La Jolla Cove & Cowles Mountain

Garabaldi, originally uploaded by bphall.

I had a busy weekend of fun and adventure. Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 am to hike Cowles Mountain (pronounced Coals)with Veronica and Marleen, my coworkers and Marleen's boyfriend Terrance. Even though it was ungodly early, I'm really glad I did it. The trail gets packed quickly if you get a late start and the temperature can get hot quickly this time of year. Fortunately, the temperature was perfect and while there were plenty of others already on their way down the mountain, the trail was by no means crowded. It was perfect. I'm told the view is incredible and offers a 360 degree panoramic of San Diego and even a view into Tijuana but on this particular morning we climbed directly into and above the clouds as you can see by the photos. It was possibly even more beautiful then a city view would have been. It was actually kind of refreshing to walk through the mist of the clouds, especially because it's the closest thing I've seen to rain since I've been here. I have to say, it's hard getting used to such a dry climate. I've been here about six weeks and haven't seen so much as a drop of rain. WEIRD.

The mountain is home to plenty of wildlife including Rattle Snakes and Mountain Lions but fortunately for me I saw neither. I did however see a few rabbits and a Stink Beetle of the Eliodes species.















Sunday Jeff and I went to La Jolla Cove to get in some late afternoon snorkeling. It's said to be the best dive and snorkeling site in the area. We figured if we showed up at 4pm we could avoid the crowds... we were wrong. The surge was stronger than we expected the water drops off quickly which was a little disconcerting at first. We quickly found our sea legs though and were paddling along the surface with the dozens of other marine life enthusiasts. The visibility was decent at about 10' or more and the fish were a plenty. We saw tons of fish including Garibaldi by the dozens, a Bluebanded Goby and lots of another blue fish that I wasn't able to identify. You could hear the ferocious clicking of what we think were lobsters hiding under the grass too. Evidently there are a lot of fish that frequent the waters there and throughout the year it's not uncommon to see sharks, wrays, sea lions, harbor seals, scorpionfish and lots of other creatures. We both had a great time and want to go back again early in the morning before the crowds have had the chance to stir up the sand.