Golden Gate Photo - Anza-Borrego State Park Gallery

Golden Gate Photo - Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Gallery
Fine Art Photography from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest state park in California with an area of over 600,000 acres, two-thirds of which is designated wilderness. The diversity within the park is partially due to the terrain, which varies from below sea level to elevations of 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) above sea level. The park was established in 1933 and derives its name from the spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza along with "Borrego" which is spanish for "lamb" (in reference to the native bighorn sheep). Anza-Borrego Desert lies on the western edge of the Colorado Desert, one of the stops on the Geomorphic Provinces Geotour.

	Badlands Sunset Composed of Pliocene- to Pleistocene-age conglomerates, sandstones, claystones and mudstones of the Borrego Formation, the carved and deformed hills of the Borrego Badlands cover the valley floor in front of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The very active San Jacinto Fault, which forms the western edge of the Santa Rosa Mountains, is one of several faults responsible for the uplift and dissection of this formerly lush alluvial plain. Print No. A99-48-4
	The Slot Carved into Borrego Mountain on the east side of the park, The Slot winds its way through a tilted Borrego Formation Sandstone. Probably started as a crack or joint during the deformation of the badlands, the slot formed as runoff from occasional summer storms funneled into the crack, deepening more than widening it. In some places, it's so narrow, you have to take off your backpack and squeeze through sideways. Print No. A99-47-11
	Sandstone Potholes Just as the amount of cementation and consolidation in different sedimentary beds cause differences in the way they erode, subtle changes in cementing within the same bed can cause exaggerated differences with time, resulting in potholes like these. Print No. A99-48-3
	Ocotillo There are 5 common cacti in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The ocotillo isn't one of them. As a matter of fact, the ocotillo (species Fonquieria splendens) is a shrub, not a cactus. The ocotillo makes its home in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. Its branches are referred to as canes. Print No. A99-48-8

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