Afoot & Afield: San Diego County: 282 Spectacular Outings Along the Coast, Foothills, Mountains, and Desert

Chapter 1

Beaches and Bays: North County Coast

North San Diego County’s almost unbroken line of beaches faces the Pacific Ocean along a gentle arc about 20 miles long. Just behind this is a string of cities and beach communities—Oceanside, Carlsbad, Leucadia, Encinitas, Cardiff, Solana Beach, and Del Mar. Compared to the more densely crowded coastal areas from La Jolla south, life is a bit slower in these communities. The locals take their beach going and ocean watching seriously. Some have chosen to live, at some peril, on the very brink of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.

The old coastal highway in North County (designated as Historic Coast Highway 101, in addition to other names it assumes in various communities) runs either right next to the sand or more commonly just a block or two inland on higher ground. Beachgoers and hikers enjoy plenty of access points, including many stairways that descend from the bluffs to the beach.

The North County coastline is subject to some of the most rapid erosion anywhere along the California coast. Supplies of sand from formerly free-flowing streams are now blocked by dams. A jetty built to protect an artificial harbor north of Oceanside retards the natural flow of beach sand southward along the coast. Powerful winter storms have moved large amounts of sand to offshore sandbars, while the gentle summer waves return only a part of it to the shore. Because the beaches have shrunk in width, the bluffs right behind some of the beaches sometimes get the full brunt of wave action during high tides and storms. Housing developments on top of the bluffs have disturbed the normal drainage patterns and seem to be contributing to a faster rate of erosion. In general, if you want to walk on a beach with a wider accumulation of sand, choose the summer months. Observe the tides too: high tides render some stretches of beach impassable—at least on dry ground.

Despite the extensive erosion problems facing the urbanized portion of the coast, a large swath of the northwest corner of the county remains relatively undeveloped thanks to the presence of sprawling Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. While much of this coastal area is off-limits to civilians, hikers can enjoy one of the most spectacular undeveloped stretches of coastline in the county at San Onofre State Beach.

While a tremendous amount of urban development has taken place in the last few decades, the conditions at North County’s coastal lagoons (estuaries) have actually improved due to habitat restoration programs. In addition to recreational trails on the shores of the Batiquitos and San Elijo Lagoons, trails explore the north shore of the San Dieguito Lagoon, which has undergone extensive restorations. The San Elijo Lagoon currently awaits a similar program that will restore the lagoon’s tidal flow and improve the surrounding habitat. Meanwhile, small pockets of natural habitat just east of the coast, such as those at Manchester Preserve, have been set aside to preserve the few remaining stands of coastal sage scrub a few miles in from the shore.

1 San Onofre State Beach

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Basilone Road in Camp Pendleton, just south of San Clemente. Turn west and follow the westside frontage road (Old US 101) 3 miles to the main San Onofre State Beach entrance. Parking for the first trail to the beach is immediately beyond the entrance.

San Onofre State Beach lies in the extreme northwest corner of San Diego County along a stretch of coastline that, nuclear power plant and military base notwithstanding, has been left relatively untouched and untrammeled. Sculpted sandstone cliffs, tidepools, and the geological highlight of the Cristianitos Fault offer a glimpse back in time to what the Southern California coastline once looked like prior to European settlement and subsequent urban development.

The coastline here owes its undeveloped state primarily to the presence of Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. The state of California leases the land from the base, which includes three separate parcels of shoreline and coastal sage scrub habitat straddling the county line. Thanks to Camp Pendleton, it is unlikely that the sort of pervasive development present from Oceanside south will take place here.

Starting from the first parking lot past the park entrance, follow the access trail dubbed Trail 1 as it wends its way down to the shore through aromatic and vibrant (especially in spring) coastal sage scrub. Trail 1 is the first of six trails trending north to south and named in numerical succession that offer access to the beach from the campground.

After 400 yards of downhill walking, Trail 1 dissolves into sandy beach. From here, you can make your way south for as many as 3 miles along cliffs eroded into beautiful and fantastic shapes. Hiking on the beach is most enjoyable at low tide, when the wet sand along the shoreline presents a comfortably firm walking surface and several rocky tidepools are exposed near the waterline. The cliffs take on an added layer of beauty during the golden hour just before and after sunset when the fading evening light draws out subtle colors from the sculpted sandstones and shales.

