East County
Our Backyard’s Backyard
A different world unfolds as one leaves San Diego’s coast and travels east, up to the mountains or down to the deserts. The rugged landscape provides scenic backdrops for guests venturing into San Diego’s outback and exploring East County’s numerous activities and diverse communities.
From the charming mountain community of Julian, to the 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, to Native American casinos and world-class golf courses, San Diego’s East County offers guests a unique and different San Diego experience.
Julian
The delightful mountain community of Julian, once the second largest town in San Diego County during the gold boom of 1869, is located in the Cuyamaca Mountains and reached by tree-lined country roads, nearly empty of traffic and uncluttered by commercial development. Cattle grazing on the hillsides along with fruit orchards and roadside homemade jam stands create a peaceful, pastoral scene.
Julian’s charm and Victorian architecture stretch from one end of town to the other, housing handicraft and antique shops, a general store, and country-style restaurants. The irresistible aroma of cinnamon and apples also leads to stores selling homemade pies filled with fruit from local orchards. One of the most popular times to visit Julian is during the Julian Fall Apple Harvest, held each autumn from mid-September through mid-November, a tradition begun in 1909.
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park
Located slightly south of Julian is Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, offering approximately 110 miles of hiking trails, most open to horseback riders, as well as campgrounds and picnic sites. On a clear day, the park’s highest viewpoint, Cuyamaca Peak (6,512 feet), offers views of Mexico, mountain ranges near Los Angeles and wide expanses of desert. The park is also home to magnificent wildlife, including large herds of mule deer, coyotes, bobcats, an occasional cougar, and more than 150 identified species of birds.
Laguna Mountains
The pine-studded Laguna Mountains, located within the Cleveland National Forest’s 8,600-acre spread, offers outdoor enthusiasts hiking, biking, camping, fishing, and mountain climbing during the summer months and sledding and tobogganing in the winter.
San Diego County has the largest concentration (18) of Native American Indian tribes of any county in the United States. Four of those Native American Indian tribes – the Barona Band of Mission Indians, the Sycuan Band Kumeyaay Nation and the Viejas and Campo Bands of Kumeyaay Indians – own reservation land in San Diego’s East County and center their activities around bustling casinos, which have helped to bring them prosperity and independence. Home to Barona Valley Ranch Resort, Casino Sycuan Resort & Casino, Viejas Casino, casinos are plentiful in this area.
Jamul-Steele Canyon Golf Club
Steele Canyon Golf Club in Jamul features three distinct 9-hole Gary Player-designed courses, each offering an environment and type of play for every skill level. Boasting the county’s highest golf star rating, the courses provide the most breathtaking views and extreme course elevation changes in Southern California. The rugged Canyon Nine provides breathtaking elevations; the Ranch Nine winds through fields surrounding a working ranch, and the Meadow Nine stretches along a pastoral valley floor with beautiful woodlands, streams and native wildlife.
