Mission Trails Regional Park’s 1291-foot-high South Fortuna Mountain is one of several summits of similar stature stretching from Cowles Mountain in the south to North Fortuna Mountain in the north. It’s easy to understand why …

If you want to spot wildlife, the earlier you make the hike to Chiquito Basin, the better. One morning, in the soft wet ground along the way, I discovered fresh tracks of a deer and …

The County of San Diego’s brand-new Flume Trail linking El Monte Park to Blossom Valley is hardly flat, as the name “flume” might imply. On the contrary, it darts relentlessly upward on a zigzagging route, …

Balboa Park’s trail system is just about complete. After several years of planning and implementation, five trail “gateways” are in place, and a total of 19 trails emanate from those gateways. Throughout the park, sprucing …

Potrero Regional Park hides in a spacious, live-oak-covered corner of Potrero Valley, near the forgotten south-county hamlet of Potrero — east of the Tecate turnoff and west of Campo. The word potrero is Spanish for …

San Diego’s Embarcadero, the place of departure and arrival for vessels as small as fishing skiffs and as large as ocean liners, defines the city’s connection to the watery worlds of San Diego Bay and …

Rustic signs along some of Clairemont’s and Bay Park’s major streets call attention to one of the oldest designated open-space parks in San Diego: the 900-acre Tecolote Canyon Natural Park. The park’s unpaved service roads …

Remote Sheep Canyon, secreted in the middle reaches of Coyote Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, features some of the most rugged yet beautiful terrain in San Diego County. The canyon has two main forks …

Your impression of Lake Jennings may be strongly colored by the season in which you choose to visit it — a not-unusual circumstance in many of San Diego County’s inland, low-elevation locales. Summer’s heat and …

The sprawling Chino Hills State Park east of Los Angeles offers 14,000 acres of open space for hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers to roam (note: dogs are not welcome). Unfortunately, the November 2008 “Freeway Complex …

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park (in case you didn’t know, it’s the former Wild Animal Park) in Escondido sprawls over an 1800-acre expanse chosen for its resemblance to Africa’s most productive wildlife areas. Make …

Like caterpillars marching to their own drummers, the rock-ribbed mountain ridges of the Anza-Borrego Desert nose this way and that, eventually finding their roots in the sand-drowned valleys sloping downward into the Salton Basin. The …

One of the largest vernal pools in California (39 acres at maximum capacity) lies in a shallow depression atop near-flat Mesa de Colorado, in southwest Riverside County’s Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. Small vernal pools …

The 1915–16 Panama-California Exposition site in Balboa Park is renowned among San Diegans for its incomparably beautiful Spanish-Moorish buildings, its gardens, and the graceful Cabrillo Bridge. That area is the primary destination of the walk …

The recent purchase of a parcel of land on the east border of the Daley Ranch preserve in Escondido ensures that hikers can now visit boulder-dotted Stanley Peak, a summit that formerly lay just out …

The desolate ridge of Coyote Mountain rises like the dark, furrowed flank of an elephant over the sand-drowned Borrego and Clark valleys in the north part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Scattered amid slabs of …

On the Upper Las Virgenes View Trail, you look down upon the emerald-green (currently, at least) upper drainage of Las Virgenes Creek, a tributary of Malibu Creek whose tentacles reach north into the Simi Hills. …

On its roughly 50-mile course from the mountain crest near Julian to the beach at Del Mar, the combined Santa Ysabel Creek/San Dieguito River courses through several steep and narrow canyons. The lowest of these, …

Indianhead, a 3990-foot promontory perched along the north wall of Borrego Palm Canyon, juts dramatically from the desert floor near Borrego Springs and the Anza-Borrego Desert visitor center. There are several true mountain-climbing routes to …

Crystal-clear skies are visiting us again, as Santa Ana winds swoop down intermittently from the northeast, as cold winds blow from the north, or as high pressure invades the county and lingers here for a …

Balboa Park’s easternmost section, aligned with 28th Street, isn’t well known among most San Diegans, let alone tourists. North Parkians, South Parkians, and Golden Hilliers, along with local golfers, do know of several out-of-the-way features …

For beachcombing, tidepool exploration, and all-over suntanning, the coastal stretch north of La Jolla Shores can’t be beat. This coming winter’s extreme low tides (typically a tide of -1 foot or lower) are especially conducive …

Have you ever driven down Interstate 8 east of Jacumba and, eyeing the immense boulder piles that rise on both sides, wondered what it would be like to clamber over them? Here’s your chance. Follow …

The 1100-acre La Tuna Canyon Park, basically an open-space area with minimal picnic facilities, drapes over the north-facing slopes of the Verdugo Mountains near Glendale. On this trek, which is perfect for a cool late …

With quaint footbridges spanning two wooded ravines, scores of historic homes, plus mature landscaping, Banker’s Hill speaks to historic elegance and the preservation of nature. The following short ramble through canyon bottom and along quiet …

