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.

Shandel Sutherland • June 29, 2023

House of the Fox: Anza Borrego Desert

Are you ready for an adventure that intertwines mystery, art, and the enigmatic landscapes of Borrego Springs and surrounding areas?

What is the Book About?

“Hikers find a body in Canyon Sin Nombre in the Anza Borrego Desert on the border between Mexico and California.

The victim’s brother identifies Ramon Matus, a Mexican-American conceptual artist. Intriguing connections between the dead artist and several participants in a winter solstice retreat at the nearby Casa del Zorro desert retreat raise questions.

Can the key to the murder be found in Ramon Matus’ complex and powerful art or in the U.S.- Mexico border conflict?”

Buy The Book

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About The Author

Cornelia Feye is an author, an art historian, and publisher of the indie press konstellationpress.com. She graduated from the University of Tübingen, Germany, before traveling around the world for seven years. Adventures on the road found their way into her writing.

Her trilogy of art mysteries began with “Spring of Tears”, which won the San Diego Book Awards. “House of the Fox”, set in Anza Borrego Desert, and “Private Universe” followed. She co-edited the anthology “Magic, Mystery & Murder” with

Tamara Merrill. It also won the San Diego Book Award in 2019. Her latest publication is a short story in the anthology “Crossing Borders”, edited by Matt Coyle and Lisa Brackmann

After a five-year stint in New York City, she settled in Ocean Beach, California, where she likes to rollerblade a long the water, when the coastline is not closed due to the corona virus.

Here is an Excerpt

Thursday, December 19, 5:30 AM

His day began quietly before dawn. The air was so cold that he could see the breath coming out like steam from his nostrils. To keep warm he broke into a light trot following a tire track into the deep desert. The frosty morning air had not managed to produce any moisture or dew on the sparse desert shrubs and wrinkled cacti. The ocotillo and teddy bear cholla looked as beige and dry as the sandy ground. The air was still; not the slightest breeze stirred the shrubs. No birdcall broke the silence. As he trotted through this silent world, he suddenly realized that he was not alone. He detected a human presence close by. Motionless he sniffed the air for any smell other than desert sage and mesquite bark. From the direction of the canyon came a faint and unfamiliar scent and a subdued flutter of movement. It was too early for the hawks to fly in search of prey in the air, but he realized that dark birds circled the updrafts ahead of him. They were not hawks, however. They were turkey vultures. He followed their trail and came to the edge of the Canyon-Without-Name. Below he saw a scene of shameful activity. Vultures had landed on a body lying on his back in the sand. They picked at his eyes and hands. Some of them hopped away with morsels of flesh to devour in peace, others competed for space on the corpse’s face. Just then, due East, the first fiery sunrays broke free from the mountain’s edge. The sky immediately lit up in orange and yellow streaks of light. The range loomed as a black silhouette before the sunrise, unable to hold back the light of the new day any longer. The desert fox trotted down into the canyon to join the feast.

Learn More

New True Crime Book Explores Murders With Anza Desert Connection

By Andrea McKenna • September 17, 2026

Los Angeles in the 1950s drew young women with promises of work, independence, and a chance at something bigger. Harvey Glatman saw an opportunity of another kind.

Salton Sea Tales: A Potentially True Adventure

By Andrea McKenna • July 19, 2026

Speculative Fiction Grounded in Science Salton Sea Tales, a novel by Gabriel Wisdom A New Novel Rooted in Science and Imagination Author and broadcaster Gabriel Wisdom explores a timely environmental and geological premise in his latest novel, Salton Sea Tales. The book merges speculative storytelling with scientific research, weaving fact-based creative non-fiction into a “what if” scenario inspired by real evidence. From the Author Salton Sea Tales is a fast-paced adventure story which combines both the ‘what if’ elements of speculative fiction with more fact-based creative non-fiction, based upon verifiable geological evidence. An inland desert sea is drying up, causing an unlikely group of outlaws, stakeholders, and secretive Native Americans to join forces. The story imagines what would happen if geothermal and lithium mining operations at California’s Salton Sea were to accidentally set off the San Andreas Fault, which spans the 330 square mile lake perimeter. Half of the world’s lakes are less resilient to disturbance than they used to be (Advancing Earth and Space Sciences, 2024), impacting an estimated one in three people. Salton Sea Tales is a plot-driven fictional adventure based in part upon real events with a wildly plausible ending that hasn’t happened… yet. ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE RAM MEDIA FOUNDATION Salton Sea Tales Giving Back Salton Sea Tales is a creative, story-driven look at California’s inland sea. Net proceeds from all sales—paperback, Kindle, and Audible—are donated to Ram Media Foundation, supporting awareness of the ecological crisis at the Salton Sea.