Living in Calsbad, CA, north of San Diego, and working in Escondido 12 years ago, we never made it over the hills to Temecula. While stopping in a Thousand Trails in Menifee it seemed to be a good time to check it out.
Old Town district with history dating back to the early 1800's, has many boutiques, theaters, and museums dotted along its wooden boardwalk and we enjoyed walking around. Rosa's was a good choice for some Carne Asada and reasonably priced.
Pretty fancy city hall. Temecula has remained small since it is surrounded by ranches and not a lot of places for sprawl.
Some of the artsy places.
We also took a bike ride through the wine country on a route I found online. We didn't have a printer so I wrote down the directions of the ride sheet and left out one street. That added a couple of miles. Riding in wine country anywhere can be a workout since most vineyards are planted on hills for drainage. This route met that criteria.
The cactus were in bloom.
We didn't do any tasting since we still had 12 more miles to go. Make that 14 since I messed up the directions.
More than 30 wineries and plenty of spas.
Rural in nature, sustainable in farming practices and including an agricultural preserve known as the Citrus/Vineyard zone. Less than 60 miles north of San Diego, California and 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles, California lies Temecula Valley. Temecula has built a reputation for being the wine country of Southern California.
It turned into a very nice ride through some nice places. The traffic was nothing compared to that in Napa. But I can imagine the weekends can get pretty busy.
I really liked these cactus flowers with the bee on the left. So I had to add another with a bee that Mike took.
And you are here at the perfect time of year!
ReplyDeleteSanta Rosa Plateau is a nice place to hike, especially int he spring. Lake Skinner is a good place to camp (especially mid week) and check out the wineries.
We will have to check that out while I have 5 days off in a few days. Thanks for the tp.
DeleteWe stayed just outside of Temecula for a week last spring and had a great time. Looks like you're having fun -- and the weather looks great! Those cacti blooms are gorgeous. I second Lisa's suggestion about the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve -- the trails are wonderful and filled with wildflowers in the spring. You probably already know about the San Luis Rey River Trail -- we biked that to Oceanside and back one day. I think it was about 18 miles round trip and was a nice ride.
ReplyDeleteWe did ride that trail and you are right about how nice it is. Now that the heat wave is breaking, we plan to get to Santa Rosa Plateau. I think we are going to enjoy this area.
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