Tidepools at San Onofre State Beach

About 0.6 mile south of the power plant, you will encounter a sudden gap in the lines of cliffs. Hidden within the vegetation you will find the Cristianitos Fault, which extends 25 miles inland. On the south side of the fault, you will notice an abrupt change in the rock composing the cliffs as it transitions suddenly from 5-million-year-old sandstone to 15- to 20-million-year-old Monterey shale. Geologists report that the fault has been inactive for at least 120,000 years and therefore presents no threat to the stability and safety of the nuclear power plant.

Past the fault, you have the option of continuing another 2.4 miles south before reaching Camp Pendleton property. This route can be taken either as an out-and-back walk along the water or as a loop. To loop back to the start, take any one of the five trails south of Trail 1 back up to the top of the bluff, and then travel north along the road to your starting point.

2 Buena Vista Lagoon

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Vista Way and travel west toward the beach. After 0.5 mile, turn left onto South Coast Highway. After 0.3 mile, find the Buena Vista Audubon Nature Center parking lot on the left (east) side of the street.

Buena Vista Lagoon’s diminutive trail network allows modest access to the county’s northernmost coastal lagoon. Here you will find good bird-watching opportunities both from the trail and from the visitor center’s observation deck. Most hikers can finish this route in a matter of minutes, but for bird-watching enthusiasts and small children getting their first taste of the outdoors, this tiny trail yields pleasant rewards.

The trail at the lagoon is simple enough to follow. From the northeast end of the small parking lot, find the trail through a landscaped woodland of Torrey pines and sycamores until the trail turns right (southeast). Immediately after the turn, you’ll pass through dense thickets of bulrushes to arrive at a viewpoint over a small pond frequented by a variety of coastal bird species. After the viewpoint, the trail loops back toward the visitor center through an unbroken forest of bulrushes and cattails before arriving at a second viewpoint of the pond. From here, you can continue another 100 yards through a landscaped garden featuring many species of coastal sage scrub plants and an interpretive display. After perusing the garden, be sure to explore the Audubon Society’s handsome visitor center.

Dragonfly

3 Hosp Grove

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Las Flores Drive in Carlsbad. Go west on Las Flores a short distance, then turn right onto Jefferson Street. Proceed 0.6 mile to Hosp Grove Park on the right, opposite Buena Vista Lagoon.

For better or worse, eucalyptus trees from Australia have become a major component of San Diego County’s contemporary urban forest. More than a century ago, tall varieties of eucalyptus were planted in a misguided effort to produce wood for railroad ties. These trees largely escaped the ax after it was discovered that the wood from the trees cracked and split too easily for use as lumber. In addition to their seeming omnipresence as a landscape tree, eucalyptus trees young and old still drape the hillsides east of I-5 above Buena Vista Lagoon in Carlsbad at a place called Hosp Grove.

The city of Carlsbad maintains a small nature park and trail system spread across the two branches, separated by Marron Road, within Hosp Grove—a patch of serenity in an otherwise busy corner of North County. The west branch features a more well-defined trail, though hikers can include the east branch to create a figure eight up to 2 miles in length. Sections of the Hosp Grove Trail achieve good views over Buena Vista Lagoon, and bird lovers may wish to bring a pair of binoculars to scope out the birdlife below.

Eucalyptus trees

The Hosp Grove Trail travels west from the park’s playground before quickly taking a hairpin left turn to travel upslope. The trail bends to the right as it gains a high position along a slope deeply shaded by eucalyptus. Not much grows here other than eucalyptus, nonnative grasses, and a few scraggly lemonade berry bushes because the leaf litter from these trees poisons nearly every other type of plant. Despite these unfriendly toxins, eucalyptus branches are attractive to monarch butterflies, which arrive at Hosp Grove and about two dozen other sites around San Diego County in November to spend the winter season in relative warmth. The butterflies migrate from their summer homes in the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains.

