Several weeks ago I enjoyed a fine, very easy nature walk.
I proceeded from the murals at Harbaugh Seaside Trails (near Highway 101 at the north end of Solana Beach) down the main dirt trail. The trail turned, passed through a tunnel under the railroad tracks, and entered San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve.
I then proceeded north up the Pole Trail (which runs parallel to the train tracks), crossed a couple of bridges, and ended at the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center at the south end of Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
Come along with me as we look at these protected wetlands and watch for birds and other native wildlife…
Sign at Harbaugh Seaside Trails at start of my walk.These trails were made possible by Nature Collective.Beautiful words a short distance from the Harbaugh Seaside Trails murals. Annie’s Bench.Nearby overlook with views of the Pacific Ocean off to the west.Beginning our walk in earnest.Here’s the railroad tunnel.Artwork at the tunnel entrance depicts birds.We are looking across San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve.San Elijo Lagoon in the winter.Pools of water support much life.Heading north we encounter a fenced area and sign.Map of the reserve. To the east there are additional trails to be explored.A big mound of soil behind this fence.Sign explains the sandy habitat restoration. The elevated sand dune attracts endangered birds, like the California Least Tern and Western Snowy Plover.Continuing north.Vegetated and shallow channels are home to rare indigenous plant and animal species. Birds include Ridgway’s Rail and Belding’s Savannah Sparrow.Here comes the first bridge!A profusion of native sunflowers.That interesting building up and to the left is the Nature Center.A plaque along the way memorializes Beloved Friend and Engineer Brian A. Martin.Another footbridge spans a channel of water.Plaque describes The Buhr Nature Bridge. Gabriel Buhr’s forward-thinking, planning and vision helped make the restoration of the San Elijo Lagoon possible.Almost to the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
I love these three tile mosaic murals decorating the front of Vons in Coronado! You can spot them as you head down Orange Avenue.
I believe this artwork appeared in conjunction with the recent Vons remodel. The grocery store expanded into the old Cora Mart building space next door.
Several colorful scenes include an abstract Hotel del Coronado and kites in the blue sky, presumably pulling unseen kiteboarders across the ocean.
Who out there knows more about these murals?
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Twenty five new oak trees were planted today in a very special place in Balboa Park!
Forever Balboa Park, trained Tree Stewards and dozens of volunteers gathered in the USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove to revitalize a historically important area of the park that’s a bit off the beaten path.
Perhaps you’ve driven down 26th Street from Golden Hill toward Naval Medical Center San Diego and seen many old oak trees off to your left. Those live oaks were planted in 1905 to memorialize 66 sailors who died in San Diego Bay when the boiler of the USS Bennington exploded.
As these coast live oaks have aged, some have died or approached the end of their life. Planting small new oak trees infuses new life and meaning into this truly special urban forest.
Walking along, camera in hand, I got “volunteered” to help plant three of the twenty five trees! Cool thing is, when I walk this way again, I’ll know that I and others have tangibly touched the future with these living trees. They will be growing more beautiful long after I’m gone.
If you’d like to become a volunteer Garden Steward or Tree Steward in beautiful Balboa Park, click here!
Before the planting of new trees, Kathleen Winchester tells everyone the history of the USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove.Some of the spots where new coast live oaks will be planted.Everyone learned the proper way to plant a tree so that it thrives.Here’s a tree my group planted.Using the shovel to make sure the tree is planted at the correct depth.
The planting of these 25 live oak trees in Balboa Park was the final phase of the 26th Street Trail park improvement project.
Last year members of the California Conservation Corps greatly improved the trail that leads up 26th Street to Golden Hill Park. The path, badly eroded in many places, was replaced with decomposed granite, and three new footbridges were built!
I walked up the trail to take some photos…
Lastly, thanks again to the Boy Scouts and sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who made their mark improving and beautifying the oak grove five years ago. If you’d like to see what they did, click here!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park is always beautiful. Even between winter showers.
As I walked down into the Lower Garden today, I noticed great progress has been made on JFG’s big new waterfall.
I spied other construction, too! A special space is now being built where outdoor weddings can be held among all the natural beauty.
