Hiking in San Diego County

Unlike the several other creek valleys that run to the sea out of the coastal mountains in San Diego County, Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve is a rare patch of semi-wilderness where a year-round artesian spring has for about 6,000 years or so provided a ribbon of life. Native Americans were the first inhabitants--acorn-grinders, they huddled near the dense forest of California live oaks, trading with coastal and inland tribes. The vast canyon became the first Mexican land grant in the early 1800s and the site of one of the first adobes built in Alta California. Later in the century the first intercontinental mail route ran through, joining the western territories with the midwest and the east, and was followed by the Butterfield Stage coaches.
    Today, miles of idyllic hiking and mountain biking trails wind along the scrub-covered hillsides and across the canyon floor, meeting, as bobcats, coyotes, deer and Southern Californians have always done, at the bubbling stream of fresh water cascading downhill between a cacophony of giant boulders.
    The canyon is easily accessible, just east of Highway 5.