The goal of this marathon hike or mountain-bike ride is to reach Modjeska Peak, the lower of the two distinct peaks that form “Old Saddleback,” the defining summit ridge of the Santa Ana Mountains. If …

The Desert View Trail in the Laguna Mountains delivers exactly what its name says, but there’s more to see than just the distant desert. From the nearly 6000-foot heights of the trail, you can enjoy …

Mission Gorge is arguably San Diego’s (city, not county) most spectacular topographical feature, with walls on both sides rising several hundred feet at a nearly 45-degree pitch. From a geological perspective, the gorge was carved …

Q: What are badlands? A: “Wasteland” that has been eroded into unusual shapes by wind and water — originally from the French term les mauvaises terres. Our local version of this, the Borrego Badlands in …

If Shelter Island seems overly familiar to you, then try visiting this artificial “island” (or shall we say, peninsula, which is technically more correct) at either the opening or the closing of any clear day. …

Most visitors motor right up to the cool forests of Palomar Mountain’s parks or observatory on the curling South Grade or East Grade roads. Exercise-minded hikers might try an alternative east-side approach that actually reaches …

The hike (or mountain-bike ride) to Sunset Peak, near the community of Mount Baldy, offers up fine views of an archipelago of high peaks stretching from San Gabriel Wilderness in the west to Cucamonga Wilderness …

San Dieguito Lagoon’s new “Lagoon Trail” and boardwalk now stretches 1.4 miles between Jimmy Durante Boulevard and the Albertsons shopping center just south of Via de la Valle. The new segment of trail is yet …

Twin Peaks, a scruffy, boulder-studded promontory rising amid Poway’s suburban streets, is less known for its own existence than for the major street named after it: Twin Peaks Road. After a short but vigorous climb, …

The pint-sized (244-acre) Verdugo Mountains Open Space Preserve covers a scruffy patch of east-facing slopes in the city of Glendale. The circular hiking/biking route described here is pieced out of fire roads and residential streets …

Come to Foster Point not only for a great view, but also for an opportunity to identify many of Southern California’s highest mountains. A direction finder, installed by the Sierra Club, shows 17 peaks, including …

Looking for a place to escape the summer heat? Look no farther than the scenic strand of beach stretching south from Swami’s Park in Encinitas. The walk on the sand isn’t difficult, and if you …

Fry Creek Campground, in the Cleveland National Forest on Palomar Mountain, offers the kind of forest camping experience that is becoming increasingly scarce in Southern California. A long-term drought cycle and various recent wildfires have …

The Upper Las Virgenes Open Space Preserve (former Ahmanson Ranch) in the Simi Hills contains some great examples of oak-studded hilly terrain symbolic of coastal California. Right now these hills have lost their green sheen, …

Rural roads suitable for bicycling still exist around Escondido, particularly north of town, where the landscape slopes upward toward boulder-studded hillsides. The route featured here covers ten miles, with a significant elevation gain of 1100 …

In spring and late summer, the “elfin forest” of chaparral in the Santa Monica Mountains takes on a dozen shades of green and bursts forth with nectar-bearing blossoms that are often more attractive to the …

Joining joggers, walkers, and cyclists on local recreational pathways are a certain number of recreational skaters, especially those using fast, sleek, in-line skates. Smooth, paved footpaths, bike paths and sidewalks, plus a few traffic-free roads …

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is just one component of south Orange ­County’s 20,000-acre swath of coastal open-space parkland that is open to all kinds of non-motorized travel. The Big Bend Loop trail route (which takes …

Eastbound in the right lane of Highway 52, the San Clemente Canyon Freeway, you can look down upon a long, slender, almost unbroken swath of natural vegetation: massive sycamores, stately live oaks, swaying willows, climbing …

Los ­Angeles’s scenic and storied Mulholland Drive/Highway skims across the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains from the Hollywood Hills all the way to Ventura County. If Mulholland were ever extended farther eastward from its …

Two of inland San Diego ­County’s most important east-west highways, Scripps-Poway Parkway and the Tierrasanta-to-Santee stretch of the Highway 52 Freeway, have been designed to carry bicycle as well as auto traffic. They can be …

Silverwood. The name comes from the glittering effect of sunlight upon the dark-green leaves of the coast live oak. Scores of these trees, some of them two-century-old giants scarred by wildfire, shade the canyon floor …

Two hundred thirty-eight years ago, a small party led by the Spanish Colonel Pedro Fages chased after army deserters from the Presidio of San Diego, trekking through a narrow declivity known as Oriflamme Canyon on …

Spring is finally arriving in upper-elevation San Diego County. At mile-high elevations you can find lingering bursts of wildflower color amid the somber pines and bright-green black oaks. For a wide-ranging introduction to this mountain …

After the series of rainstorms we experienced this past winter season, Riverside County’s San Mateo Canyon is brimming with a cold, sparkling stream. The surrounding hillsides (all a part of the Cleveland National Forest) have …