Our next day at Anza-Borrego State Park began with a lovely sunrise, a bunch of morning relaxation, which was followed by a drive into Borrego Springs.
Hey, not every day is loaded with adventure.
Borregro Springs is an okay place. The main reason we headed that way was to check out the sculptures. I’d heard about these giant metal sculptures in this area, and a quick internet search gave us a map and everything we wanted to know. Created by artist Ricardo Breceda, there are over 100 sculptures spread out over three square miles in and around Borrego Springs.
Many of the sculptures are found along Borrego Springs Road, north of town, so that’s where we headed. Okay, we went that way because the dragon sculpture is on Borrego Springs Road. Also known as the serpent, the dragon might be the most well known of the sculptures and it’s also the biggest. It’s not the first sculpture we came across, though.
The first things we saw were the elephants. It’s a little hard to tell from my photos but these sculptures are huge. And detailed!
I mean, you can see the eyelashes. These sculptures were amazing. And the elephants were just the beginning.
Luckily Michael is in this one, to give some sense of scale. The sculptures are spread pretty far apart, but there are all kinds of social driving trails in between them.
And then, up ahead in the road, I saw it. The dragon.
This sculpture is 350 feet long and it’s awesome.
So big it actually crosses the road! We spent a bunch of time running around this sculpture. There were a few more sculptures as we headed north of the road – we stopped one more time, to take a picture with the Jeep sculpture.
After the sculptures ended we made our way back into town. Borrego Springs seemed to be laid out like a grid so I just followed my nose, so to speak… And look what we stumbled upon:
I’d read that this area is home to some pretty large citrus groves and that “honor code” stands like this one were common. Basically there was a money box on the premises. You took the fruit you wanted, put your money in the box, and went on your way. We grabbed a bag of grapefruit and another of oranges, and then proceeded to devour them for the rest of the trip.
On our way back to camp we had one last stop: Font’s Point. This is a big plateau, a viewpoint of the Borrego Badlands. And it was so cool. To me it looked like a mini Grand Canyon.
Turns out, this area is actually nicknamed “California’s Grand Canyon,” so I guess I’m pretty good at… guessing nicknames?
Now, truth be told we’d already been to Font’s Point that day. At noon. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you might remember me saying things like the lighting is always terrible at noon. You might also remember me saying I’m the world’s most impatient photographer. So yes, at noon I took a bunch of photos and moved on. Now, as we were headed back out to the east side of Anza-Borrego, the sun was just about to set. Perfect lighting. How could I pass up that opportunity?
What’s the difference between lighting and noon and sunset? Well, here’s Font’s Point at noon:
Now, those are not bad pictures. They show the badlands and all, and the horizon is level. But man, those shadows are harsh. Compare them to the sunset view:
Ah, so much better.
That night we camped in the same area, but on the south side of the highway, in a dispersed camping spot at the start of the Arroyo Salado trail. It was not a quiet as Coachwhip Canyon but still a nice site. Over dinner we made our plan for the next day.
While there was still a ton of exploring still to do in Anza-Borrego, we were incredibly close to Joshua Tree National Park. Neither of us had ever been. So the next day we planned to drive out east, towards the Salton Sea, and take a side trip on a trail to the Calcite Mine. We could hike the slot canyon that was a couple miles up that road. After a brief stop at the Salton Sea (so I could photograph it), we’d be on our way to Joshua Tree NP.
I love a good plan.