According to many experts, walking is the best exercise for people. And at the recent Joy of Walking conference, hosted by Walkabout International at Liberty Station, those experts emphasized the healthy satisfaction of a brisk jaunt. The coolest thing about walking is you can do it alone, with a friend, or an entire group. The other cool thing is that even while you are working out, walking at a comfortable pace for you, the things you see can take your breath away, especially right here in the neighborhoods of Point Loma and Ocean Beach. Here are five walks that will take your breath away. 1.) The Sunset Linear Park stretching from Adair Street to Ladera Street along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, south of the Ocean Beach Pier, is perhaps the favorite go-to place for both locals and visitors, respectively. The round-trip walk covers 2.6 miles and can be done within an hour. Allow extra time for selfie and ocean shots. Bring a picnic supper to enjoy the sunset, especially in the fall and winter when so often there are vibrant color shows in the clouds once the sun has gone down. 2.) The Bayside Trail at Cabrillo Monument is a lesser known walk, but well worth the time to drive out to the point to visit the monument. The trail goes out and back for only two miles, but it will take your breath away for the steepness and the views. White sailboats bob alongside giant ships coming in and out of the bay. Downtown San Diego’s skyline gleams under the sun. Alongside the trail itself are flowering shrubs in nearly every season, and at least one red-tailed hawk makes the shrubs alongside the trail as its vista point. Allow an hour and a half for this hike and the many stops along the way you’ll want to take. 3.) Luscomb’s Point to San Diego Yacht Club yields the most diverse views from Sunset Cliffs to the bayside of Point Loma. Luscomb’s Point, at the end of Hill Street, is named after Happy Luscomb, a local resident who often surfed the area. From Hill Street at Sunset Cliffs, walk up to the top of the Fleetridge neighborhood of beautiful mansions and far-reaching views. Turn right on Catalina, then left on Talbot Street, to go down to the La Playa section of Point Loma, adjacent to the San Diego Yacht Club. The one-way walk is 1.7 miles; plan for a full day at 3.4 miles round-trip. Almost exactly halfway through this walk is a perfect stop for a coffee break at a Peet’s Coffee. 4.) Dog Beach to Ocean Beach Pier Café is the iconic OB trek. Whether or not you have a dog, all the cute canines splashing and racing in the water at Dog Beach is sure to start your walk off on the right foot. The round-trip trek from Dog Beach to the pier is two miles. The pier itself stretches for just over a third of a mile over the ocean, the longest fishing pier on the West Coast. A must-have for lunch or even a light dinner is the lobster tacos at the Pier Café. Stay for the sunset and enjoy the sky show on the walk back to Dog Beach. 5.) For the Shelter Island Stroll, you can begin on either end of this small 1.2 mile-long peninsula. Originally a sandbank in San Diego Bay, Shelter Island is a visual goldmine of all things beautiful and interesting, any time of day or night. The Bali Hai Restaurant is on the northern side, the Japanese Friendship Bell on the southern side. You’ll see everything from giant cargo ships to elegant cruise ships sliding through the bay, their giant wakes causing the moored boats to wobble on the ocean.
Every kind of bird, from brown pelicans to great blue herons and ospreys, make their home here. The pelicans that hang out at the Shelter Island are friends of the fishermen – or vice versa – who will toss the birds some of their own catch. Below the pier, sea lions will sometimes steal the fish for themselves. Shelter Island is a wonderful place to watch people play and the world go by. What’s more, the San Diego skyline provides a dramatic backdrop for the full moon rising during the spring and summer months. Walkabout International has a weekly group that meets at the Bali Hai each Thursday morning at 10 a.m. Cynthia Robertson has been a reporter and photographer for newspapers in San Diego County since the 1980s. She has written a novel, which will be published in 2018. Email her at [email protected].
