San Diego's Weekend Driver

Here’s a golden oldie for your trip to the back country this weekend: it’s “Up the Creek to Mt. Laguna: Taking The Back Way From Alpine, a chapter from my 2003 book, Weekend Driver San Diego.

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 [...]

From Reader Gary: Great website, gents.  I’m working my way through the weekend drives, but I’m not that familiar with the area.  Have any suggestions for what/where someone from out of town could find a nice weekend trip? I’m from the rural East Coast and I think it’d be great to spend two days bombing [...]

Here’s a really fun trip over some little-known roads in San Diego County… but isn’t that what Weekend Driver is all about? It’s East County Zig-Zag, a loop around the East County communities of Lake Morena, Campo, Cameron Corners, La Posta, Live Oak Springs and Boulevard, plus the Campo Indian Reservation. If you stay on [...]

If you’re looking for something close-in this weekend, how about a cruise down El Cajon Boulevard, what one perhaps too-dreamy city planner once called the “Champs Elysees of San Diego.” The wide, mostly straight boulevard runs from Normal Street and Park Boulevard east to Main Street in El Cajon, with a bit of an interruption [...]

County’s Eastern Gateway, Old U.S. 80, Frozen In Time Every year, thousands of nostalgia seekers and worshipers of great roads head out to festivals and other events along old Route 66, the historic highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.

After celebrating the end of World War II 60 years ago, perhaps by jumping in the Horton Plaza fountain on V.J. Day, drivers who spent the duration in San Diego were finally heading back to perhaps Texas or Louisiana in that worn-out Hudson.

Sand, Dust and Splinters Didn’t Challenge Imperial Valley’s Earliest Drivers On a sunny Sunday a few weeks ago, I set out to visit the remnants of the Old Plank Road, the first “reliable” connection across the Algodones Dunes near the Colorado River in Imperial County.

Some of the best roads don’t always get you from here to there. Take, for instance, today’s drive. It’s a zig-zag through the East County communities of Lake Morena, Campo, Cameron Corners, La Posta, Live Oak Springs and Boulevard, plus the Campo Indian Reservation. It’s just a 15-mile trip on Interstate 8 that blows past [...]