Oranges, Avocados and a mountain road at the elevation of 5300 feet (ca. 1700 m) ….

We drive HWY 15 up North to Escondido and from there through countless citrus and avocado plantations through Valley Center and Pauma Valley – a very nice area with lots of nice ranges and agricultural farming: a feast for eyes and nose!

Pauma Valley is an unincorporated community between Valley Center and Palomar Mountain in San Diego County, California, United States. The name also refers to an agricultural region comprising citrus and avocado groves, several Indian Reservations, casinos, and a country club.

We then start climbing up Palomar Mountain on a dust and gravel road with our mountain goat (Jeep) to an elevation of 5300 feet. The mountains around us are even higher – Palomar Mountain is a mountain in the Palomar Mountain Range in northern San Diego County, California. It is most famous as being home to the Palomar Observatory and the giant Hale Telescope. It is also the location of Palomar Mountain State Park, a California state park. It is one of the highest peaks in San Diego County, at 6,140 feet (1,871 m), although it is still dwarfed by the higher 11,500 feet (3,505 m) San Bernardino Mountains a relatively-short distance north in San Bernardino County and Riverside County and the 14,500 feet (4,420 m) high Mount Whitney some 250 mi (402 km) further north.

As in many other areas around San Diego, one of the wild fires of the recent years had hit Palomar Mountains as well.

On the other side the road led us down along Lake Henshaw and through some vast grass land with cows!