The Los Penasquitos Canyon runs about 7 miles east west between Sorrento Valley and Mira Mesa to the south and Carmel Mountain and Rancho Penasquitos to the north. There is a large network of fire roads and trails in the canyon and the remnants of the mesas to the north of the canyon. While land development over the years has fragmented the trail system north of the main canyon there are still plenty of miles of dirt to pedal on fairly non-technical terrain once you learn your way around. During the summer this canyon often benefits from the prevailing coastal breeze and in the winter and spring months the greenery of this canyon is extremely pretty. This canyon is extremely accessible from the major highways of interstates 5, 805 and 15 which makes this a great place to get in after work rides for folks you transit through the area. |

Looking east from along the South Side Trail/Road |
Directions: There are many options to get into the Carmel Mountain Preserve, Los
Penasquitos Canyon and the Tunnels area. There are the ones I have used.
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East end of the Canyon: For the east end, take I-15
to Mercy Rd.. Go west on Mercy Rd., to Black Mountain Rd.. Turn right on Black
Mountain Rd.. Turn left at the next light into Canyonside county park. Drive past all of the ball fields on your left. Park paved parking lot just after the last baseball field. |
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West End of the Canyon: take I-5 or I-805 to
Sorrento Valley Rd.. From 805 you will take Sorrento Valley Rd.. To Sorrento
Valley Blvd.. The I-5 Exit will work around to Sorrento Valley Blvd.. Take
Sorrento Valley Blvd.. past all the industrial complexes. The entrance is on
your right. You can also park in on the complexes on the left side of
Sorrento Valley Blvd.. and pick up the trail as it goes behind the
complexes. |
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Carmel Creek Road: Take I-5 or
I-805 north through the merge of the freeways. Take the HWY 56
exit. The first exit you will have is Carmel Creek Road. Take
the exit and turn right at the stop light. Take it to its end at
an apartment complex. Park in the turnaround circle. The Carmel Mountain preserves is accessed by a utility road is at
the east end of the complex. |
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Ocean Air Recreation Center: From I-5 in San Diego take the I-5 local bypass as you near the I-5/805 merge. Travel 1.3 miles and take the Carmel Mountain Road Exit. After 0.2 miles turn right onto Carmel Mountain Rd.. and travel 0.8 miles. Turn left onto East Ocean Air Drive for 0.3 miles and then turn left onto Fairway Way and turn into the parking lot on the right. |
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Clews Ranch Rd.. Trailhead: Take I-5 or I-805 north through
the merge of the freeways. Take the HWY 56 exit. Take the second exit
Carmel Country Road. Turn right at the light. Take your an
almost immediate right into the parking lot. |
Hazards: Beside the normal stuff, this area is home to
many rattlesnakes so be alert.
RANT: Okay let me get this disclaimer off my chest before going any further. Due to the multiple land owners and management agencies along with various conservationist groups with seemingly divergent agendas you end up with a management clown show of this area. There is no legal functioning trail system that provides a truly quality outdoor experience for all of the user groups out here. The primary group that is getting the shaft out here is the Mountain Bikers. If you stick to all of the legal trails in the canyon you can tick off quite a bit of miles that will be virtually all on wide dirt roads being pawned off as trails. While you ride these roads you will pass dozens of "No Mountain Biking on singletrack trails" signs. To get yourself onto some descent to excellent singletrack trails you are going to have to get out of the canyon and/or exercise some civil disobedience and potentially get yourself a ticket. The Del Mar Mesa (Tunnels) area is starting get some singletrack opened up on it but there are much lacking currently. The map below and the associated electronic files are a trail inventory. The routes I describe here are the basic legal routes you can go. They are not what I consider the best routes. Once you get to know the area you will have to make your own choices on route variations out here to achieve what you consider a quality outdoor experience. All is not lost, the San Diego Mountain Biking Association has some seriously dedicated advocates who are putting in a lot time with trying to improve things for mountain biking in this area.
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You find way too much of the this non-sense being passed off as trails at Penasquitos Canyon |
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Ride Notes:
I'm going to describe the trails in three primary groups, the canyon itself, Del Mar Mesa Preserve (aka Tunnels) and Carmel Mountain Preserve. I will not be covering all of the trails here and not everything is on my map files. The entire area has a high exploration factor so do just that. I'm expecting that you to dig around the Google Earth files so the descriptions are geared towards that. |
Map Resources: Here is the official map for this area. It will not be of much help. Download the TOPO! file. Here is a map of that TOPO file formated to be printed on 8.5" x 14" (legal) paper. The map below is of the KML file that has all most of the trails chopped up into individual trails. There is information on the both the paths and points on the map you should click on both. In the descriptions I will talk about several recommend "legal" routes. Basic Beginner Canyon Loop. Intermediate Canyon Loop , Penasquitos Canyon,Tunnels and Carmel Mountain Loop .
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