Who ever heard of Borrego Springs California.  We hadn’t until our RV blogging friends at Wheeling It told us it was a great place to boondock.  Its just East over the mountains from San Diego in a desert bowl.  The town is surrounded by Anza-Borrego State Park, the largest state park in California.  The park is loaded with hiking trails, surprising palm oases, relics of experimental living in the 30s and lots of cactus.  And a rather large and very friendly snowbird population.  Seems that Borrego Springs is to the Pacific Northwest, BC and Alberta as Florida is to the Northeast and Midwest.  Very seasonal place.  It can be 12o degrees in the Summer here so we are sure it is pretty deserted by then.  But in February its a hopping place.  There is a great farmers market and quite a few nurseries.  Citrus and Dates grow very well here and there are some vegie farms too.

Palm Canyon Oasis

Bighorn sheep

We absolutely love the hiking here.  Good guided hikes are offered free from the state park.  That will get you ready to try more hikes on your own.  The Palm Canyon hike is not to be missed.  To find a tight, tall palm grove and a spring with little waterfalls  in the middle of an incredibly dry desert canyon was just awesome.  While hiking we saw lots of Peninsular Bighorn Sheep  including at least 6 lambs.  The sheep came amazing close to the trail.  A ranger told us the sheep may be more comfortable around people since they tend to keep the mountain lions away.  Later we ran into RV friends David and Nancy who we’d met at amazon.com and enjoyed a fabulous Painted Canyon hike near Mecca CA.  It was a 5-6 mile loop which included wide washes, ladders up dry falls, ridge trails with views of the Salton Sea and the most spectacular slot canyon we’d ever seen.

Painted Canyon hike

Painted Canyon hike

The boondocking here is very good and very popular also.  We had just enough neighbors to not feel alone but not so many that we crowded each other at all.   Every where we look there are great mountain views.  Sunshine found its a good place to explore as long as we are close by.  This is coyote country.  And did we mention that we’ve stayed a week for FREE.  Sure no hookups, no water, no dump station but loads of great scenery and peace and quiet.  Its our (the taxpayers) BLM land and there is so much of it here in The West.

Boondocking view

Yaquitepec homesite

Ghost Mountain view

Slot Canyon hike