We at the Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP) Foundation are excited to share that we will be hosting summer camp again this year.

Led by the Foundation’s Education team, the camp will be available to children in grades 1-6, with specific weeks for younger and older children. Campers will take to the trails, play games, make crafts, conduct science experiments, and develop friendships. If you, or someone you know, is interested in enrolling their child(ren) in an enriching, small group summer camp, then send them our way.

Summer camp registration will open in a couple of weeks, but if you would like to be added to our interest list, email our Lead Educator, Alissa Lustgarten, at [email protected]. For more information about the camp, visit: mtrp.org/daycamp.

At the time of this writing, spring is still a few weeks away, but the park already has wildflowers popping up including San Diego Sunflower, Chocolate Lily, and a few California poppies.

We hope you can come out to the park to see the flowers and encourage you to do so on a weekday when parking is more plentiful and there are fewer hikers on the trails. In the spirit of “leave no trace,” please refrain from plucking or walking too near or on the flowers, and always stay on the trail. With more than two million visitors annually, we need everyone to do their part in helping to preserve and protect MTRP, one of the largest urban parks in the country.

If you want to learn more about flowers in the park, we encourage you to go on a Trail Guide-led nature walk which meet in the Visitor Center lobby every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9:30 a.m., and every second and fourth Saturday at 8:30 a.m. from the Kumeyaay Lake Campground Entry Station. These walks are free, and no reservations are required.

If you’d like to learn more about the birds at MTRP or at Lake Murray, you can attend one of the Trail Guides’ bird walks, the third Friday and Saturday morning of each month. See the events calendar on the MTRP website para más información.

Daylight Saving Time brings more hours of sunlight and later gate closures at the park.

All lots, with the exceptions of the Visitor Center parking lot and Gate 1 at the top of Father Junipero Serra Trail, will be open until 7 p.m., beginning March 12.

Since parking is at a premium at MTRP, carpooling is recommended to both reserve space for others’ vehicles and to reduce our carbon footprint.

– Jennifer Morrissey is executive director for Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation.