Christmas Circle — Heart of Borrego Springs

Here's the center of it all — Christmas Circle, a green grassy roundabout where every road in the Borrego Valley meets. Take a beat to appreciate how strange and wonderful this place is: Borrego Springs is a town entirely surrounded by a single state park. One small community, ringed on all sides by six hundred thousand acres of desert. There's nothing else like it. Practically speaking, this is your lifeline. Borrego Springs is the only place for many miles with gas, food, and water — out in the backcountry there is none, so this is where you fill the tank and stock up before you wander. From this circle, the whole park fans out like spokes on a wheel. Head northwest and you climb toward Palm Canyon and the Visitor Center. Go north and you're into Galleta Meadows, where giant steel sculptures graze the open desert. Roll east on the Borrego-Salton Seaway and the badlands open up. Drop south over Yaqui Pass and you reach the shady groves and easy trails of the south country. Wherever this tour takes you next, picture this circle as home base — the hub you keep coming back through.