I'm always down for a visit to any Park Service site, so Cabrillo National Monument was high on my San Diego to-do list. I drove out to the park without any specific trail in mind. After stopping for the obligatory view of the Cabrillo Monument itself (white statue, not very tall, not very interesting), I headed off down the Bayside Trail. The trail descends moderately steeply down the cliff, winding around quite a bit to alleviate the grade. The view is incredible the whole way -- you can see so much of the city from this height. There are also lots of interesting signs about the history of the area and the ecology of the cliffside. I found it particularly interesting that the cliffs' vegetation and animal inhabitants vary by which direction that part of the cliff is facing. There is a notable difference in color between the North and South facing cliffside.
At the bottom of the trail, I was lucky enough to see a submarine on the surface, driving into Point Loma Harbor. The sub was close enough that I could see the sailors standing on top of the boat. I stayed for quite a while watching it make its way towards shore, then begin the climb back up. One thing that's important to remember when visiting this National Monument: what goes down must come up! It was certainly easier footing, but much tougher on the quads to make the journey back up to where I came from. I then continued on towards the historic Point Loma lighthouse. Not going to lie, the lighthouse was pretty boring. The staircase only gets you about halfway up, and the ladder up to the actual lighthouse part was locked with a Park Service sign saying it was permanently closed. Bummer!
I found a sign behind the lighthouse pointing towards the new Coastal Trail down to the tide pools and decided I had one more climb in me. I made my way down towards the water again. The views on this side were more natural, as the city is hidden behind the point. The grade was also steeper and the descent quicker. Halfway down the cliff, my phone welcomed me to Mexico! Oops. At the bottom, the parking lots and cliffs were full of people going to check out the tide pools. I had read at the Visitor's Center that this was not a great time of year to be able to see anything, and it was currently high tide, so I took a cursory look and then headed back up the cliff one last time.
I was sad to see that there were no longer hikes available in this National Monument; it's very small. I was able to string together a couple of shorter hikes and a tour of a few of the buildings up top into a 3.75 mile hike with 830 feet of elevation gain. Focus seems to be more on the historic buildings and of course the statue itself, which I was less interested in, and the tide pools, which I was not there at the right time of year to get a good look at. There was a military history museum on the grounds I didn't check out at all, but it looked pretty small.