Discovering the San Diego River

Did you know that San Diego has a river? And did you know that that river starts near Julian and goes through Mission Trails Park and then Mission Valley and ends up at Mission Beach - dog beach, specifically? Yeah, I wasn’t really aware of this either for a long time.

I don’t think it really sank in until I saw a picture of Mission Valley from the early 1900s with all the concrete gone. It looked like it was beautiful. I’m really sad it doesn’t still look that way.

But here’s the interesting thing about this river…..much of it doesn’t look like a river. This part blew me away. If you go down into Mission Valley and look for a river, you likely won’t find it, instead you’ll find this:

But guess what? That’s the river!

The river is known as “the upside-down river” because unless it has rained recently, the river often runs underground. There are places within Mission Valley that look like a normal river, but for the most part, those areas have been excavated to bring the water to the surface.

The San Diego River is 52 miles long, and is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. There are 25 endangered species represented in the river watershed, some species only grow along the San Diego River and nowhere else in the entire world. These include the Arroyo Toad, the Least Bell's Vireo, Southwestern Willow Flycather, Coastal California Gnatcatcher, and the San Diego Mesa Mint.

There’s a path along the river in Mission Valley called the San Diego River Trail. It’s nearly 9 miles long going from Dog Beach to the 15, but there are a couple of sections still to be completed. I’ve always been curious to check out the trail, but the reviews of it tend to sound like this:

“I was excited to run on this trail since our hotel was close by. Less than a mile in I turned around and came back. Several homeless people sleeping in tents along the trail under bridges. It smells and there’s lots of trash.” - Eli Slesk on Google Reviews

“Far too many homeless encampments along the trail, in some places there are objects blocking the trail. Plenty of trash scattered all over. Wasn’t what we had in mind for getting out in nature for a walk. I’ll avoid this area for now.” - Rob Lentz on Google Reviews

“It could really be a nice 4 mile hike. Unfortunately, there are parts of it where I did not feel safe.” Petra Konow on All Trails about a section of the trail in the middle of Mission Valley

That being said, the reviews do seem to be on an upward trend, and given what I learned from the San Diego River Park Foundation, homelessness along the river is down quite a bit in recent years. But unfortunately, this is the reputation the trail has.

Speaking of the San Diego River Park Foundation, what triggered this blog is my recent adventure of getting a tour at the San Diego River Park. The San Diego River Park Foundation was started in 2001 when a few people noticed that the river was really dirty, and they found out that there had been a sewage spill that no one was even aware of. This lead to them banding together and tracking down all of the neighborhood groups, small foundations, and other organizations that existed to take care of parts of the river from the beach to the mountains.

Together they became the San Diego River Park Foundation with a vision of creating a park system along the entire length of the river. They’ve spent the past 25 years cleaning up the river, removing non-native plants, and buying up land to keep it from being developed. Every year they remove 1 million pounds of trash, they keep tabs on the homeless population, and ensure they are warned about flooding when storms come through. They are also building parks, and recreation areas so that the public can actually enjoy, and learn about the river.

The first park that is being completed is called Grant Park. It is located on the southern shore of the river off Camino Del Rio North right by the 8/805 interchange. The park is beautiful. It’s 17 acres that used to be an old sand mining pit, but is being transformed into a landscaped space with native plants, and different gathering spots. There are multiple gardens within it, including gardens that are autism friendly, a butterfly garden, and there will be a nursery so they can grow their own replacement plants for the landscaping. There is also an area with picnic tables for events, and a space where there will be a new building for offices for their organization.

The primary purpose of the park is as a place for school children from around the area to come and learn about the river and about science. They have a building that acts as a classroom with microscopes and other technology to teach the kids. There is also an art gallery filled with art from the San Diego River Artists' Alliance - I was blown away by the art. It’s all inspired by the river and was beautiful. They have fish tanks where the kids get to watch trout hatch and they provide eggs to schools that have their own fishtanks so kids can experience that in their own classrooms as well. They have a number of other science focused activities that they can undertake with kids on field trips and they are very focused on introducing it to the kids in a way that will make it interesting an approachable.

The park arranges for the Kuymayaay to come and tell the children about life on the river before all the development, which is something I totally wish I could attend. They also take the kids into the river and teach them about the ecosystem of the river, and expose them to nature that most of these kids never see.

Grant Park isn't fully opened to the public yet, but they do have some nice event spaces in case you’re looking for a unique place to hold an event. And they do host some events themselves that are open to the public including bird walks, a nature focused story time for the little ones, and something that sounds really neat to me which is the SD River Community Art Day which is coming up on June 27th. They will have “River-inspired artwork, displays, and sales by members of the San Diego River Artists Alliance, Kumeyaay Tribal Members from Baja, Cahuilla Tribal Members, and other local artists.” They will also have basket making demonstrations, mural painting and other fun activities for the whole family. There will be live music, the Kona Ice Truck on site, and you are encouraged to bring a picnic snacks to enjoy in the park if you’d like.

The goal is for more locations like Grant Park to be opened up along the river. Until that comes to fruition, there are still a lot of places you can check out parts of the river and the San Diego River Park Foundation lists 16 of them on their website. These include places like Mast Park and Walker Preserve in Santee, Mission Trails Regional Park, Cedar Creek Falls, and of course Dog Beach in Ocean Beach. Some of these you may not have even realized the water running through them was indeed the San Diego River.

One of the next parks to be developed will be where the San Diego Riverwalk Golf Course is today. The Riverwalk Golf Club land has been sold and will be developed into Riverwalk San Diego which will be a 200 acre mixed use space including 4300 multi-family housing units, retail space, office space, a new trolley stop and transit center, and, possibly most importantly, a 60 acre park on the river as well as flood capacity improvements in the area. The first phase is under construction now and some of the housing will be available in 2027, but the transit and retail is slated for 2028. Unfortunately, it sounds like the park is even further off as they are keeping the golf course open for the next 7-10 years before transitioning it into a park.

Places like the golf course (and future park) are very important to Mission Valley. We all known that Mission Valley floods whenever we get a big rain. It used to be that there was plenty of land around the river that the water could spread into, but as human development has encroached on the river, this flooding has become a “problem” — I hate to use that word since we created the “problem” that didn’t exist until we built where we shouldn’t have built. And the flooding has gotten worse because of all the concrete. The ground used to be able to absorb the water and help mitigate the flooding, but now the water has nowhere to go. This has lead to cars being flooded, road closures, the first floor of a hotel had to be evacuated once. And this year, with a Mega El Niño expected, we’ll likely see this again, possibly worse than in recent years.

Finding that balance — between controlling the land around the river and letting the river be itself — is ongoing work. It's the kind of thing that doesn't happen without dedicated advocates, and the San Diego River Park Foundation has made it their mission to protect this resource, and keep it woven into the life of the city for future generations.

I’m so grateful that I got the chance to tour this unique park, and learn about the San Diego River Park Foundation, and their work. I got the opportunity through the Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club which is one of only 3 eco focused Rotary clubs worldwide. If you have any passion for our environment and want a great organization to volunteer with, I highly recommend this group. They are clearly passionate and provide really interesting learning opportunities as well.

Have you explored any parts of the San Diego River before?