History
The Anza-Borrego Valley has been home to Native Americans for over 6,000 years. Evidence of this has been found in the form of early rock paintings and fossilized remains of early man. In addition, fossils of mammoths, camels, fishes, etc. have been found. Some dating back as far as 3 million years ago.

The Anza-Borrego Valley was first discovered by the Western world when Pedro Fages came through in 1772 and then again by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774. De Anza then blazed the first overland emigrant trail, extending from Mexico to early San Francisco. With the gold rush of 1849, thousands of immigrants poured through the region en-route to the gold country; some moving through and others settling in the region. To support this transit, the Butterfield Overland Stage line was created.

For those that remained, the local economy was focused primarily on gold prospecting or cattle ranching. These industries eventually waned and the local economy was transitioned over to agriculture. Initially, grapes were a key crop, but eventually replaced by citrus (grapefruit), which was originally introduced in the 1950's.

Anza-Borrego State Park®
In 1933, the Anza-Borrego State Park® was created. The park includes over 600,000 acres of land including 15,000 acres of habitat for the endangered Peninsular Big Horn sheep. In addition to Big Horn sheep, the park contains over 1,000 species of plants, including more than 40 that are considered rare or endangered. Such species include: smoke trees, ocotillo, desert wildflower and wild palm groves.

Within the park, there are over 15+ natural springs that create some of San Diego County's only year-round natural streams, ponds and desert oasis'. Examples of these springs can be found in Palm, Grapevine, Hellhole and the Coyote Canyons, to name a few. In addition to providing beautiful scenery, these springs provide a year-round water supply for the plants and animals in the park, as well as feeding the abundant aquifer buried deep below the sands of the desert.

Desert Wildflowers
In addition to the natural beauty of the park, one of Borrego Valley's largest tourist attractions is the Desert Wildflower bloom. This bloom has been known to attract more than 1 million tourists from as far away as Europe. (For a community that has been compared to Palm Springs 60 years and 250,000 people ago, this can be quite an influx!)

Typically, the wildflower bloom occurs between late February and April, with early March being your best bet. When the bloom occurs, the desert can be carpeted with flowers of all colors. The bloom contains yellow Dandelions and Sunflowers, white Dune Primrose and Chicory, purple Sand Verbena and blue Phacelia to name a few. The bloom typically lasts for a few weeks.