California Overland Desert Excursions

California Overland Desert Excursions We offer day tours and camping trips in the spectacular Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

California Overland takes you deep among the cactus and canyons of the incredible Anza-Borrego desert in open-air jeeps and former military vehicles. Get ready for rugged adventure in an amazing terrain rich in beauty, history and natural wonder that’s a less than 90-mile scenic drive from downtown San Diego. See what it’s like to strip away the confines of a typical car and experience the desert

with all your senses aboard the most exciting California desert tours. So check us out and you may find this is the journey you’ve always wanted to take.

Fantastic working with you on this amazing product—you in the exoskeleton makes Font's Point look even more surreal!
06/12/2026

Fantastic working with you on this amazing product—you in the exoskeleton makes Font's Point look even more surreal!

Great day collaborating on something so revolutionary!
06/12/2026

Great day collaborating on something so revolutionary!

Amazing day with you testing out this exoskeleton, actually inspired by a the popular game Death Stranding 2:On the Beac...
06/12/2026

Amazing day with you testing out this exoskeleton, actually inspired by a the popular game Death Stranding 2:On the Beach, to power a hike and aid in mobility.

What an unreal day out at incredible Font’s Point with the Multiple Agency KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS and Dnsys shooting their e...
06/12/2026

What an unreal day out at incredible Font’s Point with the Multiple Agency KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS and Dnsys shooting their exoskeleton Boost Suit Z1, modeled after the popular game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. 🌄 Add four spirited content influencers Traveling Sauce Jaysean Berndt Rich Manley Followtiffsjourney putting the gear to the test in the shimmering June heat. ☀️

Update on our offerings 🚙🚗:Because our general liability insurance stayed at the same rate for the year I decided to ren...
04/20/2026

Update on our offerings 🚙🚗:
Because our general liability insurance stayed at the same rate for the year I decided to renew the policy. So, while we still don’t have vehicle insurance, we will keep offering what we can: follow-along tours where we es**rt you in your 4-wheel drive vehicle or rental.
While this means we can’t bring everyone out like we used to, we can still offer a way for at least some folks to explore Anza-Borrego with us. We provide safety and recovery gear, satellite phone, and the knowledge we’ve been providing for 21 years.

01/23/2026

A message from Joe about our operations.

Happy New Year, Everyone!May 2025 lead you on a new exciting adventure, full of fun and wonderful, life-changing experie...
12/31/2024

Happy New Year, Everyone!

May 2025 lead you on a new exciting adventure, full of fun and wonderful, life-changing experiences.

Looking back at the previous year, despite some setbacks, the joy has come from the support of so many of you. Thank you for all of that!

More news to come.

**Important Message from Joe, Owner of California Overland**Hi Everybody!Some of you may have noticed that there has not...
09/21/2024

**Important Message from Joe, Owner of California Overland**

Hi Everybody!

Some of you may have noticed that there has not been much activity here for quite a while.

That’s because we have been dealing with a big challenge.

Unfortunately, just as the high season was approaching in February we suffered an insurance crisis. Our insurance company of almost 20 years stopped covering all Jeep tours—despite us never having a claim and a perfect safety record.

Many of you know that a lot of insurance companies have left the state. And with all the natural disasters around the country apparently the ones that remain have become extremely risk adverse. Despite our immaculate safety record, we somehow ended up in a category that most commercial insurers do not want to cover.

When the broker finally found a company, the quote came in at 6 times what we were paying before while a second insurer was close to 7 times!

Because, at this point, we were at the end of the policy, we had to cease operations.

As we’ve navigated this path, a few other brokers have taken up our cause as did the Anza Borrego Foundation. I’m very thankful to them, each of whom have worked hard to support us in keeping the business alive.

All that being said, California Overland is now faced with making a difficult decision:

1) Paying 3 times our previous insurance rate to keep the business intact as is.

2) Keeping a reasonable premium offered by one insurance company only—although that drastically reduces our fleet to 3 vehicles (Excursion Van and 2 Jeeps), substantially changing our business model.

3) Or lastly, ceasing operations and liquidating the business.

While we are working on this I wanted to let you in on it. It is a torturous decision. We had hoped, instead, to be planning a special 20th anniversary celebration next April. But you are part of our wonderful community and it feels good to let you in on all this. I am shooting to make my ultimate decision in the next two weeks. So please stay tuned. And thank you for all your support now and over the years!

Joe Raffetto, owner
California Overland Desert Excursions
"Roughing it at its Finest"

02/09/2024

In all my years in the desert I have always wanted to see coyotes in the act of howling during one of their symphonies. I have never seen that in all my many treks—until yesterday—right outside my front door. They brought it home to me! 😁

Address

1233 Palm Canyon Drive
Borrego Springs, CA
92004

Telephone

+17607671232

Website

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