After less than 0.6 mile, the main Hosp Grove Trail descends and turns sharply left to return to Hosp Grove Park. From here, you can continue on the trail paralleling Monroe and Marron Roads, or you can cross the street to the eastern segment of the trail and piece together a second loop about 1 mile in length. This second network of trails, which branches off in different directions in a somewhat confusing jumble of tracks, offers views east toward the Palomar Mountains.

4 South Carlsbad to Cardiff

DIRECTIONS North End: Park at the southernmost parking area for South Carlsbad State Beach, on Carlsbad Boulevard (US 101), just north of La Costa Avenue. South End: Park at San Elijo State Beach on US 101, opposite San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitas.

The finest beaches, some of the nicest surf, and the most instructive vistas along the North County coastline are seen on this beach walk. Your visit should coincide with low tide—or at least an ebb tide. During high tide, passage is restricted in at least two places by the wash of the breakers.

Start (if you begin on the north end) by walking south along the sandy or cobbled shore. Steep bluffs rise on the left. These bluffs are primarily 50-million-year-old sandstone derived from lagoon and sandbar deposits. As the sandstone erodes away, cobbles embedded in it are released and deposited at the tide line by wave action. Most of the cobbles on the beach are metavolcanic rocks from distant sources, but some are granitic rocks apparently transported from the local Peninsular Ranges as sediment via watercourses such as the San Luis Rey River. All show the effects of prolonged tumbling and polishing.

In the next 2 miles, you’ll see many graphic illustrations of the fragility of the coastal cliffs. In winter, storm waves crash directly against the base of the cliffs, while tugging at the lower underpinnings of the many private stairways that zigzag down to the beach. Some of these stairways have elaborate counterbalance mechanisms to raise and lower them to beach level. The cliffs are fluted with both old and fairly recent landslides, including one large semicircular feature 60–70 years old, now almost completely revegetated.

Blufftop property owners have used every strategy and tool imaginable to stabilize the cliff faces, including elaborate retaining walls and terraces, and flexible pipes to channel runoff. Some cliff faces are coated with gunite or other impervious materials, and others wear a coat of ground cover vegetation in the hope of holding things together. Overwatering is a constant problem: excess irrigation water constantly percolates into the porous sandstone and oozes from the cliffs at beach level, weakening them.

At 2.8 miles from the starting point, the cliffs draw back and the sand widens. This is Moonlight Beach, a popular sunbathing beach complete with the usual amenities (water, restrooms, and a snack bar).

As you continue south, the strip of sand narrows again and you pass the tightest spot along this hike, in an area just below the ornate Self-Realization Fellowship building, known as Swami’s. During a winter storm in 1941, a section of cliff collapsed here, taking with it one of the temples above. The ocean bottom off Swami’s gives rise to long-lasting wave breaks that are renowned among local surfers.

South of Swami’s, the strip of sand widens. You enter Sea Cliff County Park, accessible from above by a long, wooden stairway. The beach remains fairly wide as you approach the San Elijo State Beach park, with its popular campground on the low bluffs. When these bluffs dwindle to nothing, and you reach the inlet to San Elijo Lagoon, you can either cross the inlet by wading through it or you can cross the bridge spanning the inlet along the road to reach the parking area for Cardiff State Beach.

Seagulls and surfers at Swami’s

5 Batiquitos Lagoon

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Poinsettia Lane in Carlsbad. Proceed east on Poinsettia for 0.3 mile, and turn right on Batiquitos Drive. Continue 0.5 mile, and turn right on Gabbiano Lane, which leads directly to the Batiquitos Lagoon visitor center and trailhead.

Just beyond the placid north shoreline of Batiquitos Lagoon, white flecks of shell glint in the sunlight where the land begins to rise. Prior to two centuries ago, American Indians gathered and consumed shellfish here. As generations of American Indians discarded the shell remains, their middens (refuse piles) grew in size. They remain in evidence today, assuming you keep a sharp eye out for them.

