Tag: outdoors

Rooftop views from San Diego Natural History Museum!

The rooftop of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park is seldom open to the public. I was lucky that the rooftop happened to be open today, the first Tuesday of the month, when The NAT is free to San Diego residents and active military and their dependents. But I was told that’s not always the case.

The rooftop is indeed reliably open to the public the third Friday of every month, when the museum presents Nat at Night and remains open until 10 pm.

The Natural History Museum’s rooftop not only offers spectacular views, but there’s food and drink and plenty of tables. Today The Craft Taco had their menu available. Later this year, the food will be provided by San Diego’s Restaurant of the Year in 2024 (according to San Diego Magazine): Wolf in the Woods.

Rooftop views are to the east and south. To the east, one can see Balboa Park’s beautiful Desert and Rose Gardens, Morley Field and Florida Canyon, and in the far distance, the Cuyamaca Mountains. To the south is the Bea Evenson Fountain, the Fleet Science Center, and glimpses of downtown San Diego skyscrapers through treetops. In the distance one can recognize a slice of South Bay, and, on a clear day, one can see all the way to Mexico.

Okay! Time for today’s photographs!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Epic geocaching event begins in Southern California!

Image credit: Chet Kinzelberg.

An epic multi-month event has begun in San Diego and throughout our region. Geocachers are participating in Cache Across Southern California 2025!

Geocaches are now hidden and waiting for discovery in ten Southern California counties. The event is described in this way:

Cache Across Southern California (CASC) invites you on a thrilling journey through roughly 40 Geocaches hidden across all 10 Southern California counties. With this year’s Hollywood-inspired theme, you’ll explore the magic of filmmaking while embarking on a Geocaching adventure like no other. For those who are unfamiliar, Geocaching is a worldwide GPS-based scavenger hunt in which one uses a free app on their phone to find hidden containers with a log sheet inside. To join the fun, locate a CASC Geocache and print the official passport. Each cache contains a unique stamp, which you’ll use to mark the small movie tickets on your passport. This makes prize redemption at the SoCal Spring Fling Mega Event on May 3, 2025, a seamless experience. As you progress, share your journey with fellow participants in the official CASC Facebook group. The group will also feature updates and announcements leading up to the Spring Fling.

If participating in this epic event sounds overwhelming, fear not. While the top prize requires locating 15 caches across 10 counties, you can also win prizes for finding 6 caches across 3 counties.

Want to join the fun or learn more about the outdoor hobby of geocaching? The San Diego Geocachers Facebook Group is where you can interact with over a thousand other local geocaching enthusiasts.

Happy hunting!

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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 X.

Thank you for sharing!

Native and Indigenous Healing Garden and mural at SDSU.

In 2022, the Native and Indigenous Healing Garden debuted at San Diego State University, to one side of the Communication Building. The circular garden, which also serves as an outdoor classroom, is filled with healing herbs that can be freely harvested. Life grows in sunshine around a central stone fountain.

The plants in the garden represent various indigenous cultures: the Kumeyaay, the Aztecs, the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, and other indigenous people in California and Mesoamerica.

Painted beside the garden on one side of the Communication Building, visitors will also find a large, very beautiful mural.

This website provides details about the 30’ x 60’ mural: Designed by students as part of an Arts Alive SDSU project by History Professor Paula DeVos and Art Professor Eva Struble, the artwork includes various plants, animals, and designs with deep ties to Native Indigenous culture throughout California and Mesoamerica.

If I lived near SDSU, I know I’d walk by frequently, simply to sit on the shady bench you see in my photographs. One feels drawn to this healing garden, the smell of sage and other life springing from the earth, and the quiet beauty of the place.

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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 X.

Thank you for sharing!

Tour the MAKE Farm at SDSU Mission Valley!

The public is invited to tour a working farm in Mission Valley. I did that today!

MAKE Farm at SDSU Mission Valley is located a short distance from Snapdragon Stadium. Perhaps you’ve seen the farm from the elevated Stadium trolley station, or the parking lot east of the stadium.

