Anza-Borrego Desert State Park · caps RVs at 35 ft
California's biggest state park lets you dispersed-camp any dirt road inside 600,000 acres — Borrego Palm Canyon holds the only full-hookup loop, and the operational season runs October through April.
35ft
full
Yes
October – April (peak) · Year-round access
Six hundred thousand acres is the operating premise — Anza-Borrego is the largest state park in the lower 48, and the rule that matters most is open dispersed camping: any rig can pull off any dirt road, anywhere inside the park boundary, no permit required, as long as you're not within 200 feet of a developed water source. Borrego Palm Canyon Campground holds the only full-hookup loop (52 sites, 35-ft cap); Tamarisk Grove and Bow Willow are dry-camp. Summer afternoons run 115-118°F May through September with zero shade outside the Visitor Center — the operational season inverts the rest of California into October-April peak. Wildflower super-blooms (March, in rainy-winter years) trigger 200,000-person weekend pulses that flood every reservation channel; the dispersed dirt-road option becomes the only realistic overnight strategy.
Managing agency
California Department of Parks & Recreation
Primary sources
How to book this park
Reservations + RV staging
Official reservation portalLooking for the rig? Browse California RV rentals on PickRV →
Other state parks in California
Humboldt Redwoods
Humboldt Redwoods holds the world's largest contiguous old-growth redwood stand — Burlington's year-round 33-ft loop is the basecamp, and the 31-mile Avenue of the Giants is the reason you came.
Mount Tamalpais
Mt. Tamalpais posts a 24-ft road advisory and offers only walk-in tent sites — stage at China Camp or Samuel P. Taylor for RV camping, then day-trip the East Peak summit.
Pfeiffer Big Sur
Pfeiffer Big Sur's redwood campsites cap at 32 ft, run year-round, and book six months ahead — but Highway 1 landslide closures north of the park are the actual planning constraint.
Henry Cowell Redwoods
Henry Cowell's 113 campsites are wedged between 277-ft coast redwoods at a 31-ft cap — no hookups, no on-site dump, but the canopy keeps it 15°F cooler than Santa Cruz year-round.
California rules · last verified 2026-05-10
- Rental tax
- 9.75%
- Min driver age
- 21+ std · 25+ Class A
- Gravel roads
- Permit required
- Generator quiet
- 22:00-06:00
More from the 50-park state-park catalog