Borrego Badlands in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California

© Tom Hogan/plainpictur

California's badlands. Borrego Badlands

If you're looking to take in a beautiful sunset over some exotic terrain, you could do worse than the Borrego Badlands, a 20-mile stretch of desert in southeastern California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This arid landscape is not the kind of dune-filled terrain that you might visualise 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.

Fossilised 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.