By Priscilla Lister
Some call it the West’s Plymouth Rock. We call it Presidio Park. This 50-acre oasis in Mission Hills stands on the hill recognized as the site where California began.
“It was here in 1769 that a Spanish Franciscan missionary, Father Junipero Serra, with a group of soldiers led by Gaspar de Portola, established Alta California’s first mission and presidio (fort),” says the San Diego Historical Society.
Some 160 years later in 1929, the Junipero Serra Museum and Presidio Park were dedicated by then 79-year-old George Marston, local merchant and philanthropist, who had personally spent over 20 years and his own money to buy the land to preserve this historic site and to build a museum to house the San Diego Historical Society and its collections.
Sadly, today the Serra Museum is closed, except by special arrangement for school groups, because of funding woes at the historical society. But it remains the society’s most important venue and efforts continue to find funds to reopen the museum.
Even without that special attraction, Presidio Park remains a jewel among city parks. If you’ve only just driven by, you might have glimpsed wedding parties under its classic wisteria-covered colonnade. It’s a favorite place for picnics among its several grassy expanses shaded by old magnolia, eucalyptus, pine and palm trees. It offers views of San Diego Bay, Mission Bay and Mission Valley.
But fewer locals know it also has over two miles of trails that meander between Mission Hills and Mission Valley.
These trails begin behind the museum and the grassy areas. There are a couple of entry points to the network that covers the less developed hills behind the well-kept park grounds.
I have lived here all my life and never knew these trails existed, even though I’ve picnicked in Presidio for decades. Wandering the trails recently, I marveled at the native and non-native plantings, including lots of blooms in full color now.
I counted among the flower show lots of orange nasturtiums, big yellow sunflowers, blooming prickly pear and barrel cactus, pink raphiolepis, blue plumbago and ceanothus (wild lilac), purple Pride of Madeira, yellow trumpet vines, aloes and hibiscus. The trails wander up and down, but it’s relatively easy going and a true escape right in the center of the city.
The developed areas in the park are equally alluring. There are Inspiration Point on its western summit with sweeping views, which reminds us of its earlier military importance; Palm Canyon and Eucalyptus Grove, both below the museum and across Presidio Drive; and The Arbor, where all those weddings take place, next to The Bowl. You can find nooks among the various grassy knolls for plenty of privacy.
It’s also fun to try to find all the statuary in the park. Just below the museum is “Presidio Wall,” which was recreated close to the original presidio location where some crumbled adobe ruins remain. Near here is the large bronze Indian statue, created by the late Arthur Putnam, a noted sculptor.
Across Presidio Drive from there is the Serra Cross, built in 1913 from fragments of original Spanish tiles. Behind the cross is the famous bronze statue of Father Serra, also created by Putnam.
Near Inspiration Point, just to the west of the intersection of Presidio Drive and Cosoy Way, you’ll find a statue and mural commemorating the Mormon Battallion, whose journey from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego in 1846 to help win California for the Union is still the longest infantry march in history.
In the eastern section near Cosoy Way is the statue of a Mexican cowboy on horseback, donated to the City of San Diego in 1969 by the President of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of San Diego by the explorer Cabrillo.
Find the treasures in Presidio Park.
TO GET THERE:
There are a couple of entries to the trails of Presidio Park. Find them behind the Serra Museum and The Bowl, which lies to the west of the museum at Presidio Drive and Cosoy Way. You may also begin the trails at their bottom if you park off Taylor Street just before it intersects with I-8 in Mission Valley.
Dogs on leashes are welcome.
For more information and a basic map, check http://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/parks/presidio/index.shtml
