San Diego's Weekend Driver

Here’s a great drive for this weekend: Canyon Sin Nombre in the Anza Borrego Desert State park. Exersise your SUV and see some flowers.

Assuming the weather cooperates this weekend, it’s a beautiful time of year to try this mostly dirt drive through Tierra Del Sol and McCain Valley in the southeastern corner of San Diego County. But a warning… if the weather is bad, don’t attempt as this as these are some of the most rugged and unforgiving [...]

Here’s an email from reader Bryan: I just bought a 2012 Ford F-150 XLT SuperCrew 4X2 with EcoBoost and I would like to take it out and venture off the “Path”.  Can you recommend some articles or trips you have taken where the terrain was more rugged, but 4X4 was not a must. I have [...]

Mercury might be gone, but for awhile it sold an upscale version of the hybrid Ford Escape, the Mariner. Back in 2006, I took one on the rugged mountains separating the coast from southern Riverside County. Clean Climbing takes drivers on a ridge with spectacular views east and west, down some twisting, rocky and rutty [...]

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 [...]

Just before hitting the state line with Arizona is one of the more spectacular features in California, the Algodones Dunes. Traversing the eastern edge of the dunes is one of the more lonely highways around, Ogilby Road, a great cruise whether you’re on a Harley, in a classic car or modern SUV.

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 [...]