Thanksgiving at San Diego’s Rose Canyon Park

I spent Thanksgiving Day in San Diego, and before the festivities began, I wanted to start my day off with a brisk hike. I don’t get to San Diego too often, but when I do I like to make the best of it, of course. I’ve passed by the entrance to this park many times, so I decided that today was the day I was going to explore its grandeur.

After months and months of constant heat and sunshine, lo and behold, it started raining on the West Coast for a few days. Somehow I just didn’t put the idea of walking the trail and mud together in my mind—and much to my chagrin I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Since the entrance to the trail looked dry enough, off I traveled with my new Keen sandals, ready to see what nature had in store for me today.

My first sight was a small rabbit up ahead of me on the trail, just looking off in the distance. Even though my camera isn’t too fancy, I was able to get a decent shot with the zoom lens.

Rose Canyon is a canyon in the truest sense of the word. It’s actually surrounded by hills and the houses built on those hills. Right next to the trail is an Amway train track, but this day, I didn’t see any trains. When the trail was getting overly muddy, I ventured toward the train tracks to see if it was more easily navigable, however, the large black rocks on the sides of the rails were too uncomfortable to walk on, and so I returned to waling in the mud.

Since San Diego is a huge fitness and outdoor enthusiast town, today I wasn’t the only one on the trail. I saw several bikers and a couple of joggers in the hour or so I was there.

One protection from the mud was a beautiful bridge built by Andrew Coyle, for an Eagle Scout project. I don’t know how much water was under the bridge before the rain, but there was definitely a steady stream afterward.

Not far from the bridge, I reached a point in the trail where I had to turn back:

A very important component and interesting thing to know about Rose Canyon Park, is its current Habitat Restoration project. I don’t know the specifics, but from the look of it and the wonderful smell, the project is going well. Whenever I’m in San Diego, I’ll have to check this trail out again. Even muddy, it was great and I had a great time.

All in all, it was a great walk, and even though my new Keen shoes were a muddy mess at the end, I just put them in the sink, scrubbed them, let them dry, and they turned out as good as new.

Do you look for new trails to hike? Or have any new adventures to share?

We’d love to hear about them, because

After all, it’s about a healthy lifestyle!

© Iowa Avenue