El Vado (The Anza Trail)

The bronze credits Anza and Garcés with opening this route in 1774. The man who actually knew the way is on no plaque. Sebastián Tarabal was Cochimí, sent north to Mission San Gabriel, and he ran from it eastward across this desert with his wife and a relative. Both of them died in the dunes near the Colorado. He reached Sonora alone and was at Tubac when Anza needed a guide. When the party lost itself in the sand, Tarabal recognized the country and brought it through.

What the plaque says

The Anza Trail This route was opened by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Francisco Garcés in 1774. Anza's expedition of 1775, a group of 240 soldiers and settlers being led from Sonora to found San Francisco, encamped near this place, El Vado (the ford), for three days and two nights, December 20-22, 1775. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 634 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Kiwanis Club of Borrego Springs.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borrego Springs — 6.4 mi
  A dark-sky town ringed by state park, with 130 metal beasts loose in the desert around it.
• Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — 18 mi
  Six hundred thousand acres of badlands, slot canyons, and palm oases, and the biggest state park in California.

More markers nearby

• Santa Catarina — 3.4 mi
• Peg Leg Smith Monument — 6.4 mi
• San Gregorio — 11 mi
• Site of De Anza Camp, March 1774 — 16 mi