Page 73 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

“California’s Grand Canyon” at Fonts Point, provides hiking trails through palm canyons, fields of cacti and dazzling wild- flower displays.
Heritage & Culture
Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo spotted San Diego Bay in 1542 but quickly sailed on north, leaving the Kumeyaay Indians to their warm, bountiful home. San Diego County’s 13 tribes represent the largest concentration in the country, and more than half benefit from casinos in east and north counties.
Cabrillo’s brief stay is commemorated at Cabrillo National Monument at the tip of Point Loma overlooking the bay. Euro- pean settlers who returned in 1769 built a fort and mission church at Presidio Hill (now Presidio Park), a gorgeous swath of lawns above Old Town State Historic Park, which contains many of San Diego’s oldest buildings.
DRIVE TOUR
Family Fun
Adults and children alike relish the San
LEGOLAND California and SeaWorld San Diego. Downtown’s New Children’s Museum is an eco-friendly playground for all ages, that makes learning fun. Its adja- cent one-acre park allows kids to burn energy. Teens flock to fighter planes and flight simulators at the USS Midway Museum. Top choices for inexpensive entertainment: bicycling at Mission Bay and Coronado, fishing off piers in Imperial Beach and Ocean Beach and stargazing from Mount Palomar.
Diego Zoo and its separate Safari
Park,
Historic Highway 101, also called the PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY, runs through San Diego’s idyllic NORTH COUNTY coastal communities, passing by gorgeous long beaches and wild lagoons. You can do the trip in a couple of hours, but why hurry? Begin at the north end of La Jolla at TORREY PINES STATE PARK and descend a steep hill to Torrey Pines beach, then uphill again to DEL MAR. Stop signs at each block force you to slow down and appreciate the Tudor-style buildings and quaint shops and cafés in town before you descend again and cruise through SOLANA BEACH, CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA, ENCINITAS, LEUCADIA, CARLSBAD and OCEANSIDE. Each town’s main street presents an array of dining and browsing options, from funky Mexican take-out stands to fancy restaurants on the sand. Of the many beaches along the way, MOONLIGHT BEACH in Encinitas pres- ents the most playtime possibilities including a playground, snack bar, picnic tables and a year-round lifeguard station. Take your time and stop often. The distance between Torrey Pines and Oceanside is only 25 miles, but you can easily spend a full day exploring. When you’re ready to return to central San Diego, just hop on I-5 South at one of the many entrances along 101.
LEUCADIA
OCEANSIDE
CARLSBAD
MOONLIGHT BEACH ENCINITAS
CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA
SOLANA BEACH
DEL MAR
TORREY PINES STATE PARK
2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA 71