{"id":384343,"date":"2026-07-03T00:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384343\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:19:09","slug":"this-week-take-a-moment-to-appreciate-americas-public-lands-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384343\/","title":{"rendered":"This week, take a moment to appreciate America\u2019s public lands \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Trail Report, a weekly email newsletter from reporter Maura Fox about hikes and San Diego County\u2019s outdoors.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0to get it in your inbox first, every Friday.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to reflect on as we celebrate 250 years of the United States. As an outdoorsy-minded person, I\u2019ve been thinking about my time spent on the country\u2019s public lands: camping in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, summiting Mount Whitney and San Gorgonio, rock climbing in New Mexico and hiking on trails in the Smoky Mountains \u2014 what a gift to have these places.<\/p>\n

Over the next 250 years, I hope we prioritize and better care for the land that gives us so much.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear about some of your favorite outdoor locations, in San Diego and around the country, that make you grateful to live here, so drop me an email.<\/p>\n

For my hike this week, I headed to Buena Vista Park in North County<\/a> for a short loop. This is a great option for families \u2014 it\u2019s shady and travels along the Agua Hedionda Creek, and it begins at a park with a duck pond.<\/p>\n

In La Jolla, city officials and lifeguards are urging hikers to avoid<\/a> using unmaintained trails \u2014 AKA \u201cfalse trails\u201d \u2014 on the cliffs above Blacks Beach. \u201cMany of the rescues in the area involve people who leave the main trail and end up on terrain that is much more difficult to navigate than they expected,\u201d a city spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

I was also delighted to see that James Hubbell\u2019s San Diego County home was accepted into the Historic Artists\u2019 Homes and Studios, which preserves homes and working studios of American artists. Hubbell designed sculptures and structures on a few of my favorite walks (one at Shelter Island<\/a> and the other in East County<\/a>) and he believed that art and nature exist in harmony, my colleague Madeleine Kashkooli reported<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

A few state and national stories also caught my eye this week. In New York, a couple\u00a0climbed the Empire State Building<\/a> (with no ropes) for an extravagant marriage proposal. They also unfurled a sign that read \u201cWhen the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.\u201d They\u2019re now facing a handful of charges.<\/p>\n

Back in California, a man was rescued after falling into a vault toilet<\/a> while trying to retrieve his sunglasses at a Sierra Nevada campground late last month. Any camper will tell you about the less-than-awesome experience of using those vault toilets (hello, flies and stench), and the thought of falling into one fills me with dread, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Stay safe out there, folks.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the holiday and the rest of your week,<\/p>\n

Maura<\/p>\n

Hike of the week: Buena Vista Park in North County is a summertime gem<\/a><\/p>\n

Lifeguards warn of hazards on \u2018false trails\u2019 near Black\u2019s Beach<\/a><\/p>\n

Hike of the week: 5 shady hikes for the heat of summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Sculptor James Hubbell\u2019s San Diego County home accepted into Historic Artists\u2019 Homes and Studios<\/a><\/p>\n

Couple charged with felonies for Empire State Building climb-turned-proposal<\/a><\/p>\n

Man rescued after falling into vault toilet at California campground<\/a><\/p>\n

A marine heat wave caused seabird deaths off California. El Nino could worsen the die-off<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the Trail Report, a weekly email newsletter from reporter Maura Fox about hikes and San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,18116,74,84,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":["post-384343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-hiking","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}