Torrey Pines State Park

Our next San Diego Adventure was to Torrey Pines State Park.  It's a gorgeous park on the coast that had some fantastic hiking as well as amazing views.  Auntie Cat was still in town so we were a hiking party of four!

If you've seen my other posts about hiking, then you know that we carry Eliel on our backs when hiking.  Although he's much better at walking than he was on our previous hikes, his little legs are quite slow when you want to walk a few miles.  Plus, with lots of cliffs and rocks on this hike, we didn't want to take any chances (or give Mommy any heart attacks!)

The trails start up at the top of the mountain and you can either hike around the top or hike down to the beach. We did both.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous with blue skies and temperatures in the lower to mid 70's.  Consequently, there was a blizzard going on back home so the sun felt extra spectacular on this day! Although it was early on Sunday morning, the trails were quite crowded with tourists and locals.  They were probably all getting in some exercise before sitting down and watching some football later that day.

Some of the sandstone hills reminded us a lot of the Badlands, except there was an ocean in the background.  As we walked towards the edge of the cliff, we could see lots of boats out in the water.  We also were treated to pairs of jet planes flying over ever ten to fifteen minutes.  It kept Eliel interested at least!

We only had to hike about two miles to get down to the beach.  When Eliel realized where we were going, he kept saying 'down' because he was done being in the carrier!  He had a blast with Daddy and Auntie Cat in the water again.  Because it was much warmer, he was able to play in the water for much longer.  Mommy hung back and took pictures and kept the backpack dry but I loved watching everyone have so much fun!

We even got to see a glimpse of some grey whales!  Auntie Cat had a really good eye and spotted them breaching.  It was pretty cool to know that they were swimming around just off shore.  We also spotted a seal swimming around a group of paddle boarders. 

After hanging out at the beach, we continued our hike back up the mountain.  This trail led away from the water and consequently, it got pretty hot!  Auntie Cat had the boobie prize this time (aka Eliel) and both of them got pretty sweaty.  Adam and I didn't mind the heat because we knew it was freezing back home!  This hike one one of our favorite things we did while in San Diego and would highly recommend it to anyone!