The endangered species of the Pinus torreyana, commonly known as the Torrey pine grows only in two places in southern California: on the island Santa Rosa of the Channel Islands out of Santa Barbara and in the Torrey Pines State Natural Park in San Diego.
On one of these super nice sunny winter days I have been in the natural park together with a friend. She knows very well what I like and hiking in such a beautiful environment is exactly my favorite.
The pine tree is an open-crowned tree that can grow high as 17 meters/56 feet. The needles can be long as 30 cm/12 inches (pretty long I would say!). The big, heavy cones arrive up to 15 cm/6 inches. The nuts in the pine cones are edible. The tree is named after an American botanist, John Torrey.
The tree takes in the normally very dry environment its moisture of the scarce winter rainfall and the often coastal fog. Like many pine trees they often get into interesting shapes by the wind coming continuously from the same side.
Today it is one of the rarest tree species in the world, with just a 100 surviving trees in the wild. They continue to survive as ornamental trees in gardens and landscapes. Here the trees can grow fast and even twice the height than in the wild.
The pine nuts once were an important food source for the indigenous people in the area.
It was a surprise after lunch hike that my friend wanted to go with me. I didn’t know about this beautiful place with a lot of hiking possibilities.
You can leave the car at the entrance of the reserve or also drive up where the hiking trails start. A little visitor center gives a better overview about the different trails and a map you can use.
We hiked a couple of trails staying in the reserve for about two and a half hours. If you don’t go down to the beaches, the hikes are very easy, more of less flat. The trails are comfortable and there is no problem to pass when you have people coming from the other direction.
After a good hike I recommend to drive over to ‘The The Lodge at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Club Course’ and have a nice coffee or drink sitting on the nice terrace and enjoy a great sunset.
I definitely liked it very much and hope that I will have many other possibilities to hike here with my American sister! Thank you so much for bringing me here! I love you very much ♥ ♥ ♥
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, California/USA:
For further information:
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
10818 San Diego Mission Rd
San Diego, CA 92108
