San Diego, Natural History Photography Blog

A couple more photos of Torrey Pines today and tomorrow, then on to other things. One of the main trails in Torrey Pines State Reserve leads down to the beach, to a flat rock that is surprisingly named “Flat Rock.” As we flew over Flat Rock a couple was enjoying the late afternoon sun on the rock, watching us as we passed by. Are those beers in their hands? I zoomed in 100% in the high res photo and indeed they are sampling the grain. Classic! Oops, did I just say that? How impolitic of me. What I meant was: Awful, wanton, bad, bad people, inconsiderate drunks from out of town who should know better. Hard to fault them though, it was a great afternoon for it. Tomorrow I will post a panoramic view from where they were standing.

Torrey Pines seacliffs, rising up to 300 feet above the ocean, stretch from Del Mar to La Jolla. On the mesa atop the bluffs are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22463   Location: Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

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I used to play Torrey Pines Golf Course on Friday afternoons with some buddies when I was a student at UCSD. We played both north and south courses, whichever had an earlier slot available when we got there. Each semester we would plan our class schedules so that we would be done with lectures by about 1pm on Fridays, ensuring we could shoot a full round before sunset. With a resident’s card the green fee was something like $10, and splitting a cart was another $10 or so. It was great, poor college students enjoying 18 holes on one of the finest public courses on the West coast, with perhaps the best views of any course in California. Ah, good times. These days Torrey Pines Golf Course is milked as a cash cow by the city rather than as an asset to be preserved primarily for the people that actually live in San Diego. Holding the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines added to the misery, causing course closures before and after the event, generating traffic and crowds during the event and generally making it harder for Joe San Diego to enjoy the course in his own city. (Don’t expect to hear these sentiments from the craven town boosters and the developers they serve, however.) It is tough to get a good tee time at Torrey since a quota of the best tee times are set aside for a private hotel near the course. The remainder are distributed by a company whose priority appears to be squeezing as much revenue as possible out of each foursome (including a “processing fee”). The vibe and attitude that made Torrey Pines Golf Course so appealing is gone. Well, that’s progress for you, at least in the minds of the politicians and business interests who run things in San Diego. As in most cities, these people are remarkably good at screwing things up. However, as hard as they have tried, one thing to which the suits have not yet been able to lay waste are the views at Torrey Pines. They will always be wonderful.

Torrey Pines golf course south course holes 2, 4 and 5, Torrey Pines Golf Course, situated atop the magnificent 300 foot tall seacliffs, offers majestic views of the Pacific Ocean south to La Jolla. Scattered around the course are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22312   Location: San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

Torrey Pines golf course, situated atop the magnificent 300 foot tall seacliffs, offers majestic views of the Pacific Ocean south to La Jolla. Scattered around the course are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. Some of La Jolla’s biotechnology companies are seen on the far side of the golf course, along North Torrey Pines Road. San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22320   Location: San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

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Torrey Pines State Reserve is a special place for me. When I was a kid, we drove down from Newport Beach to hike the winding dirt trails from the mesa to the beach, squeezing through the notorious and now-closed “Fat Man’s Misery” (a politically-incorrectly-named narrow trail which discriminates against the width-challenged), wondering whether we would see any free-ranging wild nudies when we reached the ocean below. (Sadly, we learned that the nudist be-ins took place further south at Black’s Beach). When I lived in Del Mar in the 80’s and 90’s I would run in Torrey Pines each day, slowly making my way up the historic old Coast Highway to the golf course on the mesa and then enjoying the downhill trail past Broken Hill and down the view-laden switchbacks to the beach at Flat Rock. We started our flight just south of Del Mar and flew over Torrey Pines State Beach, admiring the 300′ sandstone cliffs and eroded bluffs of the reserve, speckled with rare Torrey Pines trees (Pinus torreyana). I was able to make out all the trails I used to (and sometimes still do) run.

Torrey Pines seacliffs, rising up to 300 feet above the ocean, stretch from Del Mar to La Jolla. On the mesa atop the bluffs are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22285   Location: Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

Torrey Pines seacliffs, rising up to 300 feet above the ocean, stretch from Del Mar to La Jolla. On the mesa atop the bluffs are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world. Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA. Image: 22319   Location: Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California, USA View this Image in Google Earth!

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