In recent years, portions of the Batiquitos Lagoon Trail have undergone a face-lift. In 2014 trail crews uprooted a substantial grove of nonnative eucalyptus trees in order to plant a native garden with specimens such as Torrey pines, sycamores, coast live oaks, and other members of the coastal sage scrub community. This native plant garden project continues the long-term efforts to maintain the natural beauty and ecological health of this rare coastal environment. A nature center, completed in 2016 and staffed by knowledgeable volunteers, displays elements of the lagoon’s cultural and natural history. In the past, these efforts have included extensive dredging projects that restored normal tidal flows and converted the lagoon back into a functioning estuary. Today, the lagoon provides some of the finest bird-watching in the county.

Visitors (no bikes, though) are welcome to follow a path along the lagoon’s northern shoreline. It’s delightful to come here during early morning or late evening, when bird-watching is best. It’s also a good place to find a cool breeze during the warm spells of summer.

Starting from the Gabbiano Lane trailhead, head eastward along the shoreline. The nearly level trail curls along the lagoon’s north shore, where a number of interpretive panels explain different facets of the salt marsh ecological community. Traffic noise from I-5 fades as you continue east, passing several eucalyptus copses. You will catch glimpses of a perfectly manicured golf course and upscale housing and resorts on your left. Meanwhile, the assortment of native sage scrub vegetation and nonnative palms such as eucalyptus, wild radish, and fennel along the trail produces a pleasantly wild contrast. There are four separate side trails leading north to small parking lots along Batiquitos Drive. These trails are frequented by local residents. The first one you encounter heading east from Gabbiano Drive offers a pleasant diversion onto a ridge overlooking the lagoon.

At a point 1.4 miles from the start, the shoreline trail splits into a brief loop where the recently planted native species are replacing the eucalyptus trees. Take the right fork at the junction to follow the loop past a pair of benches. This loop will return you to the main trail, which you can retrace back to the start. The trail continues east from this point to terminate at an eastern trailhead on Batiquitos Drive.

6 San Elijo Lagoon

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Manchester Avenue in Encinitas. One starting point for the main trail system is 0.4 mile east from I-5, opposite a satellite campus of MiraCosta College. Another trailhead lies at the north end of Rios Avenue in Solana Beach. A third trailhead—La Orilla—lies off of El Camino Real on the western edge of Rancho Santa Fe.

Agreat blue heron ambles on stilt legs across the reed-fringed shallows, stabbing occasionally at subsurface morsels of food. Nearby, a willowy egret glides in for a perfect landing, scattering concentric ripples across the surface of the lagoon. Both birds seem oblivious to binocular-toting humans, who spy on them from a comfortable distance away.

A scene like this occurs almost daily at San Elijo Lagoon. Bisected by I-5 and rimmed by housing developments, the area became the focus of considerable conservation efforts that resulted in its current status as a wildlife preserve and local recreational hot spot. Recent improvements have opened new segments of the lagoon’s habitats to hiking, including the popular Annie’s Canyon Trail. Continued conservation efforts, including a long-planned habitat restoration of the lagoon’s tidal inflow and a widening of I-5 to relieve the traffic bottleneck through Encinitas, will bring further changes to the lagoon in the near future. Some parts of the trail network may close during these times, and hikers can contact the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy for updates on trail access.

West of I-5, in the West Basin portion of the lagoon, high tides wash over mud flats and mats of salt-tolerant vegetation. Here, birding enthusiasts can observe a dozen kinds of shorebirds on a typical day. A short looping trail originating from the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center, on Manchester Avenue 0.5 mile west of I-5, gives direct access to the north shore of the West Basin.

From Rios Avenue, you gain access to trails that meander along the lagoon’s placid south shore. These paths wind through coastal sage scrub vegetation and groves of eucalyptus and other nonnative trees. Eroded sandstone bluffs half hidden behind a screen of vegetation provide an impressive backdrop for the placid lagoon. A side trip to the south can take you into a secluded little ravine called Holmwood Canyon.

