressels beach! This is a favorite local beach for surfers and hosts a number of professional surfing events throughout the year. But, back to the campground…which is about 1.5 miles from the beach, directly inland. There’s 160 campsites with toilets, showers, fire pits and flat easy ground for camping. We went with the Boy Scouts to do some skills training and check out our new tents before Camporee. We were in campsites 134-137 (see the map for details). The campsites are a bit dense packed, but our neighbors were friendly and not noisy. I discovered while walking around the campground that the bigger sites are at the end of the campground in the 150-155 area. So, if you are looking for more room, try to reserve those campsites.

Souts had a great time as you can see from the marshmallow-roasting picture. For campground map and information on reservations follow the More link.

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