THE GHOST IN ANZA BORREGO STATE PARK

Muriel Randolph

Do people really see ghosts?  We surely thought we did.

About twenty five years ago, one evening at dusk, Randy and I were driving along San Diego County Route S2 in the Anza Borrego State Park east of State Route 78. The road was narrow and straight with a lonely, desolate appearance.

Suddenly we saw a young, tall, slender girl with long flowing blond hair, no coat covering a thin filmy white dress, arms swinging free, walking along side the road facing the direction of oncoming traffic, if there had been any.

It was a cool evening in September and why wasn’t she wearing a jacket? Why was she alone when it was getting dark? She obviously was not looking for a ride?

We hadn’t gone far past her when Randy said “let’s turn around “.  I agreed. We wanted to see her again, but she had disappeared, certainly not behind a tree, bush, hill or a structure of any kind. She was gone in thin air!

Over the years we drove that rural, barren route many times and never saw anyone resembling her. Did we really see a ghost?  We always wondered until recently.

In the May 22, 2002, Travel Section of the San Diego Union Tribune was an article The Lady in White, A Haunting Presence in the Desert. Apparently many local people have seen her.

As the story goes, she was a “mail order bride” who in the 185O’s was traveling to Sacramento by Stage when she became ill and perished near what is now Vallecito County Park on Route  S2. Legend also says a fourteen-year old girl was accompanying her aunt on that fateful journey and she restlessly paces the desert waiting for the Stage. Was “she” our ghost?