California Overland Desert Excursions

Joe and the gang treated us like royalty! The food was great and the night sky view was amazing. Another highlight and major perk, of course, is their improvised outdoor restroom. I’d have to say the best part, though, was off-​roading in the big truck. Be prepared from some dust if it’s a windy day, and hold on to your hats!

What a great time! Joe has a wealth of knowledge about the geology, botany and history of the area. He took the time to learn everyone’s names. We saw aspects of the desert and badlands we never would have seen just going out on our own. The kids loved every minute of it. Thanks Joe!

Even if you bring your own off-​road four-​wheeler you HAVE to do this! Joe is a teacher at heart, and my wife and I learned a LOT about the history, geology, and biology of the area. I HATE bugs, but Joe’s description of a Tarantula Wasp we were watching was so engrossing that even I leaned in for a closer look. We only saw one other vehicle on our adventure; Joe certainly knows those unmarked back trails. Our lookout over the badlands was 360 degrees and just us; friends who visited Fonts Point all were amazed at the view we got as compared to the more well-​known lookout. Recommended highly!

We had the amazing pleasure to have a 5-​hour tour with Joe in mid April 2016. My wife and two boys (11 &13) loved the long hikes thru the twisting an turning mountain trails. The hugeness of the badlands, the blue sky, the sand, the incredible terrain… we city slickers couldn’t get enough. The millions of years of history that you can see in the mountains, and the amazing wild life (snakes, tarantulas, wasps, coyotes, frogs, shrimp and more) such a place to escape from norm of everyday. We’ve been to Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Wind Caves, and many, many other state parks, but I don’t know if there’s another park I’d like to go back to more than this.

We recently took the 5 Hour Couples Jeep Tour in the Jeep Renegade. It is difficult to put into words what an amazing outdoors experience the team at California Overland Desert Excursions provides. Booking online was simple and the personalized customer service to plan our outing was superb. We were picked up on time at our resort and after a few well-​chosen questions about our desert interests and a quick consultation with an area map, we were off on our adventure. While both of us love the outdoors, we are pretty out of shape due to our sedentary jobs. Our guide, Joe, did a great job tailoring the physical aspects of our adventure to what we could handle comfortably and safely. Every detail was thought out, from the sights we saw to the delicious lunch choices to the plentiful ice cold lemon water in canteens and comfy camp chairs for our picnic in a palm grove. Joe shared an incredible amount of detailed information about the State Park, Borrego Springs, and area-​specific information on animal life, botany, geology, anthropology, history, and astronomy. Joe is an outstanding conversationalist and great listener. We could have spent 10 hours on the tour with him chatting about the scenic beauty of Borrego and life in general. Thank you Joe and team for an exceptional experience of a lifetime!

enjoyed every minute of it. Peter was an excellent tour guide, very knowledgeable. Showed us these beautiful places inside the park. Highly recommend, Thanks for the amazing tour!

California Overland Desert Excursions is a wonderful activity in Borrego Springs! My six-​year-​old grand daughter and I went to Borrego Springs during her school Spring Break. I wanted to be sure she had fun on our first trip with just the two of us. However, I did not feel comfortable driving her around the desert in my sedan car and with no other adult. The perfect solution was a 2.5 hour private tour with California Overland Desert Excursions. Joe and his wife made planning the details of our tour so easy. What was my grand daughter’s favorite part of our trip: Joe and his tour. Her mother said she has talked about Joe and the jeep ride and where he took us over and over since she returned home. Now that is the trip I hoped for my grand daughter.

What a fun trip! Who knew there was such an amazing place so close to SD!?! Joe, our guide, was awesome. .very knowledgeable & friendly. He made our trip a fun adventure. Highly recommend if you are looking for something different.

My wife and her girlfriend did this tour last weekend and couldn’t say enough about how incredible their tour was. The driver was incredible and the diversity of the desert was incredible. Highly recommend

if you can budget it in, California Overland Desert Excursion is a must if you’re planning on visiting the desert paradise that is Anza-​Borrego State Park. From a practical standpoint, it may also be one of your only options to fully experience the park since many of the park’s highlights (Font’s Point, Elephant Knees, Mud Caves) literally aren’t accessible unless you have access to a 4 wheel drive (or higher) vehicle.
California Overland Desert Excursions offer various tours of the park ranging in time span and price. They also offer customizable private tours if you arrange it enough time in advance. (As an aside, the park is HUGE. It’s the largest state park in the state and one of the largest in the country so you really do need to be strategic with your time and the sites in the park that you want to see). We opted for a 3 hour tour of the badlands. We took the tour with about 10 other people in a large camouflaged military truck that you would see on a convey along the highway which had us all feeling like we had been drafted into the army in a fun way.
As beautiful as the park was, (we saw formations that made you feel like you were on a different planet!!!) the reason the experience was so enjoyable was because of Joe, the owner who happened to lead our tour this day. One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, Joe was a pleasure to deal with from the very start as he answered my initial call inquiring about the various tours and options. He was patient and friendly throughout the call and took time to explain what options might work best for us given our constraints. His pleasant nature was what sealed the deal for us in booking our tour. And his knowledge of the park once on the tour was extensive. You can tell this is a man who loves what he does!
If we ever get the chance to return to Anza-​Borrego Park, taking another tour with California Overland Desert Excursions is a given for us!

