Weekend Driver San Diego

Many of the great driving roads in San Diego county are in areas where October’s fires raged, but many others were untouched.

Even in the middle of suburbia, the crowded Interstate 15 corridor, just around a corner is one of San Diego County’s most challenging country byways. Highland Valley Road is hard to even see, since it seems to drop off the side of busy Pomerado Road at the north end of Rancho Bernardo. From here, the [...]

With all the mountains in San Diego County, a picnic in the wilderness is only a few minutes away for the thousands who have high-ground-clearance vehicles. Qualifying are most of the SUVs on the road, including crossovers. The Mount Laguna area, at around 6,000 feet, has all the necessary features — trees and dirt roads. [...]

Lyons Valley Loop Around Jamul Is Twisty Fun From August 2007 If there’s a road in San Diego County that mimics the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster at Mission Beach, it must be Lyons Valley Road, near Jamul. And cruising it in a nimble pocket rocket like Nissan’s new-for-2007 Sentra SE-R Spec V can be more [...]

South Bay Cruise Promises a Chance of Less Traffic, Delivers Great Views From July 2007 San Diego in the summertime. Time for a beach cruise. But where to go? That’s the challenge. Traffic from the fair and beaches can make Old Highway 101 north of Torrey Pines pretty grim. South of Torrey Pines, La Jolla, [...]

Among the twisting byways in our region, De Luz Road has to rate as one of the best. Winding over the mountains from Temecula to Fallbrook, it goes up and down over the peaks and valleys, past avocado groves and along the edge of breathtaking canyons. What a great spot to test the road legs [...]

Keep this secret to yourself: on foggy, overcast days, people don’t go to the beach. That means it’s a perfect day for a drive around the beach. Just a few weeks back, Easter weekend was gray and it was perfect top-down driving weather. A light jacket, light traffic and the heater on in the Mustang [...]

Santa Ysabel is great destination for Saturn Sky Roadster From March 2007 What’s your favorite road? For many two- and four-wheel driving enthusiasts that know this county, a pair between Ramona and Lake Henshaw are high on the list: Old Julian Highway and Mesa Grande Road. Both have prerequisites for greatness: twists, curves, and a [...]

Cutting Through Unexpected Urban Wilderness In A Hybrid Mercury Mariner While the general area where San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties meet is one of fastest growing in the nation, its center somewhat of a surprise. Much of it is wilderness. This hole-in-the-donut is the northern portion of the Cleveland National Forest, which stretches south [...]

The late ’60s and early ’70s were a great time to be a kid in San Diego if you — and your parents — liked taking Sunday drives to see all the new stuff being built. Whether it was a new freeway, home development or stadium, we’d pile into the Pontiac to go take a [...]