The Joshua tree farm in Mission Beach
One way to save the national park
Ken Harrison 3:10 p.m., Oct. 14
Pine Valley Stories
Pine Valley – way past suburbia
Pine Valley Store, Pine Valley Bridge, Laguna fire, fall foliage
We didn't have a street address in Pine Valley I took my children on a trip to my past. Friday after Thanksgiving, I herded Rebecca, Angela, Johnny, and Ben into our van. Lucy, who had ...
Among the pines in Pine Valley, CA
This East County mountain town's an easy 45-minute drive from downtown.
As someone who has primarily lived in suburbia, I find myself escaping to small-town USA when I am in need of a change in scenery. Most San Diegans head to Julian, Palomar, or Cleveland National ...
Live in rural East County? Get an air horn.
Mountain lions and their defenders
Janie Agostini, Lakeside resident who lives in Moreno Valley, announced October 5 that 11 of her chickens were killed the previous night, but she wasn’t able to track the animal that did it. Her neighbors ...
Don't disturb the horses — Granite Springs Trail Camp
Pastoral grasslands with Cuyamaca and Laguna views
The standard route to Granite Springs is from the Sweetwater Trailhead located in Cuyamaca Rancho State Parks south-central region, but if you prefer a quieter approach, the Deer Park Trail offers plenty of solitude, wildflowers, ...
Secret Canyon: Pine Valley Creek Wilderness Trail
Follow the verdant corridor of Pine Valley Creek, cross a gorge, and follow a historic flume.
Pine Valley Creek flows from the Laguna Mountains into Barrett Reservoir, passing through Secret Canyon on its descent. Most of the trail (about 14 miles) traverses the 13,000-acre Pine Creek Wilderness in the Cleveland National ...
Too hot for human smuggling
Mexican released from car trunk, then arrested, in Pine Valley
Two U.S. citizens were arrested Sunday after Border Patrol agents found an undocumented 18-year-old Mexican national locked in the trunk of their Toyota Camry parked along the shoulder of Interstate 8 east of Pine Valley. ...
Let's smuggle
Two women caught in Pine Valley with two Mexicans in trunk
Two women were apprehended at a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 8 east of Pine Valley Tuesday evening, February 3, after being caught with a pair of men stashed in the trunk of their compact ...
SD Water Authority: "Pine Valley has water! Kill them and take their water!"
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER, PINE VALLEY — "We always knew this day would come," said Jedidiah McTavish, his eyes fixed on the interstate that would inevitably bring the marauding hordes to his doorstep, gallon jugs ...
Corte Madera Mountain
Ascend and sign the peak register at the top of San Diego’s “Half Dome.”
Bring friends, as this is a trail less traveled. The route averages a 7 percent steady climb with short sections of 60 percent (stairs) at the 4588 peak before reaching the plateau to Corte Madera ...
Stalled thunderstorms over Mt. Laguna
Emergency Alert System provides flash-flood warning
On July 22, the National Weather Serve activated San Diego County’s Emergency Alert System. Monsoonal moisture was causing large thunderstorms, running from Barstow south into Baja. The storm in San Diego was going to be ...
Big Laguna-Gatos Spur
Aromas of butterscotch and grape soda in Cleveland National Forest
Pines, oaks, and incense cedar on this six-mile loop of the Gatos Big Laguna Trail Spur.
Cold morning over Corte Madera Dam
Snowbird’s eye view
Flying eastbound along Interstate 8 this Saturday morning of January 12, I could not help but notice the beauty of our East County with a light dusting of snow. It has been so cold (in ...
San Diego's frequent fires endanger native plants
The view from Pine Valley
Fires make David Hogan nervous. It's not because he's afraid his Pine Valley house will burn down. It's because after every fire in Southern California, politicians start clamoring for reduction of the "fuel" that covers ...
San Diego drought as seen from Descanso.
"That ranch lost 80 percent of their oaks"
"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 ...
Best of 2003: Best Local Fall Foliage
Pine Creek Road, Pine Valley Take the SUV, not the sedan, and drive east on I-8 to the Highway 79 exit. Go north on 79 toward Julian, then take Old Highway 80 toward Pine Valley. ...
We didn't have a street address in Pine Valley
Rain and wind and long ago
I took my children on a trip to my past. Friday after Thanksgiving, I herded Rebecca, Angela, Johnny, and Ben into our van. Lucy, who had awakened with a fever, stayed at home with my ...
Your Dad Arrested My Dad
San Diego backcountry sheriffs don’t enjoy anonymity.
The difference between the $55,000 the hypothetical deputy in Lemon Grove can make by moving to Campo and the $52,500 he can make as a corporal staying in Lemon Grove is only $2500.
Best of 2001: Best Country General Store
Al Atallah's Pine Valley Store 28820 Old Highway 80, Pine Valley 619-473-8723 Talk to the old folks, and they lament the loss of the old general stores, where you knew Al and Al knew you, ...
Hike under a 400-foot-high bridge carrying I-8 traffic over the gorge of Pine Valley Creek.
Starting from the spacious Pine Creek Trailhead outside Pine Valley, the Secret Canyon Trail weaves and bobs its way along the canyon of Pine Valley Creek, finally emerging some 15 miles later at Horsethief Canyon, ...
Pine Valley girl recalls the 1970 Laguna fire
Red sky
In the fall of 1970, California caught fire. Between September 25 and October 3 that year, the U. S. Forest Service recorded 16 fires that consumed over 528,000 acres statewide. From Humboldt County in the ...
Mountain lions return to Mt. Palomar, Ramona, San Pasqual, Pine Valley, Julian, Warner Springs
Their roar was once rare, but the big cats are back
"There’s a whole den of lions down on Prisoner Ridge [west of Lake Henshaw] somewhere,” he says. “It’s so brushy you won’t see ’em every day, but they’re there. I seen tracks, lotsa tracks!"
