CALIFORNIA CALLING
The drive to The Courts in Borrego Springs is about three hours from Los Angeles and two from San Diego. If you decide to make the trip, you’ll most likely start from these coastal cities and head up into the mountains that form a barrier against the cooler air and moisture. At about 4000 feet, you’ll see a sign saying, "Welcome to Anza Borrego Desert State Park”, then as you descend the steep backside of the mountains, the air dries out, the temperature rises, and everything slows down. Get to the bottom and you’re in the desert.
Borrego Springs is a small oasis tucked into the north-western corner of the Sonoran Desert and is one of the few Certified International Dark Sky Communities. Borrego has a population of only about 3000, no stoplights, and just enough places to eat. To me, the desert isn't about touring and driving around; it’s a place to stop. If I were to try and summarise what draws people to the desert — and more specifically to The Courts — it's space.
Uniquely, The Courts feels as much like an art installation as it does a tennis club. It has the amenities of a traditional small club (four courts, a clubhouse, and locker rooms), but you can see and feel the creative energy of owners and artists Leah Goren and Adil Dara everywhere you look. The windscreens (a necessity for desert courts) are designed by artists you’ll like and wish you could afford. The clubhouse sports original pieces by Leah and Adil and extremely rare books about the art of Japanese shopping bags. And they teamed up with Wilson and local legend sculptor Ricardo Breceda (the “Picasso of Steel”) to create the world’s biggest tennis ball on their grounds.
“Uniquely, the Courts feels as much like an art installation as it does a tennis club”
Purchase a day pass or spend the night. Lodging options include renting one of their two campers (they sell out fast) or bringing your own tent. You don't have to play tennis to love The Courts: scout the Anza Borrego State Park for wildflowers, sun yourself like a lizard, melt into a lounge chair by the pool, thumb through art books or simply stargaze. Absorb the strange stillness and sounds. At night you hear coyotes howling and, in the morning, doves cooing. During the day the silence is broken only by the sound of someone jumping into the pool to cool off, or the pop of a tennis ball off someone’s strings.
Images & words Luke Schmuecker