Anza Borrego State Park (South) - sight seeing

The Golden Acorn Casino is a great stop when getting a late start out of town.  It's about an hour east of San Diego and offers a boondocking site for the night.  And it was a blustery night with torrential rain and Biblical winds!  But what a beautiful dawn morning!

Casino Camping

From the Golden Acorn it's a quick drop down to the desert floor and then north on S2 from Ocotillo.  We did the sites along S2 a bit backwards because we unhooked the Jeep in Canebreak and followed Vellecito Wash to Canyon Sin Nombre.  Then S2 back to the RV.  Note that the south exit/entrance of Canyon Sin Nombre has a bit of technical aspect - it is easier to enter here, but still requires high clearance.

The first stop along Vellecito Wash is Palm Spring.  There used to be a nice pup-fish population here, but the water has become quite cloudy, the bees have taken over and no pup-fish were seen on this visit.  There is also a campground here with nobody in the camping area either, the bees can be a bit territorial...

Trail Head Parking

Still a reliable water source, but ....

it belongs to the bees now, did not see a single pup-fish

At the south end of the Canyon Sin Nombre is a nice slot canyon that we did not visit on this trip.   The canyon itself is fairly easy with a nice soft sand base with many side canyons / camping areas to explore.

The Nameless Canyon

Lots of soft sand

Mountain Palm Springs Canyon seems less affected by the drought.  There was still running water from the springs along the trail and the palm groves are thriving.  Palm groves are always interesting as they require reliable water, which often means a geological oddity and lots of vegetation and wildlife.

Mountain Palm Springs Trail Head

Looking east just desert scrub

and cholla in need of water

Looking up trail the palms are doing fine.

but Palm Groves thrive with reliable water

No this  is not Whale Peak - but it should be

This is the second grove and largest of six palm groves.

The Well of Eight Echos offers more of a reverberation echo, too many have dropped rocks into the well.  It has become to shallow to hear the echos.

The well is the metal pipe 

This was a spontaneous unplanned diversion.  I miss this area of the park, it's been too long since I've explored the trails, caves, canyons and ruins here.  

Note to self - South Carrizo Creek offers good RV boondocking with a clear view of the eastern horizon - not a bad option for another attempt at the Comet Catalina, although the entrance can be a bit of a washboard.