How big is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park?

More than 600,000 acres, or roughly 1,000 square miles. It is the largest state park in California and the third largest in the United States, spanning parts of San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties.

How much does it cost to enter Anza-Borrego?

Day use is $10 per vehicle, collected at the Visitor Center, developed campgrounds and several popular trailheads including The Slot and Hellhole Canyon. The park has no entrance gates and much of it can be accessed without a fee.

When is wildflower season at Anza-Borrego?

Annual wildflowers can appear from January through mid-April, with peak bloom most often between late February and early April. Timing varies year to year based on rainfall and temperature.

Is Anza-Borrego a Dark Sky Park?

Yes. The park was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2018 at Silver tier. Borrego Springs, the town at its center, has been an International Dark Sky Community since 2009, the first in California.

Do I need four-wheel drive at Anza-Borrego?

Not for the paved roads, the Visitor Center or the main campgrounds. The vast majority of the park's roughly 500 miles of dirt roads do require a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park open at night?

Yes, the park is open 24 hours a day, year-round. The Visitor Center is open daily 9am to 5pm October through May, and weekends and holidays only June through September.

Andrea McKenna • October 11, 2026

Flashback: Guest Chef Nights at the Desert Club, 1955

From the Borrego Sun online edition, 2015 - In this photo, Chef Jacobs looks over a large sheet of paper with Beverly Burnand and Mrs. Ron Chaney.

This photo ran in the Borrego Sun’s online edition on June 4, 2015, as a look back at a 1955 tradition at the Borrego Desert Club.

The Desert Club was founded in 1950 as a social hub for the new resort community of Borrego Springs. Alphonse “A. A.” Burnand Jr., known as the “Father of Borrego Springs,” commissioned architect William Kesling to design the clubhouse in the Streamline Moderne style. It sits on a desert slope at the edge of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

In 1955, Chef Ray Jacobs starred in the club’s Guest Chef Nites. For three years his specialty had been barbecued beef. That year was rainy, so he changed it to roast beef. Other chefs took part in the days that followed.

The building later became an antique store and, at one point, an art gallery. In 2011, a gift from Audrey Steele Burnand, A. A. Burnand’s daughter-in-law, paid for UC Irvine to buy the property. Today it is the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, named for her parents and her husband’s family.

A 1950s film about Borrego Springs shows its sign: “Borrego Desert Club – Where Fun Meets the Sun.”