| Black Mountain Open Space Park | |
|---|---|
 View from the top of Black Mountain overlooking the city of San Diego | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 32°58′54″N117°06′59″W / 32.981712°N 117.116422°W |
| Area | 2,352 acres (952 ha) |
| Operated by | San Diego Park and Recreation Department |
Black Mountain Open Space Park is a city park located in the suburbs of San Diego, California.
The park covers 2,352 acres (9.52 km2) in the Black Mountain Ranch and Rancho Peñasquitos area of northern San Diego. [1] The park offers numerous trails for hiking and biking, and boasts a variety of native animal and plant species.
Native plant species preserved in Black Mountain Open Space Park include both chaparral and coastal sage scrub. Native to the east and north sides of the mountain, the chaparral community includes manzanita, laurel sumac, lemonade berry, coffee berry, chamise, toyon, and California lilac. The coastal sage scrub, native to the south and west faces of the mountain, include Californian white sage and Californian black sage, California sagebrush, California buckwheat, and California sunflower. [2]
The Black Mountain Open Space Park is home to a wide variety of animal species. Mammals include mule deer, bobcat, desert woodrat, and Pacific kangaroo rat, and many others. Among the more than 80 birds species that can be found in the park, rare birds like the California gnatcatcher, rufous-crowned sparrow, and northern harrier reside in the area. Reptiles include the red diamond rattlesnake and amphibians include the Pacific chorus frog and slender salamander. [2]
Black Mountain is the central feature of Black Mountain Open Space Park, standing at 1,554 feet (474 m) tall. [1] At its peak, Black Mountain is host to a handful of communication towers, including a retired AT&T microwave repeater tower [3] and a Verizon wireless communication facility. [4]
Prior to European contact, the Kumeyaay lived on the mountain and referred to it as "Amat Kwanyil". [5]
The mountain is also an extinct volcano, having last erupted 118-125 million years ago. Black Mountain is a part of the Santiago Peak Volcanoes, including Cowles Mountain, which are a group of volcanoes that originated as a chain of volcanic islands 150 million years ago. [6]
Tucked away in the Black Mountain canyon is an abandoned arsenic mine, accessible via pathways branching off of the park's Miner's Ridge Loop trail. The mine was established in the 1920s by Escondido rancher, rodeo cowboy, and actor Frank Hopkins, due to the demand for white arsenic, a key ingredient in pesticides that attacked infesting boll weevils. As the boll weevil population shrank, the demand for white arsenic fell, causing the abandoning of the mine in 1927. [7] According to a 1939 article, published in the Vista Press, Hopkins also used this mine to find gold. [8]
In 2016, the University of San Diego conducted soil sampling in the vicinity of the mine site. Some locations, including portions of the Miner's Ridge Loop trail revealed high levels of arsenic present. As of January 6, 2017 the San Diego City Attorney recommended closure of the lower sections of the trail pending further study.
The Jas Arnold Trail for All People (located at the Miner's Ridge Loop parking lot), a handicapped accessible trail named in honor of the park's long serving Chair of the Citizen's Advisory Committee who passed in May 2016 remains open to the public. The Lilac Canyon Trail which connects this same parking lot to the Glider Port also remains open.
The park is a popular hiking spot, offering numerous trails of varying length and difficulty.
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is 2,000 acres (810 ha) of coastal state park located in the community of La Jolla, in San Diego, California, off North Torrey Pines Road. Although it is located within San Diego city limits, it remains one of the wildest stretches of land (8 km²) on the Southern California coast. It is bordered immediately on the south by Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course and on the north by the city of Del Mar. The reserve was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1977.
Tierrasanta, Spanish for "holy land," or "holy ground", is a community within the city of San Diego, California. The symbol of Tierrasanta is an encircled Conquistador cross, similar to one atop Montserrat (mountain) near Barcelona, Spain, though it no longer holds any religious meaning. The community is referred to as "The Island in the Hills" by locals and on welcome signs, as there are only four roads that lead to Tierrasanta, all which end within the community.
The Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres/720 sq mi (1,900 km2) of inland montane regions—approx. 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean—within the counties of San Diego, Riverside, and Orange, California. The landscape varies somewhat, with mostly chaparral canyons, arroyos and high desert, but dotted with meadows and oak and conifer forests. Near water sources, riparian environments and perennial aquatic plants attract native and migratory wildlife, such as at San Diego’s man-made Lake Cuyamaca. A generally warm and dry, inland-Mediterranean climate prevails over the forest, with the cooler months producing morning frost and snowfall. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. The area is administered by the U.S. Forest Service, a government agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, and is locally overseen by the Descanso, Palomar and Trabuco Ranger Districts.
