Torrey Pines

San Diego Port Call | September 2019 | Hiking in Torrey Pines

For our last day together in San Diego, we wanted to do some more hiking. We had only rented a car for one day when we hiked outside of the city, so today we planned to take the bus and hike somewhere closer. Mission Hills looked interesting, especially the “5 peaks challenge,” but since the bus route didn’t go close enough to that area we decided to go to Torrey Pines instead. The bus ride to get there from Old Town took about an hour and a half, which may sound long and not worth the time, but today we were satisfied to just sit and enjoy being together during that time.

We rode up through La Jolla and to the university campus, then got on our connecting bus that went up the Pacific coast. We got off just North of Torrey Pines State Reserve and began our journey heading South through the park on foot.

We started off by walking the beach, with the ocean to our right and the tall cliffs to our left. We eventually reached the stairs and the trail that led up the cliffs and enjoyed the many vantage points along the way. When we came to a fork in the trail, we chose the path leading to the South, which turned out to be the less busy of the two. We loved how this place reminded us of the Badlands. If you’re interested, you can see our trail recording here.

Once we made it to the end of the trail, we road walked to the nearest bus stop South of the park and took another long bus ride back to Old Town. Once in Old Town, we walked around some more and admired the Old San Diego Mission and the monuments to the Mormon Battalion. We wrapped up our last day with dinner at In-N-Out and walked back to our hotel.

The next morning, Curtis left around 5 to go back to the boat, and I took it easy at the hotel until it was time to check out. I met up with my friend Celeste again, and we got breakfast before heading to the airport. On our return trip, we flew through San Francisco — I’m very thankful she was so understanding with my need to fly through a different airport and get another county that Curtis doesn’t have. 😉

Our flights were on time and uneventful. However, I’m thankful that I have a few months before the next time I have to make the long trip between Hawaii and the mainland again! We arrived back on Oahu that evening and her roommates picked us up. Once again, I was glad to have Sarah and Charlotte waiting for me at home!