Del Mar and Solana Beach: Cedros Design District, Annie's Canyon and Seagrove Park

Just north of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve along Scenic Highway 101, the city limits of San Diego give way to the coastal villages of Del Mar and Solana Beach. Famous since the 1930s when Hollywood stars Bing Crosby and Pat O'Brien founded the seaside Del Mar Thoroughbred Club ("Where the Turf Meets the Surf"), this stretch of North County blends Tudor-style village cafés, oceanfront train bluffs, sandstone slot canyons, and converted Quonset-hut design boutiques.

Del Mar Village, Seagrove Park and Dog Beach

The heart of Del Mar sits along Camino Del Mar (Old Highway 101) around 15th Street, where half-timbered shops and ocean-view terraces at the Del Mar Plaza look straight out over the Pacific. Walking two blocks west down 15th Street brings you onto the manicured green lawns of Seagrove Park and adjacent Powerhouse Park. Perched on a low bluff directly above the sand, with the historic Amtrak Pacific Surfliner railway tracks running along the coastal ledge, Seagrove Park is one of the most romantic sunset picnic spots in Southern California.

Stairs lead down from Powerhouse Park onto wide, flat Del Mar City Beach. Walk twenty minutes north along the wet sand to the mouth of the San Dieguito River lagoon and you reach Del Mar North Beach (Dog Beach), where dogs play in the shallow river currents beside volleyball courts and beginner surf breaks. Across the river mouth sits the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Racetrack, which hosts the massive San Diego County Fair every June and Early July followed by the summer thoroughbred racing season from late July through early September.

Solana Beach: Fletcher Cove and the Cedros Avenue Design District

Immediately north of the fairgrounds lies the compact, artistic beach community of Solana Beach. Its main beach access sits at Fletcher Cove ("Pillbox"), where a concrete ramp carved through sixty-foot coastal bluffs opens onto a grassy overlook park and a sheltered sandy cove at low tide.

Just two blocks inland, running parallel to the Coaster train tracks for two-and-a-half blocks south of Lomas Santa Fe Drive, is the Cedros Avenue Design District. Housed inside vintage 1940s corrugated-metal Quonset huts and industrial buildings, more than eighty independent boutiques, mid-century furniture galleries, surfboard shops, urban wineries, coffee roasters, and a Sunday afternoon farmers market line the tree-shaded street, anchored at the north end by the legendary Belly Up Tavern live music venue.

Hiking Annie's Canyon Trail (The Coastal Slot Canyon)

Tucked on the eastern edge of Solana Beach inside the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve sits one of San Diego County's coolest natural surprises: Annie's Canyon Trail. Carved over centuries by rainwater erosion through soft Eocene sandstone dunes, this short, one-way loop trail lets you squeeze shoulder-width through a winding, sculpted sandstone slot canyon before climbing a narrow ladder to a panoramic lagoon viewpoint. Reach Del Mar and Solana Beach easily without a car by riding the NCTD Coaster commuter train from downtown Santa Fe Depot or Old Town straight to Solana Beach Station right on Cedros Avenue.