Borrego Springs is a small desert community in eastern San Diego County, entirely surrounded by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — the largest state park in California. The town sits in a valley below the Santa Rosa Mountains and has a year-round population of a few thousand, swelling in winter when snowbirds arrive to escape the cold.
The desert is the draw. Anza-Borrego covers more than 600,000 acres of badlands, palm oases, slot canyons, and wildflower fields. In a good spring (usually March), the desert floor erupts in colour — one of the great wildflower displays in the American West. The park has excellent hiking, from easy walks to palm-lined canyons to rugged backcountry routes.
The town itself is quiet and low-key. Ricardo Breceda's enormous metal sculptures of dinosaurs, serpents, and other creatures are scattered across the desert on private land and have become an attraction in their own right. The dark skies here are exceptional — Borrego Springs is an International Dark Sky Community.