Borrego Badlands in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California

© Tom Hogan/plainpictur

California's badlands. Borrego Badlands

Let’s take a break from winter to take in this beautiful sunset over the Borrego Badlands, a 32-kilometre stretch of desert in southeastern California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This arid landscape is not the kind of dune-filled terrain you might visualize when you think of a desert, but a series of rolling hills, canyons, gullies, and arroyos, speckled with sparse but hardy vegetation. It makes for a surreal and beautiful view.

Fossilized seashells found in the area reveal that this arid landscape was once submerged under the waters of the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. The terrain was shaped over time by water and wind erosion into its current form. Today, the Borrego Badlands is a favourite spot for campers, while photographers are drawn by the picture-perfect sunsets.