From 70 miles of sparkling coastline and scenic bays to verdant valleys, rolling hills and mountains, San Diego is a vast and varied landscape with an abundance of attractions and activities catering to every type of traveler. For those in pursuit of fascinating trivia, history or just plain fun facts, San Diego and its environs are a veritable treasure-trove of secrets to discover.
The following are 19 things visitors will be surprised to discover at some popular areas around San Diego.
- San Diego’s North County Inland region is home to California’s longest zip line, La Jolla Zip Zoom, which stretches more than a mile between four towering stations nestled in the foothills of Palomar Mountain. Visitors can soar at speeds reaching up to 50 mph over breathtaking backcountry and the San Luis Rey River. Click here to see the zipline in action!
- Also in North County, San Diego Zoo Safari Park gained international acclaim in 1988 for being the first in the nation to successfully breed a pair of endangered California condors in captivity. California condors are the largest birds in North America and can be seen in the park’s naturalistic Condor Ridge.
- Located on Point Loma is San Diego’s only national park, Cabrillo National Monument, which commemorates Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s discovery of San Diego in 1542. Cabrillo was the first European to set foot on the U.S. West Coast. This fall, visitors can experience the golden Age of Discovery aboard the San Salvador, an exact working replica of Cabrillo’s flagship – the “Mayflower of the West” – at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
- The 4,600-acre Mission Bay, with its 27 miles of beaches, grassy recreation areas and tropical resorts, is the largest manmade aquatic park of its kind in the world and was created in the late 1940s by dredging a former tidal marsh originally named “False Bay” by Cabrillo.
- Opened in 1964, SeaWorld San Diego in Mission Bay is the first SeaWorld theme park in the nation. Over the past 50 years, SeaWorld’s Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation Program has helped more than 28,000 stranded, injured and orphaned marine animals. SeaWorld achieved worldwide recognition in 1980 with the hatching of the first emperor penguin chicks ever outside the Antarctic. Today, visitors can enjoy a thriving colony at the Penguin Encounter.
- Mission Beach is home to the Giant Dipper, a classic, wooden roller coaster in Belmont Park that is one of only two oceanfront coasters on the U.S. West Coast and one of America's 12 oldest roller coasters that guests can still ride. Built in 1925, it was designed by the same team responsible for the identical-named Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz.
- Mission Valley can claim a few historic firsts: Mission San Diego de Alcala, California’s first mission, established in 1769; Presidio Hill, the first European settlement on the West Coast, showcased at the on-site Junipero Serra Museum, and California’s first aqueduct, used to transport water from the San Diego River to the mission grounds, located in Mission Trails Regional Park.
- San Diego’s North County city of Oceanside is home to the largest mission in California, Mission San Luis Rey, known as the “King of the Missions.” Until the mid-1800s, the church was the largest structure in California. The Mission’s wooden cupola and dome were constructed from pine trees brought down from Palomar Mountain. The first pepper tree in California stands near the mission’s Carriage Arch entrance and was brought by ship from Peru and planted in 1830.
- La Jolla, the “Jewel of San Diego,” is home to seven famous sea caves including the only land-access sea cave on the California coast, Sunny Jim Cave. The surrounding La Jolla Underwater Park, teeming with marine life, is the West Coast’s first coastal underwater preserve, created in 1970.
- La Jolla’s Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, located atop picturesque seaside bluffs, is one of only two places on earth where nature lovers can find the ancient Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana), the nation's rarest pine tree.
Happiness is calling in San Diego. For more information on other unique San Diego offerings, visit the San Diego Tourism Authority's website.
