San Diego.
44. McGinty Mountain One of East County’s signature high points, McGinty Mountain offers a 360-degree skyline panorama that a soaring hawk or eagle might see.
Torrey Pines State Beach at Flat Rock
INTRODUCTION
Sunshine. Water and waves. Blue skies and mild temperatures. Sports and leisure. This list of attributes pretty much sums up the image that San Diego projects to the world—and that image is true!
Tourists visiting San Diego for the first time are amazed at the sheer magnitude of park spaces and recreational venues. Everywhere, it seems, people are engaged in outdoor recreation. People are not only swimming, surfing, boating, fishing, picnicking, golfing, and playing tennis, but they’re also running, biking, skating, and walking.
The focus of 50 Best Short Hikes: San Diego is all about walking, and doing it on the most outstanding 50 trails in this metropolitan region. The selection is so varied that you can match the trail to your time, your mood, your energy level, and even to what shoes you’re wearing—or not: the trail surfaces throughout San Diego range from concrete and asphalt to dirt footpaths and sandy beaches.
Geographically, the hike selections include the suburbs and nearby communities that surround the city of San Diego: just picture the Pacific Ocean coastline from Oceanside in the north to Imperial Beach near the Mexican border. Add to that the various bay and river shorelines. Then color in the hills, canyons, and valleys stretching east up to—within the parameters of this guidebook—about 20 miles inland from the coast. (San Diego County actually extends much farther east than that, encompassing mile-high-plus mountain ranges and a vast desert region. Those remote, eastern areas are covered in detail in a companion book published by Wilderness Press titled Afoot & Afield: San Diego County.)
The roughly 1,000 square miles of landscape covered in this book offer a year-round mild climate, easy to moderate types of terrain suitable for almost any hiker, and amazingly varied scenery. To put icing on the cake, you may reach the trailheads by car via one of the world’s most efficient roadway systems. In the next few paragraphs, let’s focus on these superlative claims.
Coastal San Diego County’s weather is often tagged as Mediterranean: generally warm and sunny, and winter-wet, summer-dry. Despite San Diego’s low latitude within the 48 contiguous states, a cool Pacific current moving south along California’s coast helps keep the area pleasantly air-conditioned on summer days. Mountain ranges north and east hold cold-air masses at bay during the winter. The bottom line is that daytime coastal temperatures nearly always hover within the 60˚F–75˚F range. The winter-wet season isn’t all that wet: only about 10 inches of rainfall per year, most coming in December–February, and there is no snow! Farther inland, up to 20 miles from the coast for these hiking routes, temperatures aren’t quite as mild, with some summer days reaching the 90s, and some winter nights dipping below freezing.
However, where and when heat is a factor, this guidebook coaches you to hike in early mornings or late afternoons—or to save those areas for fall, winter, or spring excursions. And as it is all about day hikes in these pages, you won’t have to concern yourself with bundling up in sleeping bags. (Well, a few trails in this book are suggested for enchanting full-moon excursions, but night hiking is recommended only in comfortable weather.)
Another comfort factor is elevation, which is the leading determinant for easy versus difficult trails. While coastal San Diego County isn’t highly mountainous, the landscape does rise and fall in a dramatic fashion here and there. As a consequence, the most demanding trails in this book may involve hundreds (but never thousands) of feet of elevation gain and loss—cumulative elevation change—over the course of the hike.
Your payoff for elevation gain in this region is views, views, and views. San Diego is not only highly scenic, but it’s also scenically diverse. One route offers a vista of waves and ocean bluffs, while a nearby trail darts into a fragrant eucalyptus grove, and yet another threads through oak woods next to a trickling stream. One trailside panorama encompasses square miles of boulder-frosted mountainsides, while an urban vista frames downtown San Diego’s glimmering skyline over the sparkling waters of San Diego Bay.
For a healthy mix of flora and fauna, city and country, you’re in the right place when you hike here. The whole of San Diego County (4,526 square miles) is home to more than 2,000 species of native plants and has more biodiversity than any area of comparable size within the continental United States. Some 500 species of birds have been spotted in San Diego County, more than most other counties or parishes in the nation, including Hawaii. Among the 50 routes covered in this book, you will come upon enough living things to not disappoint. And the hike descriptions tell you what to especially look for among plant and animal species along that trail. Also among these 50 routes, at least a quarter of the hikes weave through some of San Diego’s most interesting urban neighborhoods. You’ll enjoy the inner city’s treasure trove of historical, architectural, and cultural points of interest.
Coast prickly pear cactus
Lastly, from and around the city core, San Diego’s freeway system reaches out to nearly every suburb of consequence. That means that parks and open space areas on the suburban fringe are easily accessible. Barring traffic tie-ups on weekday mornings and afternoons, nearly every hike in this book is accessible within an hour or less of driving from the heart of the city.
USING THIS BOOK
The audience for this book is twofold: One is local residents who seek fresh walking routes—or who want to explore their own metro backyards more thoroughly. The other is tourists or business travelers who want a quick post-afternoon-meeting or post-sightseeing bit of exercise.
Whatever made you reach for this book, 50 Best Short Hikes: San Diego will entice you to the area’s best trails and pathways that are no more than 8 miles in distance and that have no severe elevation gains. Most of the hikes actually fall within the 1- to 4-mile range, which makes them quite suitable for casual hikers.
The most challenging hikes included in this book typically are located inland, rather far from the most densely settled and tourist-friendly sections of San Diego. Such routes may be perfect for half-daylong jaunts, especially on weekends. In some cases, you may have physical limitations to consider. In others, perhaps small children will accompany your walk. Whatever your particular needs or interests, there are hikes for you. Peruse “The Very Best Short Hikes” section to help you decide where to start.
To select hikes geographically, check the locator map. It depicts all five regions that are covered in this book and pinpoints the location of each of the 50 numbered hikes. The regional designations—Coastal North County, Inland North County, Coastal & Central San Diego, East County, and South County—are fairly common terms around San Diego. They refer to the metropolitan area of greater San Diego, not to the whole of San Diego County. (The latter includes about 2 million acres of remote mountains and desert that make up the true eastern half of the county, as well as Camp Pendleton, a large Marine Corps base on the county’s northernmost coast.) In addition to their positions on the overall locator map, the five regions cited earlier each have a map and brief introduction preceding the trail profiles for that area.
