Green at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

March is the perfect month for our color of the month, Green. Leprechauns should be surfacing everywhere shortly. Fortunately for you all, I’m going to show you something much more appealing than green leprechauns; pine trees and ocean.

Just last month, Steve and I took a day trip to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Yep, he took a break from projects to indulge me celebrating our upcoming anniversary. We picked the best weather day between the regular February rain storms and dusted off our hiking shoes. The plan was to leave early enough to enjoy some hiking which is always a treat after 2 hours in the car.

This beautiful wilderness area just north of San Diego came to be in the late 1800s when first San Diego set aside 200 acres of the area. Then it expanded when Ellen Browning Scripps, seeing that the more magnificent groves were further south of the official park and unprotected from development, purchased the land from 1908 to 1912.

Bringing private ownership next to the state park was just her first step. Uncontrolled public camping and use were creating damage to the fagile wilderness environment and especially the trees. In 1921, a motivated Ms. Scripps hired a grounds keeper to maintain both her land and oversee the public park.

In 1921 she funded the construction of the Torrey Pines Lodge (above) which became a popular stopping point for lunch between San Diego and Los Angles when it opened in 1923. Ms. Scripps left her land to the City of San Diego so that it would remain a public park in perpetuity.

The lodge now serves up a dose of coastal history and quite a wildlife exhibit. We took some time checking out the musuem and the hiking trail map.

With not a lot of time available, I chose a trail that took us down many stairs to one of the few rocky cliffs.

Besides the famous Torrey Pines, there was quite a variety of plant life to observe. The Torrey Pines are believed to be what’s left of the ancient coastal trees. What remains here in the reserve is all that is left.

We started our day here up on the high broken cliffs to take in the lodge, deep ravines, the trails, and the ocean views. Being off season it was easy to drive up to the upper parking lots and park. However in busier seasons you will either park in the lower lot or possibly even further out in the north parking lot. I’d recommend you checkout the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve website for parking details as well as current open/close status.

Once we were done taking in the views from up high, we drove back down to the lower parking lot to check out the beach area. If you visit and want to hang at the beach, bring some chairs! The waves crash up on a rocky beach which wouldn’t be very comfortable to flop down upon a beach blanket.

The kind of rocky that’s a little challenging to walk along but we walked along a little way. The walk was mainly to take in the full view of these broken cliffs.

The ever changing sandstone cliffs

Torrey Pines is an iconic coastal area and similar to the redwoods we traveled through in 2022, grows a tree that lives in no other place and offers both interesting geology and history. Go to see something unique and stay for the fabulous pacific ocean views.

About the Photo Challenge

A weekly themed photo challenge hosted by Terri. Check out her Blog and come back to visit for more SundayStills and traveling posts!

More Sunday Still Posts

Thanks for visiting our travel blog and I hope you enjoyed finding the #SundayStills Challenge. You can join the weekly challenge by visiting our hosts blog Second Wind Leisure. and checking out Terri’s post for this week, Monthly Color Challenge: Saving Dayight with Green.