Rod's Adventures: Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Lake Ramona

This is the sign at the entrance to the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve. It is located in Poway CA on the east side of Espola Rd just before it makes a turn to the west and heads towards Rancho Bernardo.

The Reserve was closed for almost a year after the Witch Creek Fire roared through in October 2007. This was to help the area re-grow a little and to give the workers time to clear away some of the downed trees.

The area has made a comeback and someday will be just as beautiful as it was before the fire.

I was the first to place any Geocaches in the area after it was re-opened. There are lots of hiding places around but trail rules ask that you stay on the established trails, so options are limited for placements.

I needed to go out to replace one of my cache containers that was sun damaged so that was the reason for this hike today.

There is a new parking lot with tables and interpretive displays. Parking lot hours are, June-October, 6:30am - sunset, November-May, sunrise - sunset.

There are different kinds of guided hikes through the Reserve led by docents on most weekends. More information can be had from the web site, www.poway.org/bluesky

This is the first view of the trail leading into Blue Sky. No bicycles are allowed on the trails but it is a access road, and sometimes there will be a utility vehicle on the road.

Fire ravaged trees along the trail.

Beautiful shaded area along the trail

At the .9mi mark is the turn off to the trail that leads to Poway Lake to the south. It is a hike of 1.2 miles to Lake Poway from here.

A little past the turn off to Lake Poway the trail bends to the left and starts to head up to Lake Ramona and the dam. Below, you can see the dam between the two mountains.

The hike up to the dam is fairly steep, but once again, it is a road that is used by service vehicles so it is well maintained.

When you get towards the base of the dam the road is paved, untill you reach the top. There is one long steep strech along the front of the dam that brings you up to the top.

View of Lake Ramona from top of dam.

View of Lake Poway and the road up.

I had never hiked around Lake Ramona and didn't know if it could be done. While I was on the trail I asked a Ramona Water Authority worker if there were trails around the lake, he said yes and gave me a small trail map. So, since I didn't have anything better to do I decided to find out what the trails were like around the lake. I continued left across the top of the dam and was able to stay on a well maintained dirt road to about the half way point.

View of the lake from the road.

After leaving the road and following a small trail, I was able to make my way down to the farthest point from the dam. It was noisy with croaking frogs behind me when I took this picture.

The small trail that I was following along the lake is used by fishermen as seen by all the discarded fishing line, bait and various drink containers along the way. Overall very trashy.

I was tring to follow what looked like a trail and sometimes it seemed to be barely wide enough to walk on.

This is a look back at part of the trail, if you were to slip, you would be in the lake.

Once was enough for this trail and I won't suggest that anyone goes along on this side of the lake. I wouldn't be supprised if I was on private property more than once. For sure at the end, when I reached the dam again, since I needed to exit past a no tresspassing sign.

After you head down into Blue Sky again and are heading back to the parking area there is a small offshoot trail that is called the Creekside Trail.