Torrey, La Jolla Shores, and Soledad in a single ride. Good climbing without straying too far from the city or coast.
As a club rider you need to get familiar with riding up and down hills. Fortunately, in San Diego we are blessed with three relatively large hills so you can get in some climbing time without straying too far from the city or coast. The three hills in San Diego are Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla Shores Drive, and Mount Soledad. Ride all three and you clock about 1700 feet of climbing in under 30 miles. Not bad.
View Three Hills of San Diego in a larger map
This ride starts at the kiddie park at Mission bay. An alternate
starting point is the visitor center just up the road. At the kiddie
park there is a bathroom. We routinely drink the water from the sink
and have not gotten sick yet. Not sure if that means it is safe but
there you have it.
Take a left out of the kiddie park on
East Mission Bay Drive and wind your way around the bay. When you come
to the end of the road, take a right on the bike path. The entrance to the bike path is just past the Mission Bay Golf Course and says "Rose Canyon Bike Path." The bike path
will go under some underpasses. If you see puddles under an underpass
try to avoid riding through them. It rarely rains in San Diego if you
know what I mean.
There are a few right hand exits off of
the bike path. Take the exit on to Garnett Avenue. You will know you are at the right exit as there is a prominent peace symbol on the wall at the exit. Make a right onto
Garnett. Take your first right on Pico Street and then a quick left on
Felspar Street. Your next right will me Mount Soledad Road. Take the
right and head up the hill. Soledad road ends at a T-intersection with
LaJolla Scenic Drive South. Take a right and keep on going straight on
Soledad Park Road. At the top of the road there is a cross and veterans memorial. There is also a water fountain on the east side of the memorial.
Heading down Soledad, we are going to take a different route than we took to go up the hill. Start by going back out the way you came in but go straight at the intersection on Mt. Soledad road. Take a right down Nautilus street. This is a pretty quick decent but keep your wits about you as you do not want to miss your right turn on West Murilands Drive. Keep heading down on Muirlands. At the bottom wind your way through La Jolla according to the map above. Be sure to take that right on Torrey Pines road. Torrey Pines road has some traffic on it so keep a heads up. Near the bottom of the hill get over into the left lane and make a left on Ardath Road. Everyone will know this road as La Jolla Shores drive if you need to ask directions as the name will quickly change to La Jolla Shores Drive. The traffic will be much reduced on La Jolla Shores drive so hang in there. La Jolla Shores drive is the second of the three hills. There are some great views as you wind your way up the hill past the Scripps Institute. At the top, head left on North Torrey Pines Road.
Nort Torrey Pines Road will take you to the third hill which is aptly named Torrey Pines. At the T intersection go left and head toward the coast. Head down Torrey Pines. You can go as fast as you deem necessary but the turnaround on this ride is right at the bottom of the hill. Soooo when you see the bottom coming, think about starting to get over to the left lane. At the bottom of the hill is the entrance to the Torrey Pines reserve. Take a left.
You now have two options. You can turnaround and go right back the way you came or you can go into the park and take the "inside" hill up Torrey Pines. The outer loop (the way you came) is longer and a more gradual climb. The "inside" road is steeper and shorter with a false flat at the top. Make your decision and head back up the hill. Both roads take you back up North Torrey Pines Road. Head back the way you came. This time, however, to not take that right on La Jolla Shores drive or else you will need to go back over Soledad to get home. We are going to go around Soledad.
Go straight on La Jolla Village drive. This is where it gets tricky so PAY ATTENTION. You are going to take the off ramp to Gilman drive. You will know you made the right exit because it is a very steep (short) decent to Gilman Drive. Go down the decent and go right on Gilman at the bottom of the hill. Keep going until you go under the underpass for Highway 5. You will be at a T intersection and there will be a little bike path in front of you. Go across the street and head into the bike path.
Follow the bike path until the end. The path will terminate on Santa Fe street. Keep going past the Budweiser and Karl Straus beer pots on the left side of the road. You are going to exit Santa Fe street at the first change you can. You will know you are at the right place because you will turn right and go under and under pass. The next street you come to should be a busy intersection at Mission Bay Drive. Go left.
Mission Bay Drive is busy so pay attention. Your goal is to take Mission Bay drive and MERGE RIGHT and work your way over to the Mission Bay Park. This can be a tough merge so don't say we didnt warn you. I apologize for this but it is the quickest route into the park. Hang in there. Once you are in the park go left and head back to your car. Nice work!
To download additional information about your ride, right click on
the links below and then click "save link as" to download the file to
your computer.
Download a GPX file you can use to upload to your Garmin
Download a KML file you can use to upload to Google Maps or Google Earth
