Cuyamaca State Park is only an hour outside San Diego, and offers many miles of mountain hiking trails. The drought was so evident. The creek was completely dry - we didn't have to worry about fording it. The dust was pervasive. Evidence of previous years' fires was everywhere. It was a great day-hike with my daughter and her family in this raw wilderness with a beauty of its own, so different from the lush greens we love back East.
It was wonderful to escape the cold back East and to be in 75 and 80 degree weather, but the trade off was the high fire hazard alert.
Some places the trail was quite wide. We had to restrain the younger grandson from disappearing around corners too far ahead of the rest of us, teasing he was just the right size for mountain lion food. But no joke...
The dryness was stark:
Agave:
A stump the woodpeckers loved. Good insects no doubt!
Fire damage from previous years:
The meadow where we found a little shade and stopped for lunch, great bean burritos we had picked up on our way there:
An oasis of sorts, a little green with slightly damp ground from an underground spring. No wonder the Native Americans who lived here put their morteros (grinding rocks) in this spot!
There were seven or eight easily found morteros in this small area. It must have been very social for the women to grind the acorns together in this shady welcoming oasis.
Grandsons Charlie and Noah:
The family: my daughter Sarah, her husband Roy, and the kids:
It's good to have a map:
Me and my boys!
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