I took Karlie to the San Dieguito River Park Trails – Rancho Bernardo only one time. We enjoyed it, but for some reason we never returned. I think I found some other trails we liked better and forgot about it. Today we returned with Sunny and found it to be a nice place, but with some changes from my first visit.
The first challenging part is getting to the trail. Although the address that google maps gives is the same as the Rancho Bernardo Community Park, the parking lot is before you get to the park. On this trip we did not realize that and drove to the park and walked around there first. It’s a lovely park and has a dog park, but what we wanted were the trails. We decided to get back in our car and drive to the trail parking lot we saw on the way to the park. Unfortunately we did not realize this was the parking lot we wanted until after we didn’t find access to the trails at the park.
Once we arrived at the correct parking area we walked to the far left in the parking lot and found some big rocks. These are the entrance to the trail and lead to the sign with the trail map. What I remembered from my first trip with Karlie is you could get nice views of Lake Hodges. We took several different trails trying to find views of the lake today, but discovered that you can only see it very far off in the distance. It’s no longer visible up close as it was when Karlie and I visited in 2020, as shown in this picture.
Although not seeing the lake was a disappointment, we still enjoyed exploring the trails and seeing the mountains in the distance. Although we started on the Piedras Pintadas trail we also were on the Bernardo Bay trail and some unmarked trails. I am sure I could not replicate the exact route we took, but we found our way back to the start without much trouble and enjoyed our 2+M hike.
Sunny’s Perspective
Hiking in San Diego is sure different than Indiana. There’s a lot of sand and not much grass or mud. And the rocks are so big! This place had great smells, but Andie would not let me put my face in the brush. She said something about snakes which I think would be great fun. Despite that the trail was pretty fun even though there wasn’t any shade so I got pretty warm. Thank goodness we had water with us. All in all I liked this place and hope we return to explore it some more.
Our Rating
Sunny and I give San Dieguito River Park Trails – Rancho Bernardo 3 paws up. There are a lot of different trails with varying degrees of difficulty, which we enjoyed. We were sorry to see that the lake has dried up and you can’t get much of a view of it. It is important to note the trail is not appropriate for those with stability issues and has little to no shade. It is also used by mountain bike riders so it’s important to watch out for them. There is plenty of parking in the parking lot and on the road and the parking lot has a port-o-potty. All in all this is a great place to explore.
How Do I Get There?
The best way to find the trail and parking area is to use Piedras Pintadas Trailhead as the location in your GPS. The other alternative is to use Rancho Bernardo Park and to look for the trail parking lot on your right about half a mile before the park.
From I-15 take exit #26 – West Bernardo Dr./Pomerado Rd. Turn onto West Bernardo Dr. and follow it for about half a mile. You’ll see a wood sign on the right for the parking lot. Turn into the parking lot and park on the opposite end as the port-o-potty. The main entrance to the trail is near some large stones and leads to a sign with a map. We recommend taking a picture of the map so you don’t get lost while hiking as not all trails have signs.
