For hiking and panoramic vistas, this destination merits at least an overnight stay, and the classic anchor remains La Casa del Zorro. One of Southern California’s most treasured resorts, it dates from the 1930s, when an entrepreneur named Noel Crickmer bought an adobe ranch house here and created an oasis for desert travelers. In keeping with the original style, today’s guest quarters include 19 detached casitas with one to four bedrooms; and 44 deluxe poolside rooms with fireplaces, sitting areas, and private balconies. Casual and elegant food service, and a noted wine cellar, put dining at La Casa Del Zorro on par with tony San Diego restaurants. Chef Kue Her changes the menu to keep it lively, but diners can count on the popular Tuscan Style Peppered Chicken (prepared with free-range poultry) and daily fish specials such as Salmon with Whole-grain Mustard.

The real point of coming to this isolated locale, however, is to experience the desert. Typically in spring and early summer, wildflowers fill the landscape with Technicolor blossoms. (Call the park’s Wildflower Hotline, 760/767-4684, to check seasonal bloom.) Prolonged drought has left a diminished palette this year, but this grand landscape always mesmerizes.

With so much to take in, every visit should begin at Anza Borrego’s visitor center. It bulges with information and exhibits on the natural world outside its walls. Quoting naturalist writer Terry Tempest Williams, a sign near the center’s theater doors inspires visitors to look beyond sand and cactus: “What you come to see on the surface is not what you come to know. The desert is time. Exposed time. Geologic time. One needs time in the desert to see.”

One way to “see” is to embark on a guided tour for a couple of hours or all day. On one tour, the small group stops at an overlook with 360 degrees of awe: Surrounding us are eroded mud hills called “badlands”, the wild, nearly 9,000-foot Santa Rosas, and the distant peaks of Baja Mexico.

Another way to “see” is to set out on foot, perhaps on the Palm Canyon Trail. It leads three miles past desert washes where flash floods flow after a rare rainstorm; past rocks glistening with hues chiseled by microscopic bacteria; past desert-willow nests for quail and hummingbirds; past boulders with indentations called moteros, where ancient native cultures ground their seeds.

San Diegan John Brice likes to hike Palm Canyon’s corridor of visuals in the cool, early mornings on his frequent desert getaways. “It’s so old,” he says. “It puts everything in perspective. This will still be here when we’re gone. It dwarfs your day-to-day worries.”

By afternoon, John will drive high, high, high up State Road 22, out of Anza-Borrego and west toward the coast and home. With luck, he’ll look back at this vast bowl of desert and hold that morning thought.

Desert Bound
For details on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, visit anzaborrego.statepark.org; for more on the park’s visitor center, go to desertusa.com/anza_borrego/visitor_new.html. For lodging and dining reservations at La Casa del Zorro, call 800/824-1884 or visit lacasadelzorro.com. Nightly rates run from $295 in low season (mid-May through mid-January) for a deluxe room, to $1,660 in peak season (mid-January through mid-May) for a 4-bedroom casita with a private pool. Also make time for a casual and scrumptious breakfast, lunch, or dinner at The Red Ocotillo, a local Borrego Springs hangout where pets are welcome on the patio; 760/767-7400. To book a guided desert-jeep tour (from $45 for two hours to $350 for overnight camping), contact California Overland in Borrego Springs; call 760/767-1232, e-mail info@californiaoverland.com, or visit californiaoverland.com.