Tijuana River Estuary

In July of last year we decided to check out some of the trails at the Tijuana River Estuary. At the time we hadn't hiked in several months, and we were looking for something easy and flat and close to home. So after breakfast in Coronado, we headed down the Silver Strand to Imperial Beach.

• Trail: Tijuana River Estuary (South)
  
• Location: Imperial Beach
  
• Length: Varies. We went about 2 miles out and back
  
• Hike time: 1.5 hours
  
• Terrain: flat and sandy
  
• Path visibility: unmarked but wide path
  
• Difficulty: easy
  
• Cost: free
  
• Highlight destination: mouth of the river, at the beach
  
• Beware: some mosquitoes, some muddy spots near water
  

There are two main sections of the Estuary, north and south. On the north side is the Visitor Center, which is open Wednesday through Sunday, as well as several shorter, popular trails. We chose the south side for our visit, and parked on Monument Road down by Border Field State Park. There is also parking at Sunset Ave., a little further inland.

Our original intention was to head on a short loop and then down to the South Beach Trail. As we walked north on the trail toward the river, though, we slowly realized that our hiatus from hiking had apparently caused our crack navigational skills to degrade -- we had started out further east than we had thought, so we missed the short loop and instead were on the trail to the wetlands that lie about a mile east of the beach. It was a quiet, lazy weekday morning, and we decided to just go with it. In the end, we were glad we did.

The path was a sandy trail, usually several feet wide though it narrowed as we got closer to the river, through high grasses, wildflowers, tall shrubs, cacti and a wonderful variety of marshy growth. There is a national wildlife refuge here, and there was wildlife aplenty. At the bottom of the food chain (or maybe the top, since they feasted on us a bit) were the mosquitoes, but we were lucky enough to see some beautiful blue herons and a red-tailed hawk, as well as a bunch of other waterfowl that we didn't recognize.

The other common sight in the air above the estuary were Seahawks. These were not of the feathered variety, however -- these were the mechanical, rotary wing H-60 Seahawk helicopters flown by the Navy at their Imperial Beach landing field. Even with the occasional thumping of rotors overhead, the scene by the river was very peaceful as the pilots practiced their landings and the birds in the water didn't even blink at their noisier metallic neighbors.

We walked along the river toward the ocean for about a quarter mile, admiring the ducks and herons, and even saw some good-sized fish jumping. As we walked on, the sandy path began to give way to mud, so we turned back and headed the way we came. Even with the mosquitoes, it was a very pleasant, meandering hike along the vibrant, southwestern corner of the U.S.

Tipped Off:Mainly through word of mouth, but we referred to Jerry Schad's Afoot & Afield in San Diego for the different trailhead options.