| San Felipe Creek:
North of Highway 78 within Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area
(SVRA) and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, this creek was followed by the
expedition from San Sebastian Marsh to Borrego Sink. The creek trail is
available to the public within Ocotillo Wells SVRA.
Los Puertecitos
(Little Pass): The expedition passed through a gap in the clay
hills (Ocotillo Badlands) which sprawl across the entrance to Little Borrego
Valley on December 19, 1775 after they had camped along San Felipe Wash.
CRHL No. 635 is located on state highway 78, 1.6 miles east of the town
of Ocotillo Wells.
Expedition Camp
#51, San Gregorio: A campsite of both Anza expeditions,
this site is probably today’s Borrego Spring located on San Felipe Wash
where the valley narrowed before entering the broad flats of Borrego Valley.
CRHL No. 673 is located on private land in Borrego Sink on a small hill
just north and above Borrego Spring, three miles southeast of Palm Canyon
and Peg Leg Roads.
Anza–Borrego Desert
State Park: This approximately 600,000 acre park contains two
stretches of the Anza route and preserves the surrounding lands in an undeveloped
state so that they appear much as they would have to Anza and his colonists
two hundred years ago. A short segment of the trail exists in the southeast
section of the park and passes near the San Gregorio marker. In the northwest
section, a rough jeep and horseback trail parallels Anza’s route through
Coyote Canyon. On this section are found markers for El Vado, Santa
Catarina, and Christmas Eve campsites. (The last is in Riverside County.)
These two areas provide a rare opportunity to retrace the precise route
of the expedition on the ground while surrounded by terrain which has changed
little since Anza’s passage. Sites within the park are the following:
Fages–De Anza Trail–Southern Immigrant
Road. The trail is noted on park maps.
Expedition Camp #52, El Vado
(The Ford). CRHL No. 634 is placed six miles northwest of Borrego Springs
at the entrance to Vern Whitaker Horse Camp within Anza–Borrego Desert
State Park. It marks a campsite along Coyote Creek with plentiful water
and some pasture allowing the colonists to rest from December 20 to 22,
1775.
Expedition Camp #53, Santa Catarina.
Situated at Lower Willows in lower Coyote Canyon within Anza–Borrego Desert
State Park, CRHL No. 785 was named by Anza on his exploration trip. The
colonizing expedition camped here on December 23, 1775 and Anza on his
return on May 6, 1776. The entire area has signs of native habitation.
Font described the area as having "...great mountains of rocks, boulders,
and smaller stones which look as if they had been brought and piled up
there, like the sweepings of the world."
Middle Willows. The site of a spring
and an Indian village "perched in the crags" (Font), the area has exceptional
historic value to the trail due to its natural and visual integrity. It
is highly sensitive environmentally as the home to two federal endangered
species (least Bell’s vireo and peninsular bighorn sheep) and one state
endangered species (southwest willow flycatcher).
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