La Jolla lifeguard tower rife with cost overruns
Baby bird, seal-pupping, and bad waste pump blamed for budget surprises
Matt Potter 4 p.m., Sept. 21
Descanso Stories
Get an early start on Descanso’s Blue Ribbon Loop along Sweetwater Creek
Lush river vegetation
If you are looking for a loop hike in the Cuyamacas with a mix of sun and shade, old road and narrow trail, a variety of wildflowers, and a shady creekside spot to rest, then ...
Watch out for horse pies on Dead Horse Trail
This technically advanced riding trail is also a challenge for hikers.
Merigan Fire Road was the main road for a ranch owned by Dr. Haig Merigan, a pharmacist and dentist. His family lived and rode horses in La Mesa until it became difficult to ride due ...
A lasso-shaped hike with options for distance and terrain
Poison oak awaits the unwary hiker in Descanso
The Descanso Sweetwater River Loop is a lasso-shaped hike that follows the Merigan Fire Road and then turns left onto the Saddleback Trail to start the loop. Make right turns onto the California Riding & ...
Rare oak dots the hike to Eagle Peak
This hike has breathtaking views of the San Diego River Gorge
The Eagle Peak Preserve, located about 4.5 miles north of Eagle Peak, is a conservation area managed by the San Diego River Park Foundation (SDRPF) that has breathtaking views of the San Diego River Gorge. ...
Behind the Border Fire fire wall
"We know that quite a lot of animals were left behind."
Behind the lines at the Border Fire, neighbors, volunteers, county animal-control crews, and Border Patrol agents are caring for the animals left behind during the fire's sudden spread. (Border Fire updates.) While many people evacuated ...
Roberts Ranch denied developers and spared from 2003 fires
An easy walk through open grassland meadows and mature oak groves
Roberts Ranch is a hidden jewel nestled on either side of I-8 at the foot of the Cuyamaca Mountains. There is no sign announcing its presence, so this is a hike experienced only by those ...
Views of wildfire recovery
See how it grows on the once-scorched Pine Ridge Trail
A hike in the Cuyamacas with views in a wilderness setting.
Lake Cuyamaca loop
Cuyamaca is a Spanish corruption of the Kumeyaay phrase “Ekwiiyemak”
An easy stroll around the shores and meadows of this picturesque mountain lake that abounds with alpine plants and wildlife.
Middle Peak
Hikers have wide open views of the peak in the aftermath of the Cedar Fire.
In 1907, General Land Office (GLO) survey records note “Mid Peak” as the peak between North and Cuyamaca peaks. It was not until 1970 that “Middle” Peak appeared on forest maps. Middle Peak used to ...
Airplane Monument
Trail to past tragedy in the Cuyamacas
Hike this year-round trail through chaparral and oak woodland to stunning views and to see a mounted 12-cylinder aircraft engine.
UPS Can't Find Me. FedEx Can't Find Me. Visitors Always Get Lost.
San Diegans outside the bubble.
What’s it like to live in what passes for “the wilds" of San Diego County? Bill Manson finds out.
The Wiggle Is Back
I’ll never forget the time, probably somewhere in early 2003, when Holy Molar played their first and only show at the Ché Café. Like most present, I was a high school kid whose primary release ...
East County Western
In a role not that far removed from its actual history, Descanso recently stood in for a Western frontier town. Chula Vista–based Southwest Pistolero Productions used the area to film scenes for a movie titled ...
Dyar Spring/Juaquapin Loop
If water is an element essential to your hiking pleasure, then this hike in the Cuyamacas may be for you. Along Juaquapin Creek, you can sit in the shade and listen to the most peaceful ...
Cuyamaca Ski Routes
Skiing in San Diego County’s mountains? Fact or fiction? The answer in any given winter season varies, but it is typically “fact” for one or two brief periods of time per year. The type of ...
Roberts Ranch
Thanks to the crusading efforts of Descanso cabinetmaker Duncan McFetridge (affectionately known by some as the “Robin Hood of Cleveland Forest”), certain privately owned lands in Cleveland National Forest near Descanso, formerly slated for housing ...
Perfect Drought
A view of the future from Descanso.
"It's catastrophic!" Duncan McFetridge flings his arms out. "Look, can't you see the change?" Several years ago, when I last came here to the Cleveland National Forest outside of Descanso, McFetridge's cabin nestled in a ...
Trek to the obscure summit of Guatay Mountain, between Descanso and Pine Valley.
Guatay Mountain, a gently swelling, chaparral-covered ridge rising about 900 feet over the hamlet of Guatay, is distinguished by its old-growth population of Tecate cypress trees. This particular species of cypress has a very spotty ...
Developers Eye Sleepy Descanso
"We're fighters out here."
It's only 35 or 40 minutes from downtown San Diego to the junction of Interstate 8 and State Route 79. And just a couple of minutes north of there lies the rural town of Descanso. ...
Roberts Ranch Opens its Gates to Hikers in Cleveland National Forest
Thanks to the crusading efforts of Descanso cabinet-maker Duncan McFetridge, affectionately known by some as the "Robin Hood of Cleveland Forest," two inholdings (islands of private property inside public-domain lands) near Descanso are being added ...
