Hiking Cliff Side at Torrey Pines

If you love the beach and warm weather then San Diego is the place for you. San Diego has many attractions including Old Town San Diego, the Harbor, Balboa Park, and the world famous San Diego Zoo. However, what many people don’t know is that there are many beautiful hiking spots in and around San Diego. One of my favorite hikes is in Torrey Pines.

Torry Pines is a state national reserve that includes a beach and dramatic seaside cliffs. To learn more about the reserve, and the current events happening there please visit: https://torreypine.org/. 

Hikers can drive to the visitor center at the Torrey Pines Lodge at the top of the mountain to park, or they can park at the sea side parking lot. Parking fees depend on the season and the time of week that you visit the reserve. Prices range between 12- 20 dollars per vehicle. Please visit the website to find exact pricing for when you visit.

There are many small intertwining trails that one can take, and depending on your preference the trails can be combined to create a loop that hikes down the cliffs and onto the seashore, then continues along the shore until you reach the sea side parking lot and from there you can walk up the mountain alongside the road. This will take you back to the parking lot located at the Torrey Pines Lodge  and Visitor Center.

The Beach Hike

For our hike we started at the trail head labeled “Beach Trail, Razor Point, Red Butte, and Yucca Point”.

We continued walking along this trail until we reached a left hand turn for “Beach, Flat Rock”.

You will follow this trail all the way to the beach. The trail is well maintained and has a nice sandy pathway. Be warned that there can be rattle snakes and that you will see many signs cautioning you to stay on the path to prevent running into one. We went hiking in the mid afternoon and the lighting was perfect for pictures!

After following the trail for awhile you will come to a stair case that will lead you directly onto the beach.

The beach has large pebbles and rocks of a variety of colors. If you go at low tide you can find many of these rocks while walking along the beach. Low and high tide times are on the Torrey Pines National Reserve Website listed earlier in the article. 

After walking along the beach we headed back to the staircase that led back to the hiking trails  located in the cliffs.

As mentioned before some hikers opt to hike the beach all the way back to the beach parking lot and hike up alongside the road instead.We opted to hike back the way we had come so that we could go to each of the look out points located among the cliffs. First we went to “Razor Point Overlook”. Then we went to “Yucca Point”. Yucca Point had the most beautiful views of the cliffs and oceans and this is where I took most of my pictures.

We ended by going to “Red Butte”. This was a popular lookout point because it is very close to the parking lot at Torrey Pines Lodge. It was also very crowded and had similar views to the Yucca Point lookout.

Overall the hike was not very long and took us approximately 2 hours. This included stopping frequently to take pictures and taking a break at the beach to watch the waves. There are a lot of people who take the hiking trails so if you are looking for a quiet hike to get away from the city this might not be the trail for you. However, the views are spectacular and I believe it is a great place to get away and take some amazing pictures!

I hope this blog post was helpful, and if you have any questions about the trails feel free to comment below. Happy Travels!

***Disclaimer: I am not responsible for content on external websites listed on this blog post.