We spent two weeks over Christmas 2022 in Borrego Springs, California. Like most visitors, we were there to explore Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But no visit to the area would be complete without checking out the famous Sky Art sculptures of Galleta Meadows. Spread over 1500+ acres of the surrounding desert, most people drive to just a handful of the most popular sculptures. It only took seeing a couple of the 130 sculptures to know I wanted to see as many of them as possible.
The Serpent is the most popular and impressive of the Sky Art sculptures. He is 350 feet long and stretches across both sides of the road. He has the tail of a rattlesnake, the body of a sea serpent, and the head of a Chinese dragon.
The Sky Art sculptures of Galleta Meadows were created by Ricardo Breceda. A former construction worker, he taught himself how to weld and when his six-year-old daughter asked for a dinosaur for Christmas, Breceda welded her a 20-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dennis Avery, heir to the Avery Label company, saw some of Breceda’s work and commissioned sculptures to display on his desert property on the outskirts of Borrego Springs, California. What started as two sculptures in 2008 has grown to 130 today.
Max & Makala (our family from back home) got to see a handful of the statues during a daytrip we made to Borrego Springs.
The sculptures are free to visit, but they are on the privately owned property of Galleta Meadows Estate. The area is unfenced and open to the public for visitation, including hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, photography, and bicycling. According to the Borrego Experience website, it requires a roundtrip of 22 miles to visit all of the sculptures. It is worth noting that you can drive right up to most of the statues, but some do require a short walk. Watch for signs indicating where vehicles are not allowed. Please be respectful of the private property so that we can all continue to have free access!
The majority of the sculptures are located on the northern and southern edges of town; however, these two festive Velociraptors are located behind the Borrego Springs Welcome Center.
The sculptures are spread out over a large area and we found walking to be an inefficient means to see them all. Driving from sculpture to sculpture seemed tedious with all the stop, go, and get out. For us, our ebikes were a fun way to visit all 130 sculptures (we stuck to the designated roads and did not ride into any area where vehicles were prohibited). We purchased a laminated guide/map at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center which was invaluable for finding all the sculptures. Trying to find them all is a bit like a larger than life Easter egg hunt! To my knowledge, the only sculpture we missed with the saguaro cactus. The guide also had interesting notes on some of the sculptures. All quotes included with my photos below were taken from that guide.
A terrifying sight! Yeah, I’m a total nerd. But I had a blast seeing all the sculptures including this sabertooth cat and the 1946 Willys Jeep!
The Sky Art sculptures have three different themes: fossil treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert, history and nature of the Anza-Borrego Desert, and whim and fantasy. My favorites were the history and nature themed sculptures, but they were all spectacular. Below are a few of my photos—I hope you enjoy seeing some of these spectacular works of art!
Sculptures on the northern edge of Borrego Springs
Sculptures on the southern edge of Borrego Springs
This massive ground sloth was one of my favorites. Juan Bautista de AnzaSpanish Padre Pedro Font & his dogGold Miner & MuleImportant historical figuresThe serpent towering over JasonThe 1946 Willys Jeep complete with driver and passenger climbing the rocky desert terrain. The Jeep & humans are life size.We lucked out and caught a bunch of sand-verbena blooming during our late December visitDesert Bighorn SheepIndian head African elephant“Indian Head – the Indian head and bust represents one or both Indians who played a major role in the Anza expeditions to California in the 1770s. African Elephant – although the mammoth, a fossil representative of the elephant family, was found in this desert area, the African or savanna elephant has not been found in North America. It is the largest land mammal in the world weighing about 10,000 pounds.”Desert Bighorn SheepTortoise“Farm Workers – migrant farm workers harvested Borrego Valley grapes until the United Farm Workers union targeted the Di Giorgio Fruit Corporation during the 5-year grape strike and national grape boycott from 1965-1970. The various strikes and heated court battles brought an end to harvesting grapes in the valley.”LlamaHarlan’s Ground Sloth“Harlan’s Ground Sloth – fossil remains of this animal date from about 2.3 million years ago when the Anza-Borrego area had a savanna-like environment. The skin contained dermal ossicles (pieces of embedded bone).”PeccaryMerriam’s TapirGomphothere“Peccary – this extinct relative of Old World pigs once roamed throughout North America. Merriam’s Tapir – members of the Tapiridae family have changed very little evolutionarily since they appeared almost 40 million years ago. Their closest relatives are horses and rhinoceroses. Gomphothere – the oldest fossil specimen of this elephant-like animal dates back 9 million years ago. It was a hippopotamus-size animal with short legs and four tusks.”CamelopsTortoiseCamelops“Camelops – fossils of the Camelid family are the second most commonly found fossils of Anza-Borrego after horses… although Camelops closely resembles modern day camels, morphologically they were closer to llamas. The largest Camelops sp. was 20% larger than the modern camel.”“Extinct Horse – horses originated in North America about 57 million years ago. There were several successful emigrations to the Old World. Horses became extinct in North America about 11,000 years ago.”Columbian Mammoth“Columbian Mammoth – mammoths are medium to large-size elephants that originated in southern and eastern Africa about 4 million years ago and subsequently spread throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Two species are found in the Anza-Borrego area with the largest one being the Columbian mammoth. Its skeletal remains date from 1.1 million years ago.”“Gracile Sabertooth Cat and Extinct Horse – this sabertooth cat was smaller and a direct ancestor of Smilodon fatalis, California’s state fossil. It hunted by laying in ambush rather than chasing down its prey. It only ran short distances to catch prey such as the extinct horse.”Two Gracile sabertooth cat in battle“Incredible Wind God Bird in Nest – fossil specimens date from 3.5 million to 0.5 million years ago. They help establish a picture of the climate of this area which indicates that streams, lakes, and ponds were located here.”“Incredible Wind God Bird and Prey – this was the largest flight-capable bird in North America and had a wingspan of 17 feet. It stood about 4 feet tall. Only 6 specimens of this bird have been found, and 3 of those come from the Anza-Borrego area…This predator is depicted with its prey, an extinct peccary.” The most southernly located sculptures are terrifying looking dinosaurs. While most of the Sky Art sculptures depict fossils found in and around Anza-Borrego, “the dinosaur theropods of Borrego Valley are here for fun and represent specimens found worldwide.”
Hanging out with a Harlan’s ground sloth and Gracile sabertooth cat
The Adventure Continues
Join us for our next post as we welcome in 2023 and wrap up our adventures in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. And don’t forget to check out our Amazon RV and Adventure Gear recommendations. We only post products that we use and that meet the Evans Outdoor Adventures seal of approval. By accessing Amazon through our links and making any purchase (even things as simple as toothpaste!), you get Amazon’s every day low pricing and they share a little with us. This helps us maintain this website and is much appreciated!
I loved the Gold Miner & Mule with the stunning mountains in the background
How fun!!