Pala Stories

Pala Stories

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Can you find the big secret in this casino?

Reservation’s reservations

Interviews with Pala tribe members who are at odds since Indian gaming was made legal in California.

Exalta Farms

Previous residents: Brian and Helga Fritz, Chino Greenhouses Listing price: $29,950,000 Beds: 5 Baths: 9 House size: 7019 square feet Sometimes the desire for privacy goes beyond the seclusion offered by a guard-controlled, gated community. ...

Wilderness Gardens Preserve

Chaparral-cloaked hills, a wide river valley with oak woodland vegetation, and sections of lush riparian flora.

Help Is a Ping Away

Last week, sheriff's deputies rescued two surveyors who’d become lost while working on a Stewart Canyon landfill project. On December 30, James Plunkett, 30, and Jason Wold, 25, were placing markers in the area when, ...

First Swine, Now Squirrels

On April 2, a ground squirrel from the Doane Valley Campground on Palomar Mountain tested positive for plague, the “black death” disease that ravaged Europe and killed millions during the 14th Century. “The number of ...

Classic San Diego

Most-Filmed Wild West Main Street Don't look yet. Turn off Woodside onto Maine and behold a li'l old Wild West street that'll knock your spurs off. It huddles beneath a perfect movie-set backdrop of towering ...

Reservation Blues

Twenty years ago, concert promoter Bill Silva predicted that there would eventually be two concert markets in San Diego County: North County and metro San Diego. In other words, the same artist could play both ...

Hive Mentality

I love honey. I love honey! Like the bears. All day long my coffee has honey instead of sugar. My cereal has honey. My toast, honey on it. Always honey." David Rojas of San Marcos ...

Steer Your Bike around the Rainbow-Pala Route Through Rural Northern San Diego County and Southern Riverside County

For a taste of some fast-disappearing rural serenity in inland North County, try the following looping bicycle route through hills and valleys straddling the San Diego-Riverside County line. You'll gain and lose about 1300 feet ...

Explore the Easy-Going Trails of Wilderness Gardens Preserve near Pala in North San Diego County

Wilderness Gardens Preserve, a 676-acre jewel of county parkland near Pala in north inland San Diego County, encompasses the grounds of an old ranch -- the former retreat of Manchester Boddy, owner of a Los ...

Best of 2003: Best Place To Reach For The Stars

Palomar Mountain Observatory 35899 Canfield Road, Palomar 760-742-2119 Palomar, which means Pigeon Haven in La Jolla Indian dialect, is not an outing for those prone to carsickness. Once you exit I-15, curves are the norm. ...

Follow the trace of the Elsinore Fault through San Diego County's mountains and desert.

Like a subterranean knife-wound, the Elsinore Fault slices across the heart of San Diego County's backcountry, promising an earth-shaking jolt or two during the next few centuries. Sputtering movements over geologic time along its opposing ...

Native Bytes

San Diego's Indian tribes hope Internet technology will bring back the old days, the pre-Cabrillo days, when they traded and traveled among themselves. They believe technology could help them preserve their culture. Up until now, ...

Best of 2001: Best Scottish Hamburgers

Nessy Burger at Highway 76 and Old Highway 395, near Pala Mesa Village Up on the windy heights inland from Oceanside, where Route 76 meets Old Highway 395, a little piece of Scotland survives. Alistair, ...

San Diego Is No Place for Cows

Pete Verboom built his dairy in the Pala Valley in 1966. Ever since, the 100-acre farm straddling the San Luis Rey River has been his home and workplace. Over the following 34 years, over 100 ...

Nobody Doesn't Like Capital Gains

Mayor Susan Golding has filed a personal financial disclosure statement showing she has invested well in the pharmaceutical business. The mayor, who's seeking the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, is required by Senate ...