Go for a Hike
Bailey’s spreads out over a very special piece of Palomar mountain. At 5,500 feet above sea level, its many private acres are wound through with beautiful and historic trails cut over the last 100 years or so by residents and visitors. A great place for hikes of all levels – from short easy walking trails to more strenuous hikes up to the ridge and beyond. Hiking Bailey’s is a beautiful way to get some fresh air and enjoy nature. Plus great Instagram ops are pretty much everywhere you look. Unique tree forms carved and shaped by Palomar’s intense weather. Deer. Bobcat. Hawks. Bald Eagles. And of course, the ever present Scrub Jays, woodpeckers, squirrels, and ground hogs. Signs of earlier inhabitants like grinding stones and rusty blacksmith relics or the mysterious ‘Bottlecap’ Tree.
The Old State Park Trail leads from Bailey’s proper to the 100 acre Historic Sunday School Flat. The Flat borders what is now Palomar Mountain State Park. A hike around these 100 acres takes you past the old barn and across acres of natural Fiddle Head Fern. For more adventure explore the boundary into The State Park itself. Up the switchback asphalted road and just a short hike across the field, you’ll find the boundary marked by a yellow State Park sign. About a quarter-mile across the divide lies the southeast end of the Chimney Flat Trail.
There is a road from the Mack place down through the edge of Chimney Flat to Sunday School Flat. Midway there is a level place on top of the ridge. At one time there was a schoolhouse here, but when I first passed that way the building was gone, but some benches, etc., were still left. If I remember rightly, one of the school benches still remaining had been made from cedar nicely smoothed and hand-carved.
Excerpted from My Palomar by Robert Asher
Sunday School Flats Barn Image by Terri Sproul