This is the second time I have gone to California Overland for a desert tour. The first time was a few years ago and I took my 13 year old son and my 83 year old father. All of us had a fabulous time.
This time I went for a wedding and went with all my siblings and my dad. The desert has so much to offer. The panorama is incredible. The trails are great and the trucks are so much fun to travel in.
My sisters, father and I had a picnic in the middle of the desert with refreshing lemon water, nice sandwiches and a dessert with the others on the tour. Everyone was so friendly and it was nice to sit in the shade after the drive out there and get to know them.
I live in Italy, so I don’t get this way too often, otherwise I would be here every weekend. There are so many different things to do.
The next thing I am planning is an overnight camping trip, dinner by the camp fire, a night hike and star gazing! I hear it is something I will never forget.
Maybe next time I will bring all my kids and my husband, too.
Visited July 2015

i bought my son a celestial overnight trip with this amazing company for his birthday. my son is 24 and fascinated by astronomy, loves the outdoor and loves camping. he came back from there and told me it was the best birthday present he has ever received and besides learning so much about the sky from Dennis Mammana, he had a blast with Joe and the crew and made many new friends within the group. He said the trip through the badlands was incredible and the food was awesome. he wants to do another overnight during the spring. Thank You Joe, Dennis and crew for giving him such an incredible experience.

We took our daughter and 15 yr old grand dtr on Fonts Point tour. We all learned a lot about the area, got some off roading bumps and skids and had beautiful vistas. Joe was great with engaging our grand dtr so she was shooting with camera rather than on cell phone. It was great to be away/​unconnected for a day. Highly recommend exploring this vast area with Joe and company. Unless you know your way around this area and have 4 wheel drive, no way can you see where Overland takes you. We plan to take other tours with them.

You may notice that after 20 + reviews, these guys are still 5 star, for a reason. We did the Julisn, CA wine tour which takes you to 4 – 5 locations depending how quickly you move from place to place. We had a little too much fun and only made it to 4 but we were just fine with that. Joe made sure we were enjoying ourselves the entire time and even made sure we drank plenty of his delicious lemon water to keep us hydrated in the hot sun. We made friends with the couple who joined us and we even went over on our allotted time but never did we feel rushed, and isn’t that what you’re really looking for when you’re trying to escape the city life? The cost included a glass and all tastings plus we got discounts at every location. Try it, you’ll love it!

Joe, owner of Overland Desert Excursions, provided us (Arlene, Sasha & Benjie Garcia and Thelma and me) a great adventure. The 104° weather was severe but it didn’t stop us! We jumped into Joe’s all-​terrain military vehicle and first visited a box canyon that needed 4-​wheel drive to even approach. It was carved into soft sandstone deposited by the Colorado River millions of years ago. Then Joe proceeded to describe the flora and fauna of the area (teaching this old Arizona Boy Scout many things!), the geology (which is astonishingly complex and active), and the history of the area from 10,000 to 10 years ago. We were duly impressed. Joe is amazingly patient and accommodating, fielding questions from novices and old know-​it-​alls alike with good humor and patience. Then we sat down to a great dinner, fried chicken, potato salad, a green salad, and even watermelon for our Fourth of July celebration. Then we were off to see the BAD LANDS ending up at Font’s Point. Check out the amazing images that I posted to my facebook site, and then after the sun set we went to Clark’s dry lakebed —far enough from the city lights to see a beautiful rising of the Milky Way and with Joe’s equipment, the Galileo’s moons of Jupiter and the crescent of Venus. A beautiful trip. We are planning to return for another of Joe’s adventures!

I guess this is what we call «Glamping» — a camping experience, but letting someone else do all the work. I took my two teen girls and myself to the desert to see the stars. Since it was especially hot — 114 — we left later and started with a ride to our site where tents were already set up, and after shown around started with appetizers and wine. The other 3 people with us really made the event special and Joe was a first class guy cooking, setting up, and all the time making you feel comfortable and well taken care of. Dinner was incredible and we never had an opportunity to be hungry. After another gentleman — Scott pointed out several stars with a fancy telescope, and educating us on some basic galaxy facts, we enjoyed smores and a few surprises. Scott knew just when something would appear and disappear so don’t look away when he points something out. We were exhausted and fell asleep around midnight. It’s so quiet where we stayed and you can see the stars from your open net tent. Next morning was a breakfast of juice, hard-​boiled eggs, melon and yogurt. Joe even poured me coffee and made sure we all had enough water before riding to the mud caves and Font’s Point for first class picture taking. Joe pointed out several interesting thing, told personal stories, and all the while aware of peoples needs and possible issues as headaches and such. Even my girls (15 and 17) loved it and were surprised the kind people of Borrego thought I had roped them into it! We will come again, but when it’s a little cooler. Thank you Joe, Scott and our group — Arella, Ryan, and Claudia for making Star Gazing so much fun!
Tip — If you get there early check out the land sculptures just a couple miles down the road.

We went on the 2.5 hour tour. Excellent and fun for the kids. Picturesque and informative. The kids got to go into a mud cave and traveled through the washes. Ended up on beautiful Fonts point. Highly recommend!

Peter Miller was our guide and he did an awesome job! Picked us up from Borrego valley inn and took us out to the wind caves — on the way there we stopped and looked at different geological formations and Peter gave us all the information and even told us about a little plant that was growing somehow out of the rocks! Thanks Peter for a great trip — you were awesome to hang with and I didn’t end up getting a sun burn… my leg just didn’t like the pant material I was wearing… hahaha! Thanks for a knowledge filled trip, all the tips, and a great time! Your dog was great to meet too!

File them under off the beaten path, which is just what we were looking for. It’s a great way to spend a day, exploring a little known gem of a state park. Joe is an amazing guide and very knowledgeable. I highly recommend this tour!

What a great time we all had on this tour of an amazing place. We went thru the slot canyon and fish creek wash and then finally a short fun hike to the wind caves and an amazing view of the elephant knee shaped canyon walls in the distant.
Joe stopped occasionally to give us interesting facts on vegetation and the geology.
Sure you can do this on your own but you will miss so much of the knowledge of the location.
Let Joe be your ultimate guide.
Thanks Joe!
A real blast!