I took these beautiful photos of blooming Cleveland Sage near the San Diego River this fine spring day.
Our city’s California coastal sage and chaparral habitat is home to several native species of sage, but none, in my opinion, is more pleasing to the senses than Cleveland Sage, sometimes called Fragrant Sage–for good reason!
The Cleveland Sage bursts with purple flowers from April to August. Few local wildflowers are more showy. In the hot days of summer the hardy perennial will appear dried out and scraggly, but the perfume lives on.
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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!
Nature’s beauty and fine public art can be enjoyed at Chollas Creekside Park, located in southeast San Diego’s Chollas View neighborhood. The curved linear park, which preserves important natural habitat in an urban setting, can be found near the northwest corner of Market Street and Euclid Avenue.
A couple weekends ago I visited this beautiful community park for the first time and, by using the pedestrian bridge over Chollas Creek, walked the pathways along both sides of the dry creek bed.
I saw spring flowers. I saw new green leaves. I saw many birds.
I also paused to admire the Chollas Realm Gateways at either end of the park. The public artwork was created by local artist Roman de Salvo and installed in the summer of 2019.
At the center of Chollas Creekside Park, I circled Visualize Biodiversity. The 10-foot Corten sculpture is shaped like a barrel cactus. Patterns of butterflies and insects around its circumference light up at night. Created by artist Deedee Morrison, it was also installed in 2019.
You’ll see in my photos that I also climbed up to a lookout point above Chollas Creek, where there’s a great view of the entire park. With a little imagination one can visualize the surrounding area as it was before the city sprang up and streets and buildings covered the landscape.
Chollas Creek and Chollas View take their name from the Cholla cactus. Cholla were numerous here, once upon a time.
Chollas Realm Gateway, by artist Roman de Salvo, 2019.Birds of Chollas Creek include California gnatcatcher, red-tailed hawk, Bell’s vireo, and cactus wren. Visualize Biodiversity, by artist Deedee Morrison, 2019.Plants of Chollas Creek include California buckwheat, California sunflower, lemonadeberry, and California sycamore.Mammals of Chollas Creek include coyote, gray fox, desert cottontail, and big brown bat.Benefits of creek restoration include cleaner water, reduced flooding and preservation of wildlife habitat along a riparian corridor.
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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!
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I spent most of my day Saturday in North County. My first destination was Lake Hodges.
Starting from the trailhead by Hernandez Hideaway, which is a short distance off Del Dios Highway, I walked north along the San Dieguito River Trail.
It was an overcast spring morning, cool, mostly quiet, with a few other walkers about and mountain bikers flying past in a very big hurry. Not sure what the hurry was. To seek adrenaline, I suppose.
After moving north along the trail for a few minutes, observing one or two fishermen relaxing down by the water, I found a side trail that led down to a private spot on the silver lake’s shore.
It was a time for open eyes and reflection.
Here are my photographs. Bright things in the gray morning included light on the rippling lake, yellow patches of mustard, and white snowy egrets.
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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!
Large patches of bright yellow sunflowers can now be enjoyed along the San Diego River!
It’s springtime!
The native Bush Sunflower (also known as California brittlebush or Encelia californica) grows throughout San Diego’s coastal sage scrub habitat, and can be seen almost anywhere you go–on hillsides, in canyons, by sidewalks–at least where they haven’t been crowded out by invasive crown daisies.
Fortunately, the banks of the San Diego River support thriving native vegetation, and patches of California bush sunflowers are numerous.
I walked along a short segment of the San Diego River Trail in Mission Valley today and captured these photographs.
The newly opened T & C Neighborhood Park adjacent to the Town and Country resort was carefully planted with native vegetation, and I found many bush sunflowers blooming along its pathways!
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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 saw this great information on how to create a wildlife-friendly backyard and thought I’d share it! These four ideas were posted in a trailhead kiosk at Mission Trail Regional Park.
Grow plants that provide wildlife with a natural food source such as nuts, berries or nectar, or add backyard feeders.
Provide water for wildlife with a birdbath, small pond or shallow dish.
Offer protective cover for wildlife by providing ground cover, a hollow log or rock piles, dense shrubs or a roosting box.
Provide places for wildlife to raise their young, such as a water garden, pond or nesting box.
If you’d like to watch the birds and animals without them being spooked, or perhaps take close-up photographs, consider building a blind from which you can watch your wild visitors!
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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!
Yesterday, as part of a much longer walk in urban Santee, I enjoyed a very short, easy hike in the northeast corner of 7,220-acre Mission Trails Regional Park.
I started at the East Fortuna Staging Area and proceeded from the Equestrian Circle Trailhead west a quarter mile or so, just to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery.
Imagine my surprise when I quickly spotted a roadrunner!
The City of San Diego’s wild, rugged Mission Trails area, during World War II, was used to train members of the 2nd Marine Division. Camp Elliott is where they learned to fire artillery and operate tanks. According to the above sign posted near the trailhead: “At the height of the war, 50,000 officers and men were dispatched to combat zones from Camp Elliott in a little over a year.”
