Strange Rock Circles in California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Make Experts Question Their Origins

There are about 500 of them dotted across 10 square miles of the park. On the surface, they resemble ordinary circles of sand marked by rings of pebbles and rock fragments. But a closer look suggests that they could be clues to a prehistoric secret. Some speculate these are designs carved by cycles of environmental change, while others suspect they were once bunkers where people huddled to sleep. The circles are so elusive that no one has been able to assign them a name yet. Within the 930-square-mile stretch of California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, these rocky rings remain splattered as pockets of mystery, as archaeologist Hayley Elsken reflected while conversing with FOX5 San Diego and SFGate.

About two hours south of Palm Springs, California’s largest state park is a fantastic fable tucked away from the rumbles of the city and from the susurrating swells of the bubbling hot, salty waters of the Salton Sea. While people drive through the craggy, bumpy roads of the desert, swishing billowing plumes of sand and dust, the park lits up with chatters and twitters of birds who flit from purple sand verbenas to yellow desert sunflowers to golden poppies, excited to welcome the guests. Days are colored by a multicolored sunrise, and nights glitter with flashes of stargazers' cameras. But aside from the whole bouquet of Anza-Borrego’s stunning and remarkable formations, these rocky circles call out the attention of visitors, jolting them into a rabbit hole of speculations, contemplations, stories, and fantasies.

According to SFGate, each circle measures about 8 to 10 feet across and is made up of small rocks placed next to each other, ranging from 4 to 10 inches. The fact that these circles, so many of them, scattered across the region, couldn’t have materialized on their own, makes them so elusive to the viewers. And although environmental factors could have contributed to their design, “there’s no way the rock line circles are naturally occurring,” said Elsken, who’s the associate state archaeologist for the Colorado Desert District of California State Parks.

Some experts, she said, attribute the circles to Native Americans, as a traditional homeland of the Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, and Cupeño. Quoting an episode of the archaeologist Malcom Rogers, Elsken said he described these circles as “sleeping circles,” where people, likely migrating, snuggled and curled themselves to rest for the night. During the 20th century, Rogers combed the parks of Southern California, documenting them in his works. When describing these circles, he said, they were sleeping places of hunters who slept here "like sardines in a can," per San Diego Archaeology.

Elsken, however, believes that these circles wouldn’t have made roomy or too comfortable bedrooms. Other possibilities are that they could be anchors for brush shelters, also called wickiups or wigwams. They could also be sites for camping or ground art known as “geoglyphs.” The geometrical shape and orientation of most of these geoglyphs suggest that they were clearly non-functional, which means they could just serve as sites for ritualistic purposes like meditation, self-reflection, or trance induction. No artifacts were ever discovered inside or around these circles.

The southern portion of the park, where the circles appear in the largest concentration, is associated with the Kumeyaay people, Elsken shared, which implies that they could be using them for rituals, food, rest, or medicinal purposes. Whatever the mystery, Elsken advises people to leave these sandy ring artworks untouched. “This is the Kumeyaay land, and we are guests on it. Respect that land, especially when we see cultural sites," she added.

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