Guided Nature Hike: Discover California’s Most Iconic Landscape
Beneath the canopy of oaks and the calls of woodpeckers, discover the plants, wildlife, and ancient stories that make the chaparral California’s signature ecosystem.
Join this small-group, guided nature hike through the chaparral hills near Lakeside, just east of San Diego. From grizzlies and native pollinators to wildfires and even Roman history, this resilient landscape reveals how people and nature have shaped each other for millennia. You’ll learn to recognize iconic plants like manzanita and chamise, understand how chaparral responds to wildfire, and appreciate why this rare habitat is both misunderstood and essential to California’s identity.
‣ Perfect for: families, birders, photographers, and native plant enthusiasts
‣ Distance: about 2.5 miles (easy to moderately challenging)
‣ Duration: 2–3 hours
‣ Location: Lakeside area, ~30 minutes from San Diego
‣ Private bookings available with shorter/easier routes
Walk away seeing Southern California’s hillsides not as boring “brush,” but as an extraordinary ecosystem filled with diversity, history, and quiet beauty.
Cypress was so knowledgeable and informative in such an interesting and approachable way. Additionally, she’s a delight! We’ve already discussed which of her tours we will book next time we’re in San Diego! - Kelly C.
If you live in or are visiting San Diego, do yourself and the environment a favor and go on a tour with the Cypress Hansen, the wonderful North Star Naturalist. My wife is a dedicated supporter of all sorts of environmental causes. I support her efforts but am generally more drawn to humanist concerns. From my point of view nature is nature. But wow! a hike through hills covered with what seemed to me to be some quite ordinary foliage turned into a voyage of discovery of the immense riches right in front of us, the astounding operation and cooperation of ants, bees, fungi, birds, pollen, leaves, wasps, frogs, and a million other things pointed out and explained in enthusiastic detail by a fantastic guide who at least for me will remain a true star in ever sense of the word, a real gem in the SoCal firmament! - Michael G.
