Near Anza, there is the Anza-Borrego desert area, with lots of wheelin' there. From there you can go south, east or north to more desert, and mucho wheelin areas.. if you know where the lefty's feinstein and boxer and the ecco terrorists haven't the shut the desert down. Stoddard Wells and Johnson Valley to name a couple wheelin areas. Those are 'open' desert areas. Johnson Valley has the world famous 'Hammer' trails if you like to bust axles and modify your sheet metal. Of course, as others mentioned, the desert is an oven from May to through August. Anza gets a bit hot then too. Even die hard desert rats like myself tend to stay out of the desert once the temps get over the 100 mark. Check out the BLM website for desert wheelin' places and info. There's always the Big Bear area at around 6000' elevation, and it's not too hot there even in the summer (usually). If you have the time and effort to join a Jeep club, there's lots of those out here and they usually know the best and closest areas to go. See you on the trails..