Site of De Anza Camp, March 1774

Anza came through on 16 March 1774 and named the pass San Carlos, and the plaque calls his party the first non-Indian explorers to cross these mountains into California. They were following a man who had already crossed them the other way. Sebastián Tarabal, a Cochimí from Baja, had run from Mission San Gabriel the year before and walked east into the desert, losing his wife and his brother to it before he reached Sonora alive. Anza hired him as guide and called him the pilgrim.

What the plaque says

On March 16, 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza, Indian fighter, explorer, and colonizer, led through this pass (named by him San Carlos) the first white explorers to cross the mountains into California. The party traveled from Tubac, Arizona, to Monterey, California. On December 27, 1775, on a second expedition into California, Anza led through this pass the party of Spaniards from Sonora who became the founders of San Francisco.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borrego Springs — 22 mi
  A dark-sky town ringed by state park, with 130 metal beasts loose in the desert around it.
• Palm Springs — 23 mi
  Cahuilla homeland, checkerboard reservation, mid-century playground, and the square mile the city burned.

More markers nearby

• Ramona Bowl, Site of the Ramona Pageant — 25 mi
• Site of Indian Village of Pochea — 25 mi
• Soviet Transpolar Landing Site — 28 mi
• Hemet Maze Stone — 33 mi