A Mountain Excursion (and Beer) – Alpine, CA
We were looking for a change, a big change. After months in the dry desert we were craving high mountains, cool air and the fresh scent of pine trees…and we were willing to travel miles to get it. Around 180 miles to be exact.
One of the many beauties of being on wheels, and in southern CA/AZ specifically, is easy access to so many varying natural environments. Our drive from KOFA to San Diego on I-8 was going to take us directly through a large section of east-west mountains known as the Laguna Mountains.
This rocky range extends ~1 hour east of San Diego to a max height of around 6,378 feet (1,944 m). It’s not exactly alpine-style, but when you’re coming from sea-level cactus-dwelling land it’s like being transported into a parallel universe. Suddenly the air is 15 degrees cooler with a slight crispness to it and trails are ragged, winding affairs that take you through thick pine trees and grassy meadows. You see colors (GREEEEEEeeeeen) and smell scents (pine, wood) that had almost faded away in your memory. It’s like being re-born, nature-wise.
The fact that Alpine Beer Company (which just happens to be one of San Diego’s top 15 breweries) was also in the vicinity had absolutely no bearing on our decision to go….none at all.
We decided to ease ourselves out of our boondocking months and into the craziness of city life with a few free nights at Viejas Casino.
For those not in the know Casino’s often offer free overnight parking to RVers and are an easy option in many spots, especially in cities which might not offer other free options. They can take any-sized rig, and some even practically pay you to stay if you sign up for their club card (or similar) which is usually free and gives you either free play money (say $10 or so) or discounts on food. We’ve used many Casino’s in our travels and typically find them either through overnightrvparking.com (a great site for quality, verified overnight spots), casino-related sites (casinocamper.com) or free camping websites (e.g. Campendium, FreeCampsites). They are not long-term spots, but can be great go-betweens and overnighters.
Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA is exactly 6 mins from the aforementioned brewery (gosh, what a coincidence) and offers 3 nights (72 hours) of free parking in a HUGE, quiet lot at the far back of the establishment with lots of green areas around the lot to walk doggie. Couldn’t be easier.
In order to prepare our waistlines for the beer tasting we took a day-trip to Laguna Mountains (~25 mins from the Casino) to hike around some of the many mountain trails. Laguna requires a day-pass ($5/day) to access, but has literally hundreds of miles of trails including a large portion of the southern section of the Pacific Crest Trail.
We chose an easy 3- mile hike (Polly having just recovered from a muscle injury) through some lovely pine and meadows. Sadly many years of CA drought has dried-up all the lakes, but the hike was nonetheless invigorating & pretty. Doggie was literally out of her mind with all the new woody smells, especially after such a long time in the desert (must be like the doggie equivalent of catnip), while both Paul and I drank in the deliciously fresh mountain air. Ahhhhhhhhhhh……
Our hike was rewarded by an evening visit to super cozy Alpine Beer Company which brews excellent IPA’s, as well as a rather nice stout. We chose the 6-taster together with some BBQ ribs for dinner. The food was OK, but the beer was amazing and well worth the visit. It’s a popular (and very small) place so be prepared to wait for a seat, especially if you come on the week-end.
Thus ends our little mountain excursion. From the dizzying heights of I-8, we now stand on the precipice of BCL = Big City Life -> the craziness of traffic, the shocking indecency of side-by-side RV parking (no more nude walking around in the RV I tell ya), the insanity of multiple grocery stores (how to handle so much choice?), the sheer lunacy of over 100 (yes 100!!) microbreweries. With all the free camping in the AZ desert, why would we ever subject ourselves to such a thing? As with many things in life it’s because we can, and because sometimes a change of scene is just what the soul needs. But that’s the subject of another blog post.
For now we just say goodbye wilderness and hellooooooo San Diego. Beach and big city here we come!
Note/ Laguna Mountain Recreation Area is entirely dog-friendly (all trails we looked at). Alpine Beer Company sadly does NOT accept dogs, even in their back outdoor seating area.
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Hi Nina,
I just love your photography! What kind of photo editing program do you use/rec? I really like how you did the black/white photo with the colored beer! I just got a new Canon Rebel…I would like to be able to do more than I can using iPhoto on my MacBook.
Suzanne
I’m a Photoshop girl and have been for many, many years. I have a really old version of the program that I still use. The black/white/color shot is done with a black/white layer where I “paint” through to show the color underneath. Photoshop is a steep learning curve, but you can do just about anything with it.
