Anza-Borrego: California's Largest State Park

The Other Side of San Diego County

We headed south to see my parents in San Diego and took them on a three-day getaway for their two firsts: an RV experience and a trip to the desert. What better place to take them than the second largest State Park in the US: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, on the eastern side of San Diego County.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Named after 1) Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish explorer who forayed against Native Americans (“Look, new territory! Let’s chase after the original non-white inhabitants and claim this land as our own!”) during his exhibition in the western US and 2) the Spanish name “Borrego”, or Bighorn Sheep, one of present-day's four-footed inhabitants of the area.

This rich wilderness provides visitors with an opportunity to experience the wonders of the California desert.

Before Juan Bautista “JB” de Anza, the first European to establish an overland route from Mexico (through the Sonoran Desert) to the Pacific coast of California, the new world explorers had been tormented seeking such a route for - drum roll, please - more than two centuries!!! So here’s to you, JB, for discovering and blazing that trail with missions and presidios and paving the way to the establishment of several towns and cities such as Tucson, Monterey, San Francisco and San Jose.

Mimicking his famous call, "¡Vayan subiendo!" ("Everyone mount up!") as we tour this fantastic (may I mention delightfully cold - as you can see from our wardrobe) desert state park.

Fox Vs. Cacti

Unfortunately, the more imminent dangers of the desert is not obvious to everyone, especially our dog Fox. He had a disastrous encounter with a certain extra-spindly succulent, and struggling to remove it from his leg, he got it on the outside of his mouth causing him to stumble backwards and sit on even more cactus! YOUCH! The poor dog yelped in pain and shock, and the next four hours of that night were spent with my dad, mom, Chris and myself removing stickers and spindles from Fox, finding them amongst thick fur, and trying to subdue and pacify a confused/hostile spike-infused dog.

Needless (or is that 'needles'?) to say, our dinner barbecue that night turned out to be a barb-rescue! LOL. Okay, I should totally get someone else to write for me. During all this, our cat Spencer cautiously watched from a distance, but later on was his usual, calm and affectionate self.

Fox recovered more quickly than the rest of us and is doing very well. Up to now, I still have memorabilia on my arm of that thorny episode.

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to see the rest of the photos on Flickr.

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