I first noticed the new half-acre urban farm early this year and posted this blog. Today, as I walked through the SDSU Mission Valley river park, I saw a sign indicating there was a tour today. It turned out today was the farm’s very first “trial” tour–the official tours will begin next January on Saturday mornings.

The MAKE farm is flourishing! Adam and a farming trainee (a friendly refugee) showed me rows upon rows of organically grown vegetables. They pointed out beets, radishes, peas, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, bok choy, kale, parsley, carrots, strawberries, onions . . . and more! During the summer they also grew corn, beans and other warm weather crops.

After taking a look at the growing food, I learned how the farm has a special CSA Program. For a monthly subscription, you can receive a weekly bag full of farm-fresh healthy vegetables! You also receive an invitation to a fun seasonal gathering on the farm! Cool! Learn about the program by clicking here!

As I explained previously, the farm gives refugees job training, and some of the produce that is harvested goes to the MAKE Cafe restaurant in North Park.

Students from San Diego State University are also visiting the farm to learn about sustainability. Once SDSU Mission Valley is fully developed, the farm will be ideally located!

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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 X.

Thank you for sharing!

Walking through Swan Canyon in City Heights.

For a small adventure, hike down into Swan Canyon from the streets of City Heights.

The long, narrow canyon is one of several in this San Diego neighborhood. Like other nearby canyons, it features trails for nature walks in a mostly urban environment.

I enjoyed a short, easy hike last weekend in Swan Canyon. My aim was to photograph a newly painted mural on an old concrete foundation down in the canyon. If you’d like to see those photographs, click here.

There are several ways to enter the canyon. The trailhead I used is at the intersection of Olive Street and Highland Avenue, a couple blocks east of Fairmount Avenue. I headed east down the Olive Street Trail to the bottom of the canyon. You can see several trails on Google Maps if you perform a search.

At the bottom of the canyon, there’s a sign showing where the Olive Street Trail and Quince Street Trail cross. From the Olive Street Trail, I turned left and headed north up the Quince Street trail.

After a short distance of upward climbing, I noticed a definite but unmarked trail to the left. It led to the mural.

It’s hard to get lost in the narrow canyon. Just keep looking around.

Once I reached the mural, I easily retraced my steps. You could venture down another trail or in a different direction if you’d like to conduct your own voyage of discovery!

The trails I walked down were fairly well maintained, but wear good shoes and bring water on a warm day. You can see a few hollows in the shrubbery where homeless people might live, and graffiti in places, particularly near the mural–so be aware of that.

The above sign stands at the trailhead.

The sign contains information about wildlife and plants in our city’s canyons, and is provided by the organization San Diego Canyonlands. See their website here. You’ll find loads of useful information!

Did I come across any wildlife during my walk? The canyon did smell fresh and wild. I observed no coyotes, raccoons or red-tailed hawks, but I did spot a squirrel, and a few small birds in some trees.

Looking down from the trailhead…

Here we go! Watch your step…

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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 X.

Views of future Sweetwater Park in Chula Vista!

Sweetwater Park is a large recreational park now being developed in Chula Vista, next to San Diego Bay. It extends between G Street and E Street. When completed, the 21-acre park will feature trails, picnic areas, nature and adventure play areas, and scenic overlooks to the bay.

Yesterday I discovered that one wide dirt trail is already open. It parallels the paved Bayshore Bikeway, with which it sometimes coincides. The trail begins at the north end of Chula Vista’s Bayside Park next to Marine Group Boat Works, and extends up to Sweetwater Park’s future entrance and parking lot, which is located across E Street from the Sun Outdoors RV Resort.

Walking north up the trail, I peered over construction fences to view Sweetwater Park’s progress. In upcoming photos you’ll see connecting trails that aren’t yet completed.

As I got started, I turned south for a moment. That huge structure in the next photo is the parking garage for the big Gaylord Pacific Resort and Conference Center now under construction.

Okay, now I’m heading north. I saw this sign concerning native coastal and salt marsh plants here near San Diego Bay.

Come along on my sunny Sunday walk…

A sign on the fence includes images of how the finished Sweetwater Park will appear.

