Palomar Mountain State Park: A Favorite Day Trip for Every Season
Palomar Mountain State Park sits about two hours from our home in Orange County, but it feels like a different world. The elevation hovers around 5,000 feet, which means cooler air, tall conifers, and a bird list that looks quite different than what we see down at the coast. Kim and I have made the drive up in multiple seasons now, and the mountain consistently rewards the effort.
Our usual route involves the Lower Doane Valley and Lower French Valley Loop, and maybe with the Weir and Thunder Spring Trails. It's a comfortable walk through mixed conifer and oak forest, open meadows, and along small creek drainages. The habitat shifts enough as you move through it that you're always paying attention. Before we even hit the trail, we usually stop at the small pond near the parking lot, which is easy to overlook but consistently holds some good ducks.
The Pond
Ring-necked Ducks are a regular find on the pond, compact diving ducks that sit low in the water and tend to ignore you if you approach quietly. Mallards keep them company in the shallows, and it's become a reliable first stop before the hike begins.
Osprey An Osprey circling low over the pond is not something you expect this far from the coast, but it happens. They follow water wherever it leads, and the pond up here is apparently worth the detour. This one gave me a spectacular post-dive shake out, sparkling in the sunlight!
Birds of the Forest
Acorn Woodpecker Acorn Woodpeckers are hard to miss once you know what to listen for, a rolling, laughing call that carries through the oak woodland before the bird itself comes into view. They are communal and industrious, working in family groups to drill and maintain the granary trees where they store thousands of acorns, one per hole, against the winter.
Golden-crowned Sparrow The Golden-crowned Sparrow is a bird of the understory, moving through low shrubs and leaf litter with a quiet deliberateness that makes it easy to overlook. The golden crown patch is brightest in spring, but even in winter plumage there is enough yellow to catch your eye once you start looking for it.
Pygmy Nuthatch Pygmy Nuthatches move through the pines in loose, chattering flocks. They're tiny even by nuthatch standards, and watching a mixed flock work through the canopy is one of the better things this trail offers.
Mountain Chickadee Mountain Chickadees look like their Black-capped cousins but carry a distinctive white eyebrow that sets them apart. They're curious and vocal, and usually easy to find once you start listening for the familiar chickadee call.
Dark-eyed Junco Dark-eyed Juncos are reliably seen on every visit, flicking through the leaf litter along the trail edges. They flash white outer tail feathers as they hop away, which is often the first thing that catches your eye.
Steller's Jay Steller's Jays announce themselves from the canopy whether you're looking for them or not. Bold, loud, and unmistakable with that dark crest, they're the personality of the mountain forest.
Band-tailed Pigeon Band-tailed Pigeons pass through in small groups, usually heard as a rush of wingbeats before they come into view. They're the wild relative of the familiar city pigeon, but similarly as goofy.
Red-tailed Hawk Red-tailed Hawks are visible from the open meadow sections, often hanging on a thermal above the ridgeline. But sometimes you get lucky, and one is sitting low, just off the trail, enjoying a rest in the shade!
American Robin American Robins feel different in California. They are scattered all over the place back in the midwest where I originated from, but here, they just feel more special in their sparseness. I just don’t see them nearly as often as I’d like, or as I did back in St. Louis.
Wildflowers and Plants
Spring is the obvious time to visit if wildflowers are the goal, but Palomar offers something interesting in every season. The Grape Soda Lupine is a showstopper, covering open areas in soft purple and living up to its name with a vanilla-grape scent that you smell before you see the blooms. Scarlet Bugler lines shadier stretches of the trail in vivid red, and San Diego Pea adds softer color through the understory. Woolypod Milkweed appears in the drier, sunnier edges, important habitat for butterflies moving through the area.
The Canyon Live Oaks anchor the whole woodland and are worth slowing down for any time of year. I love walking on a trail layered in oak leaves and acorns. Honey Mushrooms push up from the bases of older trees in clusters that are easy to miss if you're not looking low.
Some Scenic Views
Palomar rewards repeat visits. The mountain changes with the seasons, and the combination of forest birds, wildflowers, and that pond near the trailhead means there's almost always something worth the drive. We keep finding reasons to come back.
If you've hiked Palomar Mountain State Park, I'd love to know what season you found most rewarding, or what surprised you out there!
