Santa Margarita River Trail Preserve
In 2018, The Wildlands Conservancy acquired five miles of the oak- and sycamore-shaded Santa Margarita River, one of the last free-flowing wild rivers in Southern California and the southernmost range of steelhead trout.
We even discovered some of the human history hidden in the canyon. On October 13, 1880, the California Southern Railroad Company was chartered. Their goal was to build a line from National City, just south of San Diego, up to what is now Oceanside, and then to follow the Santa Margarita River to Fallbrook, and then northward through the Temecula canyon. In 1882, the first train departed National City and arrived in Colton, inaugurating the Southern California Railroad line.
But the winter of 1883-84 proved to be one of the wettest on record for Southern California. Rainstorms in February brought tremendous downpours. Fallbrook experienced over 20 inches of rainfall, resulting in a total washout of the tracks through the canyons. It was then rebuilt, but it struggled financially.
Frequent washouts and another disastrous storm in 1891 sealed the fate of the Temecula line going south. How fun that would have been. The scenery alone would have been worth the price of the ticket.
The Santa Margarita River Trail Preserve has given us yet another spectacular place to safely explore in nature. What a wonderful morning of outing & abouting.
2 comments:
The Santa Margarita trail looks like a nice escape. I have never done it before! I have always heard it get very busy, which isn’t super tantalizing. But it looks like if I time it right... I just have to retire. No biggie. ;)
Thanks for a ggreat read
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