A daddy-daughter camping trip to Anza-Borrego...or...How I tricked my young daughters into going overlanding with me for 3 days.

For Spring Break, I convinced my daughters, their friends, and a couple of dads that it would be really fun to do a daddy-daughter camping trip in Anza-Borrego. I strategically only asked dads who had off-road vehicles and would be up for three days in the desert. We camped at Blair Valley Campground, which is a very nice dispersed campsite. However, the main issue we encountered was that we were at the end of the winter and bees were out in full force looking for water. This meant we couldn't really spend much time at our campsite after the sun came up in the morning, as the bees were absolutely relentless. Our only option was to get in the car and do some trails during the day.

Day One: Fish Camp Wash and The Diablo Drop Off

Fish Camp Wash and Fish Camp were about an hour from our campsite, so we headed down there. It was a mix of desert driving, washes, and canyon sections. I hadn't been looking at the map and was caught by surprise when we encountered the Diablo Drop Off. The first part was really easy, and the second part presented a slightly bigger challenge; however, a good spotter made it straightforward.

This next video is me later in the day going up the same section as seen above.

Day Two: Truckhaven, Thermal & CA

On the second day, we were joined by my friend who has a Jeep Willys. We took the center route through the park and pulled off at Truckhaven to try some obstacles. It was very windy, and we were the only people there. Truckhaven can only be described as an off-road obstacle course that is built and maintained by the state of California. It's great to see my tax dollars going to something beneficial to the community.

The obstacles were rated similarly to a ski resort: green is the easiest, blue is more difficult, and black diamond is the hardest. We were all only capable of doing green, which seems a little bit crazy to me.

This is an example of a black diamond.

This was one of my favorite obstacles, as it gave you a really good way to test the flex of your suspension without risking any damage.

Next up were some tubes, which I couldn't resist — and I ended up bending my skid plate. Oh well, that's what they are there for. If anyone has a 20-ton press, let me know, as I need something stronger than a hammer to get the dent out.

Lastly, we crossed the highway from Truckhaven and went through some cool canyons up to a mesa overlooking the Salton Sea. It was pretty rocky and steep, but overall not too bad if you took it slow.

After climbing up to the mesa, it was time to head back down.

We said our goodbyes and made plans for the next trip.