The canyons, mountains and grasslands of Mission Trails are now home to abundant wildlife and natural beauty.
Trees in the distance line the San Diego River where its life giving water flows through the park.
Some bright California bush sunflowers near the trail…
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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 took the following photographs today during a long looping walk around the west half of Santee.
From the Santee Trolley Square transit station I headed north up Cuyamaca Street, then west along Mast Boulevard to the East Fortuna Staging Area at Mission Trails Regional Park. After taking a short hike in the park, I headed south down West Hills Parkway and back east to the trolley station via Mission Gorge Road.
During the walk through Santee I snapped these photographs. Much of the walk was past homes, schools and businesses, but there were also these glimpses of natural beauty. (Additional photos that I’ll post in the next day or two include my short Mission Trails hike, an unusual historical monument, and very unique public artwork.)
The following three photos were taken as I walked down Mast Boulevard over Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve. Far below, in the middle of Lake 2, two white pelicans were standing on a rock. I also saw dozens of swallows flying out from beneath the bridge, but the tiny birds darted about so swiftly I was unable to capture a good photograph of them. You can see one swallow zipping by in this first photo…
As I walked down Mast Boulevard under State Route 52, I saw an indication that I had almost reached Mission Trails Regional Park.
Then I headed into the East Fortuna Staging Area. From the entrance driveway and parking lot I took photographs of the mountains beyond trees lining the San Diego River, and some sycamore leaves.
Walking south down West Hills Parkway took me to the place where State Route 52 passes over the San Diego River…
Finally, where State Route 125 meets Mission Gorge Road, I was surprised to find a beautiful golden patch of California’s State Flower: the California poppy.
(Incidentally, last Tuesday, April 6 was officially California Poppy Day!)
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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!
A couple weekends ago I took photos as I walked down Robyn’s Egg Trail in Mission Hills.
The hiking trail begins north of Pioneer Park by Washington Place. It descends first west then southwest along the bottom of narrow Mission Hills Canyon, and finally ends by some homes on Titus Street. It runs perhaps half a mile. From nearby Pringle Street I then walked a block down to San Diego Avenue.
Robyn’s Egg Trail in spring is very green. A variety of flowers can be spotted here and there and birds are plentiful. The rough trail winds through grass, trees, prickly pear and other vegetation–some of it native, some of it invading the canyon from the backyards of the homes above. This trail in the city feels a bit wild. Few people seem to use it.
Should you try hiking Robyn’s Egg Trail, please be careful. In many places the path is badly eroded and merges with a stony creek bed. I suspect that during rains it’s very muddy. Even on a sunny spring day, there were narrow and steep places where I could have easily slipped and fallen.
You can see the trail marked on Google Maps.
During my walk I encountered one friendly lady walking her dog, and one homeless person who acted a bit odd. But otherwise I found quiet.
Robyn’s Egg Trail is a retreat from the city above into a small slice of nature.
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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!
Today I went for a slow, easy walk through Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
After turning down a path behind several historic buildings, I noticed bright spring colors in a garden that few visitors see. A straggly, uniquely beautiful rose garden can be enjoyed behind the reconstructed La Casa de Machado y Wrightington, which today is home to the Tafoya and Son pottery shop.
For lovers of roses, this a wonderful little place to seek out. The roses even have signs that identify the varieties.
I took a few photos of the newly opened roses.
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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!
Spring has arrived in the window of Mission Hills Automotive.
Yesterday I went for a long, very pleasant springtime walk. These photographs represent my journey through the west part of Hillcrest, then through an interesting slice of Mission Hills.
I started inside Hillcrest, headed west down Washington Street, took a momentary detour to Fort Stockton Drive, then headed back down Washington Place to historic (and some say haunted) Pioneer Park, which I will blog about in a day or two. I then hiked down sloping Mission Hills Canyon along the green, seemingly little known Robyn’s Egg Trail, which I also plan to blog about. Eventually I came out near San Diego Avenue, southeast of Old Town.
Come along and read the captions to get a taste…
A flying unicorn on a fence by Copper Top Coffee and Donuts in Hillcrest.Lovers in a window at Urban Fusion Decor.Springtime in a window at VCA Hillcrest Animal Hospital.A cool mural on the side of Dame and Dapper Barber Shop. One of the bird sculptures along Washington Avenue’s median. I believe the sculptures were a project of the Mission Hills Garden Club.Mysterious tile artwork on the corner of a building.Banner thanks cool teachers at St. Vincent de Paul School.Interesting old building is home of the Ibis Market.Mission Hills homeowners are hoping to have acorn-style street lamps installed, to create a more charming and historic look.One of many beautiful old houses I passed in Mission Hills. I believe this one is a Craftsman.Gravestones line a corner of Pioneer Park, which was built over a cemetery where many early residents of San Diego remain buried.Heading down green Mission Hills Canyon on a sunny spring day. The Robyn’s Egg Trail is rough and requires careful navigation in spots. Along its approximately half mile length I encountered one walker with a dog and one homeless person.Bright flowers along the path.A happy kitty face greets me as I arrive at San Diego Avenue!
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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! 