At The Backroads

La Jolla Caves

Distance: 1.0 mile round trip
Best times: At extreme low tides at any time of the year, but typically occurs from October to March. To check for San Diego tides, please visit the site, http://ocean.peterbrueggeman.com/piertide.html 
Parking: At La Jolla Shores Beach Parking lot (8200 Camino del Oro), or at Marine Room Restaurant on Spindrift Drive.
Directions:
From the north, take Interstate 5 south and exit at La Jolla Village Drive westbound. Turn left at the signalized intersection at Torrey Pines Road and follow it to the signalized intersection at La Jolla Shores Drive.
From the south, take Interstate 5 northbound and exit at La Jolla Parkway. Turn right at the signalized intersection at La Jolla Shores Drive, then turn left at the signalized intersection at Avenida de la Playa. Turn right on Camino del Oro.

La Jolla Shores (looking South)

La Jolla Shores is a sandy beach approximately one mile long. Waves at this beach is usually the gentlest among San Diego beaches, for this reason, many novice scuba classes are held here. To go the caves, walk South from La Jolla Shores beach. The wide strip of sand soon changes to cobbles and wave-washed cliffs.

Cobbles and Wave-Washed Cliffs

“The cliffs at La Jolla are uplifted erosion-resistant sandstone. The wave action from infrequent storms has gouged out a series of sea grottos, known as the La Jolla Caves.” - Jerry Schad’s A Foot and A Field in San Diego County.
The westernmost and the largest cave was made accessible by land through a man made tunnel that begins inside the Cave Store, which is located at La Jolla Cove. The six other grottos in the series are accessible only by water, but at extreme low tide, some caves can be accessed by hikers. Ideal condition for hiking to La Jolla Cave should be at minus 1 foot low tide or less, and begin your hike 30 minutes before the predicted low.

Great Blue Heron Resting on Slippery Grassy Area

Once you hit the tidepool area, take extra precaution not to step on the slippery green rocks, nor on grassy area.

Slippery Sea Grass and Rocks

Wear shoes with very good traction as the hike to the caves is really on very slippery ground.

Exposed Plant Life at Low Tide

As you walk along, please be careful also not to step on plant and animal life such as crabs which usually retreat to crevices when they hear you approach. On the walls of the sandstone cliffs, notice cormorants and gulls peacefully resting and also nesting.

Cormorants on Walls of Cliff

There are several smaller caves that can be accessed at low tide, enjoy them, but don’t forget the incoming tide.

La Jolla Caves
Walk back North before the hard hitting waves start to come in.

Happy La Jolla Caving!

California Poppies, Spring 2008 Bloom, Rattlesnake Canyon

One of the simple joys in hiking is experiencing Mother Nature’s wonderful treat during spring, which is the magnificent wildflower bloom. This year 2008 was probably the best spring I had in San Diego since I moved here August 2004. Though 2005 was really a great bloom, but I missed it. I only have that page in a travel magazine given to me by my co-teacher about the wonderful bloom in Anza Borrego 2005. I just did not know where I was during the peak of the bloom. What I knew, I was enjoying the bloom at Torrey Pines that year,

Torrey Pines Spring 2005

and in La Jolla and Balboa Park. Probably, the only three places in San Diego that I knew that year. Or maybe, I was still ignorant of the other scenic places around San Diego. Maybe, I was still not very appreciative of the kind of nature’s surprises around. All I thought before, San Diego was only beach, beach, beach and yes, beach! Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean, I love beach, but of course, I also love diversity. As time passed by, I got to know the mountains (Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna) in San Diego, and later, got acquainted with the desert, and actually became an avid fan of the desert! Not really to live there, but a grand place of silence, a grand place of nothingness for meditation. I am probably one of the few who finds so much beauty in brown, in twisted landscapes, in corrugated badlands, of surprising plant life in the middle of nowhere, of unusual looking plants, maybe it was because a sight I did not see before. And when my co-teacher gave me that page from a tavel magazine about the wonderful bloom in Anza Borrego Desert, I had been wishing to see how the desert would be transformed into a place almost like heaven. But before I experience the bloom in Anza Borrego Desert this year 2008, I was gifted by nature with wonderful bloom nearby. Maybe, I may had not known these wildflower lined trail had I not been hiking. Hiking in the foothills and valley that litters in San Diego County, I found slopes which unusually explodes with orange. And here are some of my local finds:

@ Rattlesnake Canyon

@Rattlesnake Canyon / Tooth Rock Mountain

@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (1)

@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (2)

@Del Dios close to Lake Hodges (3)

@Lake Poway

@Torrey Pines (1)

@Torrey Pines (2)

@Torrey Pines (3)

And from Anza Borrego Desert State Park, still in San Diego County, but is not that very close to home anymore,

@Anza Borrego(1)

@Anza Borrego(2)

And the farthest we went to chase a wildflower lined trail, at Amboy Crater, which is already outside of San Diego County, but still in Southern California.

@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(1)

@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(2)

@Amboy Crater, San Bernardino County(3)

What is more amazing for me, is that, the last five pictures are in the desert! A lot of times, hiking opens up to us a beauty to take in, and a beauty to reflect, like in these wildflower lined trails. It also opens to us the realization, that in our beautiful world, Mother Nature gives, but she also needs us to take care of herself.