My first visit to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park was in the late spring of 1969. I went with a group of friends, all of us young, dumb, and always looking for a place to have fun. We were told that Anza-Borrego, east of San Diego out in the western Colorado Desert, would fill the bill just fine.
Most of us had never heard of Anza-Borrego. It was described to us as being a vast area of wide open desert, warm sunny days, dark starry nights, and nobody around for miles. And the fact that there was free camping was icing on the cake. We were going! So we rounded up our camping gear, a couple of guitars, all the alcohol and substances of questionable legality we could lay our hands on, and drove out into the desert for a few days and nights of partying. Before long we were hot, tired, thirsty, and hungover. But it didn’t matter. We were young and felt indestructible. It became one of our favorite destinations.
Those crazy times are far behind me now. Have been for decades. These days I go to the desert to relax, get in some quiet camping (drinking far more water than alcohol), explore, and take photographs. And you know what? Anza-Borrego Desert State Park fills that bill just fine, too.