Weekend Wanderings (3): La Jolla Cove and Torrey Pines Gliderport Canyon

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Though I have not shared my February 8 weekend wanderings yet, but I am now here jumping to the most recent weekend that had passed. :) I guess the Feb 15th weekend was more exciting because my cousin from LA joined us here in San Diego. I will share our February 8 wanderings later when I get a chance already to convert our pictures to JPEG. I take pictures in RAW which needs to be converted first to JPEG before it could be read in most computers or in any online photo sharing.

Here are images from our wanderings on Saturday. :)

After breakfast, we started our wanderings at La Jolla Coast Walk.

La Jolla Coast Walk Trail
( cousin in orange, me in purple )

From La Jolla Coast walk, we continued walking South towards La Jolla Cove.

La Jolla Cove

What is a walk at La Jolla Cove without stopping to enjoy the Cove's wildlife, such as sea lions, pelicans and cormorants. I know, our morning wandering was very much similar to 2 weekends ago, but then, I probably will not get tired seeing the balance of nature and man at La Jolla Cove.

Nature and Men @ La Jolla Cove

From La Jolla Cove, we continued walking South towards Windansea Beach, where we did a little bit tidepooling.

After Windansea, we turned around and headed back North towards La Jolla Coast Walk. Before reaching La Jolla Coast Walk, we stopped by at Little Korea near La Jolla Cove for our lunch.

Korean Food @ Little Korea Restaurant, La Jolla Cove

After lunch, we continued our walk back to our car which was parked near La Jolla Coast walk. From La Jolla Coast walk, we drove to Torrey Pines Gliderport for a hike down to Dike Rock tidepool via a slot canyon South of Gliderport. 

Hike Down to the Beach via a trail South of Gliderport passing through a slot canyon

This is our third time taking this trail, the last two times with my more adventurous cousin. :) The trail here goes down a very interesting slot canyon. Though it is small compared to the slot canyons in the desert, but nevertheless, it was still fun navigating through it.

Going Down the Slot ( fun, fun, fun! )

Emerging out from the slot, the trail became more challenging as it was very steep, narrow and slippery on some parts. Notice I looked like almost crawling in the picture below. :) Actually, this is the trail where I would do a lot of butt walk, walking in five! Only I butt walked though, hubby and cousin had very clean hiking pants, haha! :)

Emerging from The Slot

Thanks to my cousin and hubby for boosting my confidence by lending me 4 hands. :) As I said before, I am always the weakest link in family. Though I may be the weakest or cautious, but I always try hard very carefully, haha! All for the love of exploring nature, and experiencing the Great Outdoors, as close as we could get. I am not saying most of my family are not careful, they just have more balancing and maneuvering skills, and more flexibility than I do, making them more physically equipped. I guess their strengths benefit me a lot. Though I grew up sickly ( migraine + asthmatic ++++) and weak but I took inspiration from stronger members of family so I won't be left out in all kinds of family fun.

After the canyon, it was time for us to hike back up to Gliderport. When we passed by the trail with the vertical cliffs South of Gliderport, the low afternoon light was giving the cliffs some golden glow (though not very golden because of thick clouds as well), so, we grabbed the chance to have some more photo opportunities. :) I simply love bringing home the wonders that I see, even if they may be very local. :)

Vertical Cliffs South of Gliderport

The vertical cliffs in the above picture were probably some of my favorite scenic spots in San Diego for scenic photography. Also, the picture has that deceiving look of being at the very edge of the world, but we were safe enough on the trail several feet away from the edge. :) There was a family there who were waiting for sunset at the spot above. After we had our time taking photos, we headed back to Gliderport for sunset. 

@ Gliderport

 Gliderport is usually the place where I would bring visiting friends or family who would want to have some taste of Torrey Pines scenery without the hike. Gliderport is our trailhead for the hike down through the slot canyon in the above pictures. Notice that the trailhead is scenic enough, that most people who would go here don't really take a hike but just breathe in the inspiring scenery of badlands and ocean. This area usually starts to bloom this time of the year, but sadly, we are in worst drought this season that wildflowers were not able to grow at all. Hoping for some rain so we could have some spring wildflowers still. Otherwise, I would re-live the spring wildflowers of last year and the previous years. :) Haha!

It was another wonderful weekend wanderings in San Diego. Until next weekend wanderings. :)

♥♥