Expert, artistic pruning in the Upper Garden.Naked branches during winter. Grays among greens.Today is JFG’s “free entry for residents” third Tuesday. Several folks were setting up on the patio, including the garden’s long-time beekeeper! She showed me this wood home constructed for native bees.Heading into the Lower Garden a few minutes after the Japanese Friendship Garden opened.Looking across the canyon, I could see how the big new waterfall appears just about finished.Walking down one of the garden’s special paths.I was surprised to see a new area under construction. A worker told me this little plaza will be for outdoor weddings.This path leading up to the new waterfall is still closed.A structure near the new waterfall. I was told special events will be held up there.I can’t wait for the new waterfall to be activated!These stairs will allow visitors to climb toward the top of the waterfall.Beauty is abundant down in the Lower Garden.A rain chain at one corner of the Inamori Pavilion is dripping! After taking this photo, I hurriedly put my camera under my jacket.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
As I walked through the award-winning Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden, I saw enthusiastic volunteers who are dedicated to gardening and beauty. And I was grateful to them.
A couple of experts told me no other rose garden in San Diego can compare with our treasured one in Balboa Park.
If you want to help maintain Balboa Park’s incomparable rose garden, check out the next photo, or click that first link!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Did you know there are Secret Stairs in Valencia Park, a community in southeast San Diego?
The neighborhood stairs span two blocks, from Churchward Street to Las Alturas Terrace. (Google the stairs and you’ll see their location on Google Maps.)
A year ago four artists came together to beautify the somewhat neglected stairs. They embellished them with colorfully painted flowers and insects, plus a mural!
This article explains all about the Secret Stairs of Valencia Park and their new artwork. Herbert Delong, Shannon White, Isabel Garcia and Shirish Villaseñor were the artists. You’ve seen the work of Isabel and Shirish elsewhere on my blog. Together they call themselves Arte Atolondrada.
In the upcoming photos, I walked the Secret Stairs from south to north. If the steps seem a bit dirty and leafy, keep in mind San Diego has been experiencing winter storms.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Over the years, several beautiful female faces have been spray painted on this wall in Normal Heights.
The wall is to one side of a tiny parking lot on Adams Avenue, between Adams Avenue Tattoo and the El Zarape restaurant. I noticed the date on this mural is 2022.
Back in 2019, I photographed another face on this same wall. See it here!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
At the end of 2021, some very cool art was being painted on two garage doors in Mission Beach. I happened to see the work in progress during this walk. At the time I knew nothing about the artist.
I walked past these two murals again today and noticed they’re completed! And they’re by San Diego muralist Carly Ealey!
It’s an elephant and flower!
You can see this beautiful artwork just north of Ostend Court on Mission Boulevard.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The beautiful tall ship Exy Johnson is visiting San Diego. She’s now docked at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I was told the Exy Johnson arrived in San Diego Bay so that she can be hauled out in Chula Vista for her periodic maintenance and inspection.
The last time I saw the two-masted brigantine was during the 2017 Festival of Sail on the Embarcadero. It’s hard to believe that was almost six years ago!
The Exy Johnson and her twin ship Irving Johnson are based up the coast at the Los Angeles Maritime Institute. The two tall ships take students out on educational sailing excursions. What an incredible opportunity for young people! Can you imagine sailing on her?
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The Marina Gateway in National City contains a small cluster of buildings located at the intersection of Bay Marina Drive and Marina Way. On the south side of the Marina Gateway parking lot, a walkway and outdoor plaza overlook Paradise Creek. The creek flows through a marsh into nearby Sweetwater River. Two signs at the edge of Paradise Marsh concern the history of the Native American Kumeyaay.
The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation owns property at the Marina Gateway, and I believe this plaza was built since my last visit almost seven years ago. The same plant and wildlife information signs remain, but, if I recall correctly, back then there was no plaza and the overlook was less developed.
One sign I didn’t spot years ago features a topographical map showing Kumeyaay ancestral village sites within 1000 feet of the Sweetwater River. It also describes how the Kumeyaay would move up and down the river as they traveled between desert, mountain, and coast.
The Kumeyaay people lived here for thousands of years, long before European explorers and settlers arrived. It is their ancestral homeland–a place of comfort, beauty, and enjoyment, a place that honors our past and that will be enjoyed by future generations.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 