Looking at the overall site plan, my walk north proceeded from right to left. I’m now at the park entrance and parking lot.

Embedded in the trail at its north end is a circular plaque:

Funding for this path provided by the Urban Greening Grant awarded in 2017 by the California Natural Resources Agency. Port of San Diego Waterfront of Opportunity.

Learn more about future Sweetwater Park by visiting the Port of San Diego website here. You’ll also see a plan for Chula Vista’s Bayside Park to nearly double in size and become Harbor Park!

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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 X.

A new park and public art in San Diego!

A new park is coming to downtown San Diego! It’s called Progress Park, and it’s located at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive, at one end of the new Research and Development District complex (RaDD).

Check out that new public art near the center of Progress Park! It’s titled Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper.

According to a plaque that I photographed from a distance through a construction fence: Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper is a sculptural landmark pavilion that symbolically and functionally integrates with RaDD Life, fusing art and science. Inspired by childhood memories, the natural world, and its relationship with mathematics, the creators have fashioned a geometric structure utilizing Voronoi tessellation. The piece resembles a shell covered with barnacles and recalls memories of childhood games at the beach, where hope seemed infinite.

What is Voronoi tessellation? Learn all about it here.

The creator of the pavilion is gt2P (Great things to People), a Santiago de Chile based collaborative studio collective.

I can’t wait for the fence to come down. Progress Park is full of greenery and outdoor space–a fine addition, it would appear, to San Diego’s world-class waterfront!

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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 X.

Visit San Diego’s great outdoors for FREE!

A library card is more valuable than you might realize! You can use your San Diego Public Library card to check out a free vehicle day-use pass for over 200 California State Parks!

I noticed this valuable information last weekend during my visit to the Rancho Bernardo Library. To receive a free pass, head over to your nearest San Diego Public Library branch and speak to the library staff.

The free pass will admit you into so many amazing State Parks, including beautiful Torrey Pines State Nature Preserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Silver Strand State Beach…

You don’t have a library card? Get one at your local library! Then grab a free State Parks pass!

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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 X.

Very unusual outdoor art in San Ysidro!

Take a look at this interesting outdoor art installation in San Ysidro! It’s part of an exhibition titled MIRAGE: el orden de los factores y los riesgos de la ilusión.

The unusual tower-like structure stands in an open space next to San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor, a short walk behind The Front Arte y Cultura community cultural center. It’s the same space where San Ysidro celebrates Día de los Muertos every year.

The Mexican born visual artist behind the exhibition is Marcos Ramírez Erre. The rest of his MIRAGE can be viewed inside The Front, which happened to be closed when I walked by last weekend.

What do the different levels of this peculiar “tower” represent? (I wouldn’t mind lounging near the top under those shades!)

As the web page describing the installation explains: the art explores the geopolitical and symbolic landscape of the Mexico-U.S. border, characterized by architectural, masculine, industrial, monumental, and anti-monumental elements.

It seems to me the open structure, with its ladders, huge cylinders and different platforms, would be a fine stage for an outdoor theatrical performance!

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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 X.

San Diego’s new recreation area at Waterfront Park!

If you live in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, or anywhere near the County Administration Center, you’re in luck! The new outdoor recreation area in Waterfront Park opened last week!

This community resource had been a work in progress for a very long time, and now it can welcome those who like to play sports, exercise, or walk their dog in the San Diego sunshine. You can see photographs of the area under construction here and here.

The recreation area occupies the northeast corner of Waterfront Park. It includes one basketball and two pickleball courts, five exercise stations, a ping pong table, plus a fenced off-leash dog area with agility equipment. Pickleball paddles and balls, table tennis paddles and balls, basketballs, and TRX suspension equipment can be freely checked out from a nearby information booth, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the summer, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from fall to spring. A sign on the booth’s window indicates there’s also a bocce ball set and chess set available for loan.

I’m happy to see that the 1.25 acre area spared some of the old garden where it was built. And there are benches to sit in the shade of newly planted trees, and even a Little Free Library box near the information booth with books that young or old might enjoy reading.

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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 X.