Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is a coastal

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California. The reserve is one of the wildest stretches of land on the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

coast, covering . It is bordered immediately to the south by

Torrey Pines Golf Course Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility in University City, a community of San Diego, California. The course sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just south of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Opened ...

and to the north by the city of Del Mar. The reserve was designated a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best e ...

in 1977. The reserve consists of a plateau with cliffs that overlook

Torrey Pines State Beach Torrey Pines State Beach is a public beach in San Diego, California, located in a community of Torrey Pines, south of Del Mar and north of La Jolla. Coastal erosion from the adjacent Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve makes for a picturesque lan ...

and a lagoon that is vital to migrating

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s. Many different kinds of wildlife and flora are found within the reserve, including bobcat, fox, skunk, raccoon, coyote, rabbit, cacti, coastal

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

, and the rare Torrey pine. During

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

migration, it is possible to see several species from the cliffs, including

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

and

gray whale The gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), also known as the grey whale,Britannica Micro.: v. IV, p. 693. is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of , a weight of up to and lives between ...

. The of trails within the park offer an attraction for hikers and beach-goers. A small museum sits at the top of the hill. From the cliffs and many places along the beach, it is possible to see

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

to the south and Del Mar to the north. At the southern end of the beach is a large rock that projects into the ocean, called Flat Rock. South of the rock is San Diego's unofficial nude beach,

Black's Beach Black's Beach is a secluded section of beach beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. It is officially part of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern portion of Black's Beach i ...

Establishment

The area is home to the

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as 'Iipai-Tiipai or by the historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Uni ...

, Payómkawichum, Kuupiaxchem, and Cahuill
peoples
George Marston persuaded the San Diego City Council in 1899 to pass an ordinance preserving of the pueblo land as a park. Later between 1908 and 1911, newspaperwoman and philanthropist

Ellen Browning Scripps Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836 – August 3, 1932) was an American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her half-brother E. W. Scripps, E.W. Scripps creat ...

bought additional land and donated it to the city. In 1916, Guy Fleming visited the park and after examining the current condition, pushed for preservation of the park and eventually became the District Superintendent for the Southern California State Park System. The Torrey Pines Lodge was completed in 1923 and a year later, more lands were added to the park. Now consisting of over of cliffs, beach, and more, the park became open to the public. In 1956, it was decided that the park be handed over to the State of California for higher protection because it is a state reserve. In 1970, and 1,500 trees were added due to fear of human expansion. Later in 1975, the Torrey Pines Docent Society was started to help promote preservation of the park, in addition to the Visitors Center. In 2007, the park's name was changed to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. The park size is now over . The official Torrey Pines website provides more detail on the establishment of the Torrey Pines Reserv

Ecology

Torrey Pine

The '' Pinus torreyana torreyana'', also known as the Torrey pine, is the rarest pine in North America. The plant has vanished over time due to the drying period over the last 10 years and has an intricate root system that helps attach it to the overbearing bluffs. Torrey Pines is the sole location worldwide where this subspecies grows (including a small coastal strip immediately north of the Reserve in Del Mar. A closely related subspecies occurs on Santa Rosa Island.

Other species, climate

While chiefly known as habitat to this extremely rare and endangered species, the Torrey Pine Reserve also is home to a wide variety of vegetation and wildlife. The Torrey Pines Reserve has a rather unusual climate due to the

Santa Ana winds The Santa Ana winds, occasionally referred to as the devil winds, are strong, extremely dry katabatic winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure ...

causing the vegetation to be drier. Plants such as

Coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

, Coastal Strand, and

Salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

also thrive at Torrey Pines. More information on the different plants that grow at this park is provided on the official Torrey Pines website

Trails

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve offers 8 trails to hikers that vary in terms of length, difficulty, and scenery. San Diego Tourism Authority says that three popular trails at the park are Guy Fleming Trail, Razor Point Trail, and Beach Trail. The Guy Fleming Trail is and is the easiest trail at the park. The trail provides diverse scenery from Peñasquitos Marsh to views of La Jolla and is well known for whale sightings in the winter. The Razor Point Trail is a loop that provides hikers with a view of

ravines A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, g ...

and

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, ...

while overlooking the ocean. The Beach Trail is a walk that leads one down to

. Although it is the least scenic trail, it is very popular due to taking hikers straight to the wide-open beach. Other trails at the park are the Parry Grove Trail, Yucca Point Trail, High Point Trail, Broken Hill Trail, and Discovery Trail. The official Torrey Pines website provides more information on the other trails

Accidents

In 2008, a 57-year-old tourist from Henderson, Nevada died from a cliff that gave way. The man was struck on the head by basketball-sized boulders, and after the victim was dug out of the debris, a crew performed

cardiopulmonary resuscitation Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during Cardiac arrest, cardiac or Respiratory arrest, respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function ...

to try to save his life. The man died hours later. Torrey Pines is known for its sandy, unstable cliffs and this was not the first time a cliff had collapsed. On January 18, 2014, a 65-year-old hiker fell about down a trail at Torrey Pines and broke his ankle. The injury was so drastic that the man needed a cliff rescue.

Gallery

File:Torrey pine.jpg, A Torrey pine exhibiting

salt pruning Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds and thus over time alter the shape of trees or shrubs. The process degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant that faces the bo ...

in its windswept native habitat File:Torrey Pines State Reserve.jpg, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve File:Torrey Pines Park.JPG, Torrey Pines Park File:View on one of the trails at Torrey Pines State Reserve.jpg, View on one of the trails at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve File:View of Torrey Pines Road from Torrey Pines State Reserve.jpg, View of Torrey Pines Road from Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve File:Sunset at Torrey Pines.JPG, Sunset at Torrey Pines File:Pines9.jpg, Beach at Torrey Pines

References

Notes Bibliography * Torrey Pines State Reserve (2008
Torrey Pines State Reserve
* Hogan, C. Michael (2008) ''Torrey Pine: Pinus torreyana'', Globaltwitcher, ed. Nicklas Stromber

External links

Official website

Torrey Pines Association

Torrey Pines SR California State Park
{{authority control California State Reserves Protected areas of San Diego County, California National Natural Landmarks in California Nature reserves in California 1977 establishments in California