Nina
Thanks for sharing such a nice mountainous area so close the the metropolis life of SoCal. I don’t recall hearing or reading of the Lagunas before.
And of course a good micro brewery nearby is a clincher too. 🙂
It really is a cool spot, and can you believe this is our first time visiting it, despite living in San Diego before we went on the road. It took moving into an RV to get us here.
Nina
In a recent post you also mentioned getting back to foooood in the big city areas. If you haven’t already left Alpine, remember Janet’s Montana Cafe for the absolute best breakfasts with biscuits and gravy in SD County, bar none.
And for when ya’ll come down the hill, then there’s Lupe’s Cafe on Poway Rd. Their Filete de Pescado Ranchero is maravillosamente!
By any chance, are you heading to the Tuscon Escapade early March?
Tom
Cheers for the extra tips. No, not making it to Escapade. Should be a fun rally though and I know several buddies who are going.
Nina
Wow! How spectacular is the scenery around Alpine? Although we get down to Julian on occasion, we have not really explored the Alpine area. Sounds like a “test” of our solar project might take us to Viejas Casino and Alpine Beer Company. Oh ya!
It’s honestly really pretty around here. We totally loved the pine trees and grassy meadows. You could hike for days (literally).
Nina
Why go to the big city?
When a high school student, we had a foreign exchange student from Holland that put it so well that it sticks in my head even after all these years, “The answer to why? is why not?”
Have fun. We are currently in Q-site for two days, then time to meander somewhere else.
Take care.
The why not makes total sense to me 🙂
Nina
Minor fyi – in your footnote you refer to Laguna Mountain Recreation Area, which is what I searched for on googlemaps – discovered there is a different area with that name up closer to Monterey. Where you were must be just called the Laguna Mountains?
Looks lovely – will have to remember that area! It doesn’t surface as a place to visit when researching San Diego – I guess everyone is too focused on the water.
Interesting. Looks like there are TWO Laguna Mountain Recreation Areas in CA. The one here in San Diego (which has the exact same name) is in the Cleveland National Forest. The hike we did was a portion of this one:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/sep/17/big-laguna-trail/
Nina
Heres a few more links.
The National Forest link (not much there):
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/cleveland/home/?cid=STELPRDB5278458
Yelp Information:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/laguna-mountain-recreation-area-mount-laguna
And one more:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Laguna,_California
Nina
Laguna Mountain Recreation Area is one of our favorite get out of town locations. The mentioned Pacific Crest Trail provides a nice day hike, and some spectacular views to the East. We like day runs to Julian, Borrego Springs, Descanso, Pine Valley, and of course Santa Ysabel for Dudley’s Bread.
But come to think of it, I doubt anyone else would enjoy this area. Yep, probably best to just stay away!! It’s almost as bad as Campland on the Bay…
Travel safe,
Smitty
Your right…it’s a horrible place..terrible trails…not at all worth visiting 🙂
Nina
Ahhh that beer tasting looked good!!!
It was…it was….
Nina
Park the RV, and take the Honda in to town for all the premier IPA breweries… Stone, Ballast Point, Green Flash Palate Wrecker, the list goes, on, and on, and on… head west to quench your IPA wanderlust.
Many of those are on “the list”. In fact we’ve got quite an extensive beer tasting planned for our month here.
Nina
I so envy you and so appreciate you. I am sure you are an incentive to so many. Thanks again
It is nice to vary ones surroundings. Glad you enjoyed your short trip to mountains:) Have fun in San Diego. Polly will love it now that all outside eating areas are dog friendly as of the first of the year.
Hey I didn’t even know that?? Is that a new SD wide law? That’s fabulous for us doggie lovers.
Nina
The law went into effect on Jan 1 while we were there for our month. I remembered hearing it on the news and saying to John that Paul and Nina will have to come back to SD. Good doggie times!!
Awesome!!!
Nina
Isn’t this lifestyle so amazing. One day we can be in a hot, arid desert enjoying cacti and palm trees and the next day, green grass and the smell of pine. Enjoy the beauty of San Diego.
Yup, it’s exactly what I love about it. We’re totally back in “beach mode”, almost like we never left the city those 5 years ago.
Nina
It is nice to change the scenery every so often! 🙂
BTW, I know you are not near Petaluma, CA so you can’t visit the brewery first hand, but make sure you try some of this beer available in most beer outlets in CA (and increasingly, nationally too):
https://lagunitas.com/beers/ipa/
We’ll be on the lookout for Lagunitas. It’s a good brew. We may be over-whelmed by local breweries tho LOL.
