My Top Ten San Diego Hikes, #8- Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

First, a little bit review of the list in My Top Ten San Diego Hikes. I started the list of My Top Ten San Diego Hikes from:

#10- Lake Hodges, followed by 

#9- Palomar Mountain State Park. 

Now, moving on to #8:

 Cuyamaca Rancho State Park - "Nature Heals....Nature Spares..."

Mix of Burnt Forest and Surviving Vegetation @ Cuayamaca Rancho State Park (with Stonewall Peak )

Random Nature's Arrangement

My Top Ten San Diego Hikes: (9)- Palomar Mountain State Park

Palomar Mountain from Boucher Hill Trail

In my previous post, I started My Top Ten San Diego Hikes with Lake Hodges, at #10. In this post, I will share the 9th in my list, which is Palomar Mountain State Park- best San Diego Mountain hike.

Wildflower Hunt @ Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Mt Woodson

Matilija Poppy, Blue Sky Ecological Reserve

As the carpet of wildflowers disappear on the hills by this time of the year, it is time now to simply hunt for wildflowers and enjoy them individually. It is actually as fun as seeing the carpet of wildflowers last March. The lack of wildflowers on the hills and valleys is exchanged now by the variety of flowers sharing the glory in the trail. Yesterday, we took the trail from Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Mt Woodson ( please click here to learn about the mileage, elevation gain and direction ).

Matilija Poppy

My Top Ten San Diego Hikes: (10)- Lake Hodges

Lake Hodges looking East

It is hard not to get outside in San Diego. The weather is beautiful year round. It is so scenically diverse. There are rugged ocean cliffs, mesas and canyons, mountains and valleys, and mind blowing desert geology. When I was still new to the area, one of my students told me that I should have no problem finding a place to hike because in San Diego, "if there is a hill, there is a trail!" True enough, I found that trails are almost everywhere. Escaping civilization became just a matter of minutes. Blame it on San Diego weather and outdoors, since I moved to this place, I lost the title I held for decades, as "paperback and movie critic" awarded to me by my friends being their movie and novel consultant. San Diego turned me into a "hiking rat"! 

Sunset @ Lake Hodges, Looking West

Because of the numerous trails and places to explore in San Diego, I can not claim that I am an expert of the place, and have explored all nooks and crannies of San Diego County. I know there are still many places in San Diego that awaits for our eyes to feast, for our minds to rest and for our hearts to take inspiration. After having been here in San Diego for almost nine years now, I can finally identify my top ten favorite San Diego Hikes, those places we so frequent. Perhaps these top 10 San Diego hikes closer to my heart are the very reasons why some other places in San Diego are still waiting for us to explore. I will start sharing my top ten San Diego Hikes from my number 10, and will end it with my most favorite at number 1. Probably, those who have shared my joys in this blog for quite some time now can easily guess which place would be in my number 1.

Let me introduce to you the number 10 in my list, 

LAKE HODGES- Best Trail For Birding

High Peaks Loop, Pinnacles National Park, CA

 Me Amongst Rock Spires @ Pinnacles National Park

Mileage: 9 miles, plus or minus.

Elevation Gain/Loss: 1465 ft.

Trail Condition: Very Well Maintained, some section going to the High Peaks are on footsteps carved on rocks.

An Almost Vertical Ascent, Thanks to the Small Footholds Carved on Rock and the Pipe for handrails to allow non-technical rock climbers to continue hiking