A second side trip leads hikers into the narrow confines of Annie’s Canyon. For years, graffiti and inappropriate use plagued this rare example of a coastal slot canyon carved into the soft Torrey sandstone formation. Between 2014 and 2016, a collaborative effort between conservancy volunteers and the County of San Diego removed the bulk of the graffiti in the canyon and created a unique trail that climbs up the slot via footholds onto the uppermost rim of the canyon. Views from the switchbacking trail that routes back to the main lagoon trail offer an impressive vista over the West Basin of the lagoon.

On the east side of I-5, runoff from Escondido Creek and La Orilla Creek supports a freshwater marsh—the East Basin portion of the lagoon. A quick access to that is by way of a flood-control dike east of I-5. The dike leads south toward a trail (with side paths) that traverses the upland part of the basin. One branch leads all the way to La Orilla Creek after swinging completely around the dirt-fill embankment used to construct the freeway to connect the East and West Basins. The trail continues east through the East Basin to reach the La Orilla trailhead along El Camino Real, which presents an alternate access point to the lagoon’s trail network.

7 Manchester Preserve

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Manchester Avenue and travel east along the north shore of San Elijo Lagoon. After 1 mile, turn right where Manchester Avenue’s continuation branches off of El Camino Real. After another mile of travel, find a small dirt parking lot on the west side of the road.

The City of Encinitas’s 123-acre Manchester Preserve protects a beautiful pocket of coastal sage scrub habitat tucked within a broad ravine above the San Elijo Lagoon. The habitat here illustrates the origin of the name Encinitas, which means little live oaks in Spanish. The area was once rich in scrub oak prior to development, and you’ll find numerous examples of the species interspersed within the preserve’s sage-scrub habitat. The 1.9-mile balloon described here is best traveled in March and April, when seemingly every specimen in this habitat is either bursting forth in a profusion of wildflowers or else emanating pungent and intoxicating scents into the cool, coastal air.

Starting from the staging area on Manchester Avenue, follow the wide trail northwest 0.25 mile until reaching a junction. Bear right on this junction to climb due north along a steep sandstone ridge forming the eastern and northern boundary of the preserve. You’ll enjoy views south and east from this ridge, which overlooks the nearby San Elijo Lagoon and the low-density suburban sprawl of Rancho Santa Fe. At 0.5 mile, this ridgeline trail crosses a power line access road and begins descending into a broad ravine carpeted by black sage, monkeyflower, scrub oak, California buckwheat, toyon, laurel sumac, lemonade berry, bladderpod, and an array of seasonal wildflowers.

At 0.9 mile, stay right at the junction to continue southwest. The trail branching off to the left will parallel your current route, but it sticks closer to the base of a cliff and away from the more scenic center of the ravine. After crossing a streambed, the trail turns to the left to travel south and then southeast along the western rim of the ravine before returning to the first junction at 1.6 miles. Bear right to return to the staging area.

Western fence lizard

8 San Dieguito Lagoon

DIRECTIONS Exit I-5 at Via De La Valle and travel east 0.3 mile. Turn right onto San Andres Drive, and follow it until dead-ends to find the marked trailhead allowing access to the Coast to Crest Trail.

Once the largest of San Diego’s six coastal lagoons at over 1,000 acres of wetland habitat, the San Dieguito Lagoon has suffered under a progressive barrage of urban development and the upstream damming of the San Dieguito River. As a result, the loss of habitat and the reduced influx of fresh and salt water led to accelerated sedimentation and the eventual closure of the lagoon’s inlet.

The resulting stagnation and degradation spurred the completion of the ambitious San Dieguito Wetland Restoration Project. This project implemented a tidal restoration effort that brought tidal flow back into the lagoon by dredging the blockages at the lagoon’s inlet. The program also restored several hundred acres of subtidal and intertidal habitats both west and east of I-5. Included within this project was a provision for the creation of recreational trails on the north and south sides of the lagoon. The wide, smooth path along the lagoon’s north shore travels between Jimmy Durante Boulevard just south of the Del Mar Fairgrounds to San Andres Drive just east of Del Mar Center. This segment of trail also doubles as the opening segment of the Coast to Crest Trail, which follows the course of the San Dieguito River from Del Mar to the summit of Volcan