Personally? I thought this place was a ripoff. It’s not that they weren’t lovely views of the Pacific, but an $8 day use fee for a few short hiking trails? We were wondering why so many people were walking up the steep road to the trails until we spotted the small parking area just outside the entrance gate. So, apparently only the tourists pay. Lovely.

The Guy Fleming trail was a short 2/3 mile loop with Pacific Ocean overlooks and ridiculous amounts of signage telling us to keep out/off things. I don’t know what it is about Californians and their signs, but they were everywhere. A lot of good it seems to do when we could clearly see footprints where folks had jumped over the chains in places to hike near the cliffs when they were asked multiple times not to. Plus, the actual Torrey pines weren’t altogether special or unique and the literature we were handed didn’t offer much insight either.

Perhaps the loveliest scene here is the sandstone cliffs rising up from the beach. We visited about 2 hours before sunset, so the rock was lit up nicely. A little disappointed as we were looking forward to something a little more profound.

I can’t even begin to explain how terrible the weather was while we were there… even when surrounding areas were clear, Julian was stuck in a freezing rain cloud (city is up around 4000 feet). All night was spent listening to the constant rain as our room had sliding glass doors as one wall. We finally just got up and watched Superbad because we couldn’t sleep anymore.

Even with the unfortunate weather, I could see how charming Julian could be. Supposedly they are known for their apples up there, so fall is probably a great time to visit, especially with all the pie places in town!

We stayed at Angels Landing Country Inn just north of downtown. Our Jr Suite was roomy, but the sliding glass door was a bit troublesome to lock and not very safe looking. No matter, because I think we were the only people anywhere near the place that Thursday night.

Our two restaurant experiences were good and everyone we spoke with was friendly. For dinner we ate at the Julian Grille, Eric got chicken stuffed with ham and swiss covered in sliced peaches (from a can, unfortunately) and I got the trout with capers and mixed mushrooms. We split a bottle of California wine and remarked how very un-California this town felt.

Margarita’s was recommended to us for breakfast the following morning, so I went all out and ordered a tortilla stuffed with scrambled egg, chorizo, beans and cheese, topped with a mild red sauce. Eric went the more traditional route with eggs, potatoes and toast and Ryan ordered the least greasy (in a good way) chicken-fried steak I’ve ever seen. In fact, all were tasty, well priced, AND sustained us on a six mile hike. Not bad.

Our ridiculously cheap rental car took us out to the desert for the first night of our San Diego trip. ($48 including taxes for five days, the guy even commented that this was why his salary is what it is! Whoops.)

There are shorter ways to get to Julian, CA (our room reservation for the night) but we decided to drive out on I-8 and head north through Cucamaya Rancho State Park. It took about 45 minutes to get out there and the bustle of the city was replaced by desert and mountain views.

Throughout the drive we saw evidence of the California wildfire damage of last year—entire hillsides covered in scorched trees.

My brother, Ryan, drove down from LA for a day of hiking with us. He must have left well before dawn because I got a phone call at 8am that he was sitting in the parking lot! :)

As Eric mentioned, Friday started out unremarkable, but after a filling breakfast at Margarita’s in Julian, we were hoping for the best… there’s only so much hiking one can tolerate in bad weather.

The chilly rain gave way to breaking clouds and finally some warm sun by early afternoon. I swear we went through three seasons on the Palm Canyon trail hike, from downpour to hot sun, but the views were completely worth it.

All this hiking through the mountains and all of a sudden, a palm oasis!

Surprisingly (considering it’s the desert) there was a rushing creek with several waterfalls throughout the hike. So I guess all the rain did have some benefit!

The Anza-Borrego visitor’s center was very helpful in terms of information on hiking trails. We didn’t buy a detailed map ($1) on this visit because we only did the Palm Canyon hike. If the weather had been more predictable we probably would have tried to do more, but as it was, we saw quite a bit on this five mile roundtrip hike.

Today we spent the day in the desert, hiking past wildflowers and a small stream on our way to a palm oasis. We were a bit worried when we woke up this morning because it was raining and chilly in Julian, CA. Thankfully, the rain stayed on that side of the mountain and we remained (mostly) dry during our day hike in the desert. Tonight we will be back in San Diego!