Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Leisurely loop around Dixon Lake, with wildflowers
Perched several hundred feet up on a rocky slope north of Escondido, Dixon Lake stores drinking water and serves as a recreational resource as well. The lake’s camping facilities, picnic grounds, playgrounds, boat rentals, hiking trails, and fishing opportunities are enough to draw a steady stream of visitors seven days a week.
To get there from San Diego, exit Interstate 15 at El Norte Parkway in north Escondido. Drive three miles east and make a left turn (north) on La Honda Drive. Drive one mile uphill to the end of the road, where you will find the Dixon Lake entry station. (Just short of the lake entrance, you’ll notice the parking lot/staging area for the Daley Ranch preserve, which these days is a major magnet for hikers and mountain bikers.)
Dixon Lake itself offers just enough trail mileage to make a stop here worthwhile for hikers. Using paths along the shoreline and a dirt access road that swings upward onto a slope, you can piece together a leisurely loop offering consistently nice views of the lake, plus more distant vistas of the mini-metropolis of Escondido and (sometimes) the coastal cities and ocean beyond. In recent years, trail maintenance has been scarce at Dixon Lake, and some former designated footpaths have disappeared. Nevertheless, the following route should work.
Just beyond the entry station, find and follow the Jack Creek Trail, which goes south past a grassy picnic area, descends steeply to join the strip of riparian vegetation alongside trickling Jack Creek, and emerges at Dixon Lake’s northernmost cove (0.2 mile into the hike). Along the way you’ll notice several common native plants — buckwheat, manzanita, chamise, California sagebrush, black sage, ceanothus, laurel sumac, toyon, willow, and live oak — and some non-native (planted) acacia and eucalyptus trees. The flowering of blue-blossoming ceanothus shrubs may be over by now, but the delicate, red monkey flower plants should remain in bloom at least through May.
Once you reach the cove — a serene spot with a great view of the lake’s placid waters — stay left, following the Shoreline Trail. You pass a fishing pier, and probably plenty of folks fishing from the lakeshore itself. After 1.1 miles total (or 0.9 mile along the shoreline), further travel is prohibited in the direction of the dam ahead. Follow the dirt road, however, that sinuously climbs the slope to the left. On it, you enjoy an ever-widening view of the distant landscape. The road crests at a point 250 feet higher than the surface of the lake, and drops a little to a junction with another dirt road on the left (1.8 miles). Turn left, descend to the next road junction (2.1 miles), and make a right turn to head straight back to your starting point.
This article contains information about a publicly owned recreation or wilderness area. Trails and pathways are not necessarily marked. Conditions can change rapidly. Hikers should be properly equipped and have safety and navigational skills. The Reader and Jerry Schad assume no responsibility for any adverse experience.
Dixon Lake
Ramble along Dixon Lake’s shoreline in the hills above Escondido.
Distance from downtown San Diego: 36 miles
Hiking Length: 2.4 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Here's something you might be interested in.
Leisurely loop around Dixon Lake, with wildflowers
Leisurely loop around Dixon Lake, with wildflowers
Perched several hundred feet up on a rocky slope north of Escondido, Dixon Lake stores drinking water and serves as a recreational resource as well. The lake’s camping facilities, picnic grounds, playgrounds, boat rentals, hiking trails, and fishing opportunities are enough to draw a steady stream of visitors seven days a week.
To get there from San Diego, exit Interstate 15 at El Norte Parkway in north Escondido. Drive three miles east and make a left turn (north) on La Honda Drive. Drive one mile uphill to the end of the road, where you will find the Dixon Lake entry station. (Just short of the lake entrance, you’ll notice the parking lot/staging area for the Daley Ranch preserve, which these days is a major magnet for hikers and mountain bikers.)
Dixon Lake itself offers just enough trail mileage to make a stop here worthwhile for hikers. Using paths along the shoreline and a dirt access road that swings upward onto a slope, you can piece together a leisurely loop offering consistently nice views of the lake, plus more distant vistas of the mini-metropolis of Escondido and (sometimes) the coastal cities and ocean beyond. In recent years, trail maintenance has been scarce at Dixon Lake, and some former designated footpaths have disappeared. Nevertheless, the following route should work.
Just beyond the entry station, find and follow the Jack Creek Trail, which goes south past a grassy picnic area, descends steeply to join the strip of riparian vegetation alongside trickling Jack Creek, and emerges at Dixon Lake’s northernmost cove (0.2 mile into the hike). Along the way you’ll notice several common native plants — buckwheat, manzanita, chamise, California sagebrush, black sage, ceanothus, laurel sumac, toyon, willow, and live oak — and some non-native (planted) acacia and eucalyptus trees. The flowering of blue-blossoming ceanothus shrubs may be over by now, but the delicate, red monkey flower plants should remain in bloom at least through May.
Once you reach the cove — a serene spot with a great view of the lake’s placid waters — stay left, following the Shoreline Trail. You pass a fishing pier, and probably plenty of folks fishing from the lakeshore itself. After 1.1 miles total (or 0.9 mile along the shoreline), further travel is prohibited in the direction of the dam ahead. Follow the dirt road, however, that sinuously climbs the slope to the left. On it, you enjoy an ever-widening view of the distant landscape. The road crests at a point 250 feet higher than the surface of the lake, and drops a little to a junction with another dirt road on the left (1.8 miles). Turn left, descend to the next road junction (2.1 miles), and make a right turn to head straight back to your starting point.
This article contains information about a publicly owned recreation or wilderness area. Trails and pathways are not necessarily marked. Conditions can change rapidly. Hikers should be properly equipped and have safety and navigational skills. The Reader and Jerry Schad assume no responsibility for any adverse experience.
Dixon Lake
Ramble along Dixon Lake’s shoreline in the hills above Escondido.
Distance from downtown San Diego: 36 miles
Hiking Length: 2.4 miles
Difficulty: Easy