California | Torrey Pines State Reserve Trail Hike and Beach Time | Ironwulf En Route - A Travel Story, Photography, and Video blog by Ferdz Decena from the Philippines

Descending at the Torrey PInes State Reserve Beach trail with stunning rock formations

The day started with an amusing little chaos. It’s funny how logistics can quickly screw up at times. The plan was to spend time with relatives at La Jolla Cove not really Torrey Pines State Reserve. My sister and I took the AmTrak train from Vista to San Diego where our cousin picked us up at the Old Town Station to meet up with the rest of our cousins. A little misunderstanding went us driving around in circles at the upscale neighborhood of La Jolla. And when we finally got to meet heads with other relatives and laid our options did we get a clear direction where we’re going. Everyone agreed we’ll visit Torrey Pines State Reserve for the rest of the afternoon. I was excited as I’ve been yearning to do some trail hikes in San Diego since I came in the USA. That’s one of the things I like about in the country, the importance of parks and reserves and their accessibility in the city.

Hiking up Torrey PInes Road from the beach

The Torrey Pines State Reserve

The Torrey Pines State Reserve is a 2,000 acre coastal state park under the community of La Jolla, Southern California. From Torrey Pines Road, the bluff may seem like a featureless lump rising by the beach. But within this natural reserve is the Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana), a rare species of pine tree found only here and also one of the Channel Islands in USA. This reserve was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1977 as it is home to several wildlife and flora like bobcats, coyotes, cacti, coastal chaparral, racoons, rabbit and including the rare Torrey Pine.

PWD accesible trail at the Whitaker Garden

Torrey Pines Hike

Within the Torrey Pines State Reserve are more than 8 miles of hiking trails with varying levels of difficulty and scenery. At that time, I had no idea of the trails and let our cousin Buddy, who had been here before lead the way. We started at the Torrey Pines State Beach where we left some of our other cousins to enjoy the beach near the bridge. From the beach, we walked up to the park road leading to the High Point where a beautiful panorama of the reserve and pacific ocean can be seen. Nearby, benches are available, shaded naturally by pine trees. There’s also the Whitaker Garden, where even person with disabilities (PWDs) can enjoy this area as the trail is accessible by wheelchairs. There’s an amazing display of rare southern maritime chaparrals here. It is sad though that category 3 drought has clearly affected some of the vegetations at that time.

I was curious of the rusted colored rock platform people from a distance and asked my cousin if we could visit the area. The open trail here gets narrower and dusty but the trails are marked appropriately. So we reached the Red Butte, a prominent geological formation made of laterite soil full of iron oxide hence its red rusty color. It has a 360 degree vantage point of the reserve.

The trail forks to several points from the Red Butte, but since we’re heading to the beach we took the straight Beach Trail but the rock formations here as we descend further down the trail is absolutely fantastic. The work of art on the rock walls formed by natural erosion is impressive to look at. I could imagine this area in better light. The trail itself would be really nice to do a trail run as I can imagine. Shortly we could see the beach below and carefully navigated a set of stairs down. People are warned to venture near the cliffs as erosion may unexpectedly occur.

The Red Butte with people on top seen from a distance

Find myself enjoying the highest part of the reserve with a jump shot

On the wide open beach trail with some runners resting

More of the beach trail after the descent

Finally the view of the beach and the Flat Rock

The Torrey Pines State Beach and essential info on the next page…

The State Beach

The Torrey Pines State Beach is wide and beautiful. The sand was soft I walked barefoot all the way and the gold to rust colored rock wall was just gorgeous. There’s a flat rock by the shore which serves as a marker and divider for the Black’s Beach, one of the largest nudist beach in America. We didn’t manage to venture further to that “clothing optional” part of the state beach as our cousin had to go back and attend to his toddler. But the walk back to where we are stationed was still interesting as well to observe a few plovers, sanderlings and high flying terns at the beach. We finished our trail hike in roughly two hours since it was the easy Beach Trail. When we got back to our spot at the beach I just enjoyed the cold waters boogie boarding at its playful waves.

We unfortunately came in at a drought, so showers were out of water except for the drinking fountains. Good thing we are near our uncle’s place in San Diego and rinsed out there. I had plans to go back at Torrey Pines State Reserve during my stay in the US but didn’t push through. I wanted to explore the other trails and maybe take photos at an ideal time of the day. But as is, my brief exploration was just a tease and hoping.