10 Things to Do Off the Beaten Track in San Diego

Fallen Star is the name of an eye-catching and peculiar art installation on the 7^th floor of the Jacobs Hall at the University of California San Diego. It’s in the form of a small pastel-blue cottage house that was deliberately set slanting on the top corner of the building – as if a tornado swept it up and miraculously landed it there.

The amusingly quirky installation opened to the public in mid-2012. It isn’t just a steel-frame-and-concrete sculpture, though – the house has completely furnished interiors. At night, you can even see the windows flicker from its lights and TV. At times, its small chimney emits smoke. Its 7^th-floor rooftop lawn and garden has tomatoes growing and even a plum tree.

Geisel Library is among the University of California San Diego’s most striking architectural features. It’s the main library building on campus and features arches that curve up under 3 piled rectangular upper floors – designed to look like hands holding up stacked books. The library is named in honour of author Ted Giesel, better known as Dr Seuss.

The structure is most impressive when viewed from below the canyon that it overlooks. Check out the library's other cool feature: a 560-ft-long tiled trail known as the Snake Path, which connects the library to the Warren Mall at Jacobs School of Engineering.

Chicano Park is one of the most colourful places in San Diego. You can find it in a most unusual location – this 8-acre park lies beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan. The area itself has strong Mexican roots, hence the park’s name. Chicano means Mexican American in the local lingo.

The park was granted a National Historic Landmark designation in 2017. Under the bridge, you’re treated to a wonderful splash of colours with over a dozen murals. Each work of art tells of the cultural district’s livelihood and its community’s past social, environmental, and cultural activism that harks back to the 1970s.

Harper’s Topiary Garden is an eye-popping, green sidewalk feature that you can find on a stroll along Union Street in San Diego. It’s basically the front yard of a Mission Hills resident who had a profound love for clipping trees and got a little carried away. They eventually turned it into a magical mini fantasyland filled with everything, from rabbits and whales to puppies and snowman-like figures.

The topiaries are the work of Edna Harper, and you can see a sign posted on a tree that gives the yard and homeowner’s nicknames: Edna Scissorhands. It’s like a landscape from a fantasy book – or rather, a Dr Seuss book, considering that he also lived in La Jolla just 20 minutes up north.

Potato Chip Rock is the name of a unique rock formation at the Mount Woodson Summit in Ramona, California. The 7.3-mile Woodson Trail is a hike that even non-hikers would want to do just to nab a photo while striking a pose on this thin, 7-ft-long slab.

A steady hike up from the trail base takes about 3.5 hours before you find this rewarding sight. The rock looks just like what it was named after, slanting out against the blue sky. Surprisingly, it’s sturdy enough that you can walk over and sit on its sides or edge, though you do so at your own risk. Mount Woodson is within an hour’s drive north of downtown San Diego.

The Whaley House Museum in San Diego is a must-visit if you’re into local history and are just a bit intrigued about all things paranormal. The well-preserved 19^th-century house stands out among the others along the avenue in San Diego’s Old Town with its Greek Revival architecture, but that's not the only reason to check it out.

Throughout the years, the odd house has gained its ‘most haunted’ reputation thanks to the considerable amount of inexplicable sightings and noises reported – most notably heavy footsteps thought to be those of a felon who was hanged here. Curious to find some spectral encounters for yourself? Join a ghost hunt at the Whaley House Museum, which takes place every last weekend of the month.

Zoro Garden is a 6-acre grotto garden at the heart of San Diego’s Balboa Park. Although it’s now known as a butterfly garden where various species breed and thrive, it was created as a nudist colony for the 1935-36 Pacific International Exposition, where performers would frolic inside and expo attendees could enter and watch for a fee.

The garden itself dates back to the exposition of 1915–16. Long gone are the voyeuristic days of the second expo, and now perennials and nectar plants bloom around the stone garden’s rocky outcrops and maze-like pathways. It’s an oasis for a quiet stroll within the already beautiful Balboa Park.

Sunny Jim's Sea Cave is a hidden gateway inside a gift shop to one of the quirkiest attractions on La Jolla’s coast in San Diego. Sure, you can simply go down to the gorgeous coast of La Jolla Cove from the Coast Boulevard or along the Coast Walk Trail to find the cave, but you don't get the full experience of its alleged history like that.

Above the cave is a gift shop called The Cave Store, where you find a good selection of beach-themed items and souvenirs, as well as snorkelling gear for hire. You can enter the cave for a fee (per person) from here, then proceed down 100 or so steps into the grotto. The nice view opening to the waves greets you at the bottom – a view that may once have met bootleggers bringing illegal goods into the city through this secret tunnel.

Queen Califia's Magical Circle is a sculpture garden within Kit Carson Park in Escondido. The garden features the vivid and large-scale sculptures of the late French American monumental artist Niki de Saint Phalle. It was among her last works. Visiting hours are very limited, so plan your visit accordingly.

Within the garden, you’ll find a collection of nearly a dozen large, freestanding sculptures and totems that seem to heavily feature a combination of rock and tiles as well as Native American and pre-Columbian features. This includes a circular snake wall and the mosaic-tiled maze entryway. The garden is surrounded by the native shrubs and trees of the Iris Sankey Arboretum, which enhance the striking view. Queen Califia's Magical Circle is within a 30-minute drive north of downtown San Diego.