San Diego County is home to many different types of scenery—from deserts to mountains to oceans. The San Dieguito River Park is one such example of this variety, as it spans across a huge portion of the county. In fact, the park’s Coast to Crest Trail runs from Volcan Mountain near Julian all the way to the ocean near Del Mar. There are about 45 miles of groomed trails (with an additional 20 miles of auxiliary trails) for hikers, equestrians, and of course, bicyclists. The Coast to Crest Trail is still being completed, with a planned 70 miles of total trails.
We decided to pick the trail up near Lake Hodges, just below the city of Escondido near the 15 freeway. If you’re on the freeway, take exit 26 at W. Bernardo Drive and head west. Directly off of the freeway you will find multiple entrances to the San Dieguito River Park. There is a beautiful pedestrian/bicyclist bridge that crosses the lake that will lead you to a nicely paved bike path that runs all around this part of the park. The path also leads you under the freeway at one point, which provided some really cool photo opportunities!
We opted to take out our cruiser bikes for this ride and put on the 26″ Electron Wheel to fit. Since there weren’t too many challenging inclines around the lake, we toggled between normal and low modes and it was perfect.
Alongside some gorgeous views of the lake itself, the park is home to over 170 species of plant life with dozens of different species of wild flowers. One of the more interesting of these we saw was an almost moss-like plant that grew over the top of other plants and bushes. It looked almost synthetic with its bright orange appearance.
The park is even equipped with bike maintenance stations, in case you need a emergency tightening of brakes or quick pump of air. Were seeing these more frequently around some of the more popular bike paths, and we love it! 👍
Overall, we rode about 10 miles around the lake, stopping for photos along the way! Below are a couple of great links providing more information about the San Dieguito River Park, including a map of all of the current trails.
Cheers!
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http://www.sdrp.org/wordpress/
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1-nLBT7WLrU6zV4K3riZ3YsiWWLI&hl=en