Well, thar be a 100-meter desert sandwurm (who is clearly of dragon lineage). And ferocious battling dinosaurs. And a giant scorpion in deadly combat.
And cute baby elephants, and oh so many other metal beasties in the Borrego Springs desert.
Sculpting a Legacy
Local landowner Dennis Avery (of Avery labels fortune) commissioned 130 metal sculptures by welding artist Ricardo Breceda, and situated them around his expansive properties dispersed across Borrego Springs in Southern California. Avery placed these areas, collectively called Galleta Meadows Estates, under conservation and opened them for tourists and even short-term camping.
Many of the sculptures are animals who lived here in ages past (giant ground sloths, sabertooth tigers, all the dinosaurs). Some are iconic animals of present day (broncos, camels, giant tortoises).
The best are mythical.
Many and Far Between
They are spread across many miles, so spotting them in the distant shrubby desert is like finding Easter eggs — There’s the T-Rex! Elephant on the horizon!
Then you hoof it to get up close and personal, as Rachel and I did, where we each made new best friends.
Playground of the Imagination
Individually, the grandest of these are works to rival my personal standard for roadside excellence: the fire-breathing dragon of Kaskaskia. Taken all together … I am overwhelmed with playground glee. They fire my imagination and transport me in age and place and time.
I implore anyone visiting the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, within which Borrego Springs is entirely surrounded, to make a destination of these russet, desert dwellers, clawing and rearing and swimming through sand, where you can see and prove for yourself that … thar be dragons.
