Walking the San Diego River: Week 14 and 1/7: Mother's Day at Inaja Memorial Picnic Area.

Moonrise across the gorge.

So today's river walk was on Mother's Day and we thought it might be fun to take Anita's mom up to Julian for some pie and sightseeing. And wouldn't you know the sightseeing just happened to include a little stretch of the San Diego River. I had been a bit too tired to hike this day due to the long hike I took the day before, but today it seemed the perfect place for Anita and I to take her mom. I must say, Kathleen is a really cool lady. She raised Anita and Anita's sister and brother as a single mother. She's has this unique skill of being both incredibly polite and full of decorum yet not afraid to call people on their baloney. She has a unique way of letting those who know her that she knows exactly what is going on without actually ever saying it. She's also quite knowledgable on local history, having lived in San Diego much of her life. I love her tales of travel near and far (one needs not go further than a few blocks to be on an adventure).

How it all used to look.

You can bring flowers to mom, or mom to flowers. We did both.

Inaja Memorial Picnic Area is a monument to firefighters who lost their lives battling the Inaja fire of 1956. The tale goes that a teenager threw a match into a bush and started a fire that swept from here to Lakeside, similar in scale to the Cedar fire and Witch Creek fires of the last decade. Twenty firefighters were caught in a canyon as the flames approached. Nine were able to escape. Eleven others perished. Although it is verdant here now, it gives one pause to consider what that must have been like.

The divide between the San Diego and San Dieguito watersheds.

Flowers!

We had pie and explored a shop in Julien, and then wandered out to the park. There is a 1/2 mile loop with a little elevation gain. You can do it in sandals if you watch your step. The ridge forms part of a narrow divide between the San Diego and San Dieguito watersheds and the views out toward Santa Ysabel are nothing short of breathtaking.

Mother & daughter under the moon.

The real draw for me however was the chance to gaze down the San Diego River Gorge. Since I decided against bushwhacking my way upriver, this was about as close as I was going to get on this journey, and seemed not right to finish the river without at least doing this little trail.

Viewscope placard tells what you're looking at.

The endless San Diego River Gorge.

The view did not disappoint. The sky had cleared up quite a bit from the day before and we could see quite a distance. The winds of yesterday had quieted and the air was noticeably warmer. We blissed and gazed at the land around us. The little placard gave names to all the shadowy peaks I had passed the day before.

With some zoom and color enhancement.

With mother and daughter gazing into the lowering sun.

The resemblance between Anita and her mom is most apparent. One notices it first in their faces, then after talking one hears a fierce independent streak, and a strong fire within. We are all our own people, but more so when we know how we're connected to those near us.

More color enhancement to resolve distant peaks.

I am actually sitting in a puddle of apple juice.

This was not to be a long riverwalk, so after snapping a few more pictures we made our way back to the parking lot feasting on sights of wildflowers near and vistas very far.

I am intoxicated by this view.

Santa Ysabel

Anita and flowering Yucca.

Close up.

On the way home we took the back way through San Diego Country Estates and Barona Valley. Both this trip and the greater journey are not really new things. So long as we've had a means of getting from point A to point B, we have voyaged though places such as this, often with family and loved ones. In the 50's it was known as the "Sunday drive." In the present it is an "outing." Anita and her family have been a great source of inspiration and support over the last 2 years and I look forward to more adventures near and far.