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Cuyamaca Rancho State Park is a state park in Southern California, United States, located 40 miles (64 km) east of San Diego in the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains of the Peninsular Ranges. The park's 26,000 acres (11,000 ha) feature pine, fir, and oak forests, with meadows and streams that exist due to the relatively high elevation of the area compared to its surroundings. The park includes 6,512-foot (1,985 m) Cuyamaca Peak, the second-highest point in San Diego County.
Rancho Bernardo is a master-planned community in the northern hills of the city of San Diego, California.
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Rancho Peñasquitos is a suburban community in the northeastern part of the city of San Diego, California. It is named after the first Mexican land grant in the county, Rancho Santa Maria de Los Peñasquitos. Peñasquitos means "little cliffs" in Spanish. It abuts Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, an open space preserve that offers hiking, biking, and equestrian trails. The community is commonly abbreviated "PQ."
San Pasqual Valley, historically spelled as San Pascual, is the northernmost community of the city of San Diego. It is named for the Kumeyaay village of San Pasqual that was once located there. It is bordered on the north by the city of Escondido, on the east and west by unincorporated land within San Diego County, and on the south by the city of Poway and the community of Rancho Bernardo. San Pasqual Valley is home to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Torrey Hills is a community of 784 acres (317 ha) located in northern San Diego, California, United States. Torrey Hills is a part of District 1 which is represented by Councilmember Joe LaCava on the San Diego City Council.
Rancho Santa Maria de Los Peñasquitos was a 8,486-acre (34.34 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day southwestern San Diego County, California given in 1823 to Francisco María Ruiz. The name means "Saint Mary of the Little Cliffs". It encompassed the present-day communities of Mira Mesa, Carmel Valley, and Rancho Peñasquitos in northern San Diego city, and was inland from the Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve bluffs.
San Clemente Canyon is a canyon located in the city of San Diego, in San Diego County, California.
Marian Bear Memorial Park, a linear open space park, is along the canyon and in the southern tributary arroyos and mesa.
Los Peñasquitos Marsh Natural Preserve and Lagoon is a coastal marsh in San Diego County, California, United States situated at the northern edge of the City of San Diego, forming the natural border with Del Mar, California. This bar-built estuary, previously called The Soledad Lagoon, divides a colony of the endangered Pinus torreyana on a narrow coastal strip. Three streams empty into the lagoon: Carroll Creek, Carmel Creek, Los Peñasquitos Creek with a total drainage basin area of 95 square miles.
The California coastal sage and chaparral is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion located in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California (Mexico). It is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.
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McGinty Mountain is a gabbroic mountain located in San Diego County, California near Jamul. Because of the gabbroic soil, the mountain supports numerous rare and endemic plant species, including half of the California's population of the Dehesa nolina. The mountain belongs to an ecological preserve collectively managed by The Nature Conservancy, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. The mountain is accessible through a 4.7 mi (7.6 km) long out-and-back hiking trail.
Hill Canyon is a deep canyon in the western Simi Hills and within northern Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks, in Ventura County, southern California.
Deer Ridge Open Space is a 188-acre public-owned open-space area in the southwest portion of the town of Newbury Park, California. It contains a series of north-facing mountainous ridges and canyons, dominated by chaparral and oak trees. It shares borders with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to the south, and the Los Robles Trail traverses the length of Deer Ridge Open Space. Its main trailhead is located on Potrero Road, while a smaller access point is located at the southern end of Felton Street. The Los Robles Trail is the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency’s longest trail, and connects to open-space areas and parks such as the Los Padres Open Space, Conejo Ridge Open Space, Hope Nature Preserve, Old Conejo Open Space, and the Los Vientos Open Space. The trail in Newbury Park provides panoramic views of the Conejo Valley and Santa Monica Mountains, before entering the Hope Nature Preserve. The Los Robles Trail provides more than 25 miles of contiguous trails connecting Newbury Park to Westlake Village in Los Angeles County. Immediately south of the Deer Ridge Open Space in Newbury Park are the Hidden Valley and Rancho Sierra Vista Satwiwa.
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