Cuyamaca, Volcan Mountain and San Diego River

So here it is a day after the Torrey Pines at the beach excursion and were headed for the opposite extreme. The snowy mountains in East San Diego county. This was mostly a driving tour with a small hike included in the afternoon. We drove I8 to 79 N through the Cuyamaca mountains, through Julian, then explored the Volcan mountains and the upper reaches of Santa Ysabel Creek, then we went down in elevation and hiked the Inaja trail near the upper reaches of the San Diego River. Nice!!

Torrey Pines State Reserve

I have been making up for lost time lately. I can't believe that I have lived in San Diego most of my life without exploring the Torry Pines Reserve. This place is totally beautiful. There are so many different types of plants here, it was pretty mind blowing that they are all here growing together, a combination of pine forest, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, wetlands and desert all together above the high sandstone cliffs at the beach. The flowers were blooming like crazy. This species of Pine only grows two places in the world, here in San Diego and on Santa Rosa Island off the shore of Santa Barbara.

Cedar Creek

I keep coming back to these mountains lately. This time Brett was up for a mountain adventure. It is always a treat for me to introduce someone to this amazing area. Most people that I know have no idea that there are places like this in San Diego. This particular area requires some definite exercise to get in and out of there. We explored, braved an ice cold jump into the punchbowl at the base of the falls, enjoyed lunch and some serenity at the top of the falls, tripped on all of the wildflowers and the finished off the day with the strenuous hike up and out of the canyon.

Penasquitos Canyon

So the sun is starting to set a little bit later lately and I have taken advantage of the longer daylight for a couple of 2 to 2 1/2 mile hikes on the western trail into Penasquitos canyon. This is an area of rolling hills, grasslands, meadows, wetlands and groves of sycamore and oak. There is more of a rocky gorge with a small waterfall farther up than I have gone but I just haven't had enough daylight to get back that far yet. Anyway, I have had a couple of nice hikes here so far. What a way to unwind after work.