San Diego's Weekend Driver

Visit Font’s Point in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, near San Diego, in a 2013 V6 AWD Chevrolet Equinox.

I’m out in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park this weekend to test a Chevy Equinox awd on a few sandy roads. Headed to Fonts Point, a beautiful overlook in the Borrego Badlands. Shouldn’t be much of a challenge for the equinox, which was a pretty good performer on the mountain roads between the desert [...]

Have a flat tire in the middle of the desert with a Mercedes-Benz SL 350.

It’s hard to believe, but even in San Diego the weather can interfere with the best plans. With a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee parked out front and a weekend plan to head up Nate Harrison Grade on Mount Palomar (and a Plan B to do some driving on rocks near Jacumba), our local dirt roads [...]

Over the years, I’ve made hundreds of trips to scenic Pine Valley. From the Pine Valley Boulevard off Interstate 8, we make the turn left into town. But the question always was, “What are all those trucks parked over there,” in the cul-de-sac to the right. The answer, discovered with the assistance of a ’10 [...]

It’s been a wet winter, which means our local desert is ready for a show. And for all of you with all-wheel-drive SUVs, its time to exercise those transfer cases. Spring in the desert, especially in rainy years such as this one, means the usual grays and reds of the sand and hills are accented [...]

Who says we don’t have seasons in Southern California? At 4,000 feet, in the mountains east of San Diego, there are golden leaves in the fall, snow in the winter, and in the spring, wonderful green valleys and peaks.

Rocky trail cuts through west corner of state park Generally, I do a bit of research before heading out on one of these drives. I break out the maps, check the web and have a general idea of the roads I’m looking to experience. But for this trip, I decided to do what most folks [...]

Fields of green and gold, babbling brooks aside winding paved roads, damp dirt trails and streams crossing dirt roads. It must be spring in San Diego’s mountains. Arguably the area with the most variety surrounds Lake Henshaw and Warner Springs, in the extreme northeastern corner of San Diego county.

Rocky Road Pushes Grocery-Getter SUV To The Limit From January 2008 The Rocky Mountains are in Colorado, but for rocky mountains, nothing beats the piles of pink boulders in the southeastern corner of San Diego County. Looming in drivers’ windshields as they head towards the Imperial Valley, Interstate 8 winds through them. First comes Walker [...]