annassandiegoblog

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Torrey Pines Glider Point

A small trail will leave you sweating and lead you to a secluded beach near La Jolla in San Diego. This is the trail at Torrey Pines Glider point. At the top of this trail is a small café and the spot where many paragliders take flight. There is also a steep trail that leads down to Black’s Beach. Just as a heads up as I didn’t do my research beforehand (rookie mistake) Black’s Beach is in fact a nude beach, so keep that in mind if deciding to do this trail. Nonetheless, this trail was great and I would do it again. 

It is a short trail that is quite steep so it’s a great workout on your legs for sure. It is a structured trail so you don’t have to do any “off-roading,” there are steps that lead you down to the beach. This trail could easily be completed in 20-25 minutes or even shorter depending on how fast you walk. It also isn’t extreme by any means and could be completed by people of any ages, the only challenge in my opinion was the steepness but again it wasn’t extreme.

One of the highlights of this trail was the view. At the top of the trail, it overlooks the ocean which is breathtaking. As I previously mentioned it is also at the glider port so if you go when people are taking flight you can see the paragliders taking off. Some of my favorite hikes are those that leads to the beach as the views are always so amazing and you get to cool off at the beach afterwards if you wanted too! This is also a great beach to surf at if that is something that you are into, I saw quite a few surfers heading down the trail when I was coming down.

This isn’t something that I did, but if you did want to, you can walk down the beach to some other trails in the area and take those back up. I have heard of some other great trails in the area that are accessible from the beach so it’s a great option if you wanted to do a little more as this trail is short in length. 

Overall, I would recommend this hike! As I said before with the difficulty any age could complete it in my opinion, but please be aware if you are thinking about bringing your children as again this trail leads down to a nude beach. Thanks for reading!

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Mission Trail Regional Park

Mission Trails Regional Park was a great hike to do with friends. Located in San Diego, this hike showed some beautiful views such as a river and many large rocks. I completed this hike with my roommate after hearing about this trail from a Facebook group that I am apart of! The trail took us approximately an hour but it could be longer or shorter depending on what you prefer or what trail you choose.

This trail had many different trails so my roommate and I decided to do on of the moderate difficultly ones, and it was a nice little challenge for us. The only think that made this trail a little challenging for us was that we are both on the shorter side and the climb upwards needed some larger steps which we really felt in our legs. With that being said, I did see many families with younger children doing some of the trails as well here so it is a family friendly hike, but you can also choose to make it a little more challenging if you wanted.

On the trail that we decided to take it was sectioned into two smaller parts. Once you completed the first part which was very easy, you crossed over the main road through the park (which was only two lanes with only a few cars, so nothing to worry about), then came the harder part in which we climbed up to the top on one of the mountains. At the top of this smaller mountain, I witnessed some people rock climbing which was cool to see! As someone from Michigan, not very often did I see people rock climbing out in nature so that was cool to witness even though I’ve never done it before.

We decided to take a small break after hiking to the top and take in the all the views. The views at the top were so amazing and I am glad that we decided to take the time to take it all in. Unlike some of my other hikes, this was inland more so the views overlooked some of the other the mountains which I though was beautiful. Most of the hikes I go on have been near the beach but this was a nice way to switch it up a little bit. The Mission Trails Regional Park is a place that I will go back to and I look forward to hiking one of the other trails sometime soon. Overall, I recommend this hike to anyone in the area that is looking for a trail to hike and blow of some steam whether you go with friends or solo!

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Ho Chi Minh Trail

My most recent hike that I completed here in San Diego was just north of La Jolla and was called the Ho Chi Minh trail. This was a moderate hike that took you through a small slot canyon and ended at the beach! I have attempted this trail once before but it started to rain so I had to turn around and the beginning of this hike is a step decline on dirt. This time when attempting this hike, I completed it in approximately 25 minutes. You could probably complete this a little quicker but I was stuck behind a family who has some smaller children. With that being said while this trail did have some tricky spots to move through, slightly older children could complete this but I would take anyone younger than 5 in my opinion. Some highlights from this trail were the plank that you had to balance your way across and the slot canyon itself. This slot canyon was slightly different since the one at Annie’s Canyon trail (I talked about this hike in my previous post) as this one was hiking downward through the slot rather than hiking up. The opening was large enough for the typical adult. 

One thing I would recommend on this trail would be to have some good hiking shoes, or at least shoes with some good traction on them! I made a small mistake and forgot my good hiking shoes so I used the pair I was wearing which had almost no traction at all. While I was still able to complete this trail there were times where I was sliding on the dirt as I was completing certain “obstacles” on the trail. There are also some places that if you were to slip and fall, you could injure yourself the way that this trail is.

At the end of the trail, you can use the rope to help you climb down the rest of the way to the beach. I suggest taking some time after to enjoy the beach and put your feet in the water, I was a great little break. This beach was more secluded as well as it was on the side of the mountain so the only other people were the ones from the hike or that had walked over from another hiking spot.

Overall, I recommend this hike if you live in San Diego or plan on traveling here soon! It makes for a great solo hike but also would be great with friends.:)

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Annie's Canyon Trail

For my first post I will be talking about my most recent adventure in San Diego which consisted of taking a hike at Annie's Canyon Trail in Solana Beach. This trail was short but effective and consisted of two options to get to the top. There was both an easy version and a difficult version which both led to the same viewpoint at the top. The "difficult" pathway which I took takes you through the slot canyon. While I would not recommend this to anybody with claustrophobia as the opening was very tight, it was very achievable.

The total time inside the slot for me personally was about 5-7 minutes as there were also others completing the hike as well, but may take shorter or longer depending on how quickly you move. While in the slot you come across a bar ladder that you will need to climb to get to the end of the slot opening. Inside the slot you also see many markings along the walls, but it isn't advised to create any additional markings, there was also a small opening in the slot. This opening appears as a very small cave that you can step into while making your way through. Once at the top of the slot, there is a viewpoint that overlooks to the highway on one side and the ocean on the other. Coming back down from the slot I took what was considered the "easy" path. As someone who hasn't completed many hikes this was a good option as a beginner hike. There was the option to continue onto another path once completing the slot portion, but I opted to end after completing the slot.

After this hike I decided to find a place to relax for the next couple of hours, so I took a short drive up to La Jolla shores beach. This was a great beach to check out as its in a great area and is a beautiful beach. I watched as people surfed and families walked along the beach enjoying their Friday afternoon. If you are in the area I suggest watching the sunset at this beach as well as taking some time to relax for a while, as the surrounding area is very calm unlike some other beaches in the area.

For my next "adventure" in the San Diego area I decided to hike a nearby trail at Mission Trails Regional Park with a friend. This hike will be a little more "intense" than the one at Annie's Canyon trail but is still considered an "easier" trail. I will talk more about this hike in my next post.