Nina
Given your’s and Paul’s RVing experiences and knowledge, and your combined presentation, blogging and photography skills, you could present some excellent seminars for the Escapees or other RVing clubs. Hey, or write a book. Your blogs are very appreciated.
Why thank you Tom. Maybe one day. I’m working on a project right now which will hopefully lead in that direction, but I’m not there yet.
Nina
Ah, and so the luxury of our home on wheels to change the scenery when we feel. Looks like a nice forest retreat. I’m always ready for a pine fix by spring when I head back to the North Rim. But tonight I’m parked along the Salton Sea and I might head to Joshua Tree tomorrow, or not. Enjoy your city time.
I love the Salton Sea, when she’s not smelly of course. I’ve seen some of my most beautiful water sunsets there. I’ll be looking forward to the pics on your blog. Enjoy!
Nina
The only thing better than a scenery change is watching a dog’s reaction to it. Diana and I have seen our puppies go bonkers in our travels over a new area, and it never failed to bring smiles to our faces. Fun stuff, Nina!
Jim
Yeah, it’s amazing how much you can tell from a dog’s reaction. Polly went literally banana’s in the mountains. I can only imagine what it’s like for a dog to have SO MUCH smell input after so many months of very little.
Nina
That mountain range was always just something to get over between San Diego and Imperial County, but I see it is also a great destination! Thanks for the tip on the casino there – looks like the perfect option for a couple days. Having been to San Diego “with you” before it isn’t a completely foreign idea, but still strange to think of the beast with such tight neighbors 🙂
The beast does look strange (to me) in an RV park, especially after so long in the wilds. Poor thing is definitely a bit cramped. If it weren’t for the fabulous location we certainly wouldn’t stay here.
Nina
Did you find any boondocking not at a Casino near Laguna Mountain?
We did not. Cleaveland National Forest has several developed (paid dry camping) areas, and does allow some dispersed camping, but I don’t know the details on the latter. It’s a pretty tightly controlled forest, given its proximity to San Diego, so I’m thinking true free camping opportunities will be scarce, especially for RVs. The one forest campground we drove through (Laguna Campground) only had a few sites that could possibly fit us and cost $22/night. For the rest you’ll have to contact the ranger.
Here’s the official camping link for the forest:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/cleveland/recreation/camping-cabins/?recid=47396&actid=31
Nina
As much as I am still loving the desert, those trees do make me emit quite a wistful sigh!! I am putting Alpine on my list as a stop over if I get down to San Diego. “Go for the scenery, stay for the stout.” 😉
Oh I am totally stealing that tag line. Genius!
Nina
So you are so close to Julian and its famous apple pies. Enjoy your hikes.
Yeah, we’ve driven through Julian many times. That’s a lovely area too….and great pies.
Nina
There is also Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve with wonderful trails. They are not long, maybe 5 miles or so, but in April widlflowers were spectacular.
Gina,
Right..The Volcan Mountain Wilderness near Julian. Very pretty spot. Here’s a link for those interested:
http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/parks/openspace/Volcan_Mountain_Wilderness.html
Nina
Just left Mission Bay after 2 months. Crowded but had a great time. Our 1 month stay extended to over 2 as our daughter decided to get married so we helped out. We are just now getting out to the desert and are now at Sam’s in Desert Hot Springs.
Mission Bay is indeed crowded, but SUCH a great location. Glad you enjoyed your time here. Enjoy the soaking at Sam’s!
Nina
You can’t go wrong cooling off in the pines… especially with a cold beer sampler 🙂 Eye and temperature relief from the big Q.
mark
Totally. We loved the change in scenery.
Nina
Alpine looks lovely. We will have to remember Alpine Beer Company for future visits. Looking forward to seeing you in the big city soon! 🙂
Looking forward to seeing you too. It’s been too long!
Nina
Ha! “Go for the scenery, stay for the stout”. I particularly appreciate the dog friendly hiking pics. I’ve bookmarked all the places I’ve seen you dog walking off leash. I would love to connect with dog people and trade dog sitting for long hikes; especially when dogs may not be allowed on trails. Maybe there’s an app for that?
It’s a good idea Susan and I often wish there was an app for that. I’m sure there are RV folks who would love to have someone take out their dog for a good hike. I know there are always local (city-based) outfits, but I’ve not seen anything like that for RVers.
Nina
Change is always good and like you said, because we can 🙂