This is of the off-roading area in Ocotillo Wells, near Borrego Springs. (Photo courtesy of San Diego Convention and Visitors)

By Steve Scauzillo, Staff Writer

The  80-year-old Anza-Borrego Desert State Park lies in a secluded part of the Southern California desert. Nearby, there’s also:

• Borrego Badlands, a red-clay display of craggy hills and odd rock formations, including something called the Pumpkin Patch. This is a place of rounded rock deposits scattered across the desert floor.

• Mud caves, as many as 22 caves and more canyons to explore.

• Ocotillo Wells, visited by about 2 million people a year. The off-highway vehicle area is popular for three- and four-wheeling and dirt bikes.

• Gas Domes, a place with bubbling mud pots similar to what you’d see in Yellowstone Park on a much smaller scale.

•Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, 634,000 acres (roughly the size of the Angeles National Forest), which in spring features wildflowers and in March and April, blooming flowers of magenta, lime green and lemon yellow bursting from a barrel or beavertail cactus. In summer, the ocotillo plant’s spindly stalks are filled with water, its flower tips like flames of fire.