San Diego's coastal region is frequently the destination to escape inland temperatures.

The Heat of Summer will most likely reach its feverish peak in inland San Diego County during July. (Coastal San Diego is different: since its weather is greatly affected by the slowly warming mass of ocean water adjacent to it, coastal temperatures usually peak in August or September.) The weather station at Borrego Springs commonly measures midsummer highs in the 110s Fahrenheit (the record high is 122˚, a reading set on June 25, 1990), but certain locales in the low-lying, barren basins of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — notably the Borrego and Carrizo Badlands — probably experience even higher temperatures. Overnight camping in the desert in summer is relatively care-free — little or no shelter is needed, and early-morning temperatures are delightfully tepid. But prospective explorers of the desert in summer should take along enormous quantities of water and inform a responsible person of their whereabouts.

The Columbia Lily, also native to California and similarly to the Humboldt, grows well in clay heavy soils.

Wikimedia Commons/pfly

Native Lilies, Such As The Humboldt Lily, are blooming this month in widely scattered locations throughout San Diego County’s higher mountains. To find them, take a walk on the Noble Canyon Trail in the Laguna Mountains or explore the pine woodlands of Palomar Mountain and Cuyamaca Rancho state parks. The large, nodding flowers of the lilies — orange or yellow with brown spots — grow in clusters on stems two to eight feet tall.

Break Out The Binoculars to see Mars meet up with Uranus in the early morning. This weekend, due East and barely above the horizon, you can observe the green color of Uranus and the orange color of Mars slightly to the right of the Pleiades star cluster and to the upper right of Jupiter.