Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch & Poway
Potato Chip Rock, two lake loops, an 1889 winery village — hotter than the coast, worth it.
25Scripps Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, and Poway run together along the I-15, and none of them fills a weekend alone — so treat all three as one inland loop. The reason to come is outside: the county's #2 hike climbs from Lake Poway to Potato Chip Rock, Iron Mountain gives you the same summit views without the photo line, and a paved 4.9-mile loop rings Lake Miramar. Between trailheads there's an 1889 winery village that still presses grapes, a Japanese lager brewed in Scripps Ranch, and a volunteer-run steam train circling Old Poway Park on Saturdays. One rule out here: summer runs 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the coast. Hike at dawn, taste wine at noon.
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