7 Places Worth Your Time in Ramona & Alpine, Ranked

In September 2002, Bobbi Brink took in two tigers, Raja and Natasha, rescued from a backyard in Texas. That rescue grew into Lions Tigers & Bears, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Alpine that has taken in more than 1,000 big cats, bears and other exotic animals since. Today more than 60 animals across 19 species live on its 142 acres at the edge of Cleveland National Forest, and a visit here is the best way to spend a day in Ramona or Alpine.

Every visit is a guided walk with an educator, past the habitats and through the sanctuary's historic cattle ranch and adobe buildings. The residents include lions, tigers and bears, plus leopards, jaguars, bobcats, mountain lions and servals, along with dozens of ranch animals. Each one arrived with a rescue story, and those stories are the heart of the tour. The praise from visitors centers on how well the animals are cared for, how much the guides know, and how much everyone learns along the way.

This is a no-breed sanctuary with a strict no-touch policy and a second perimeter fence, so the visit is about watching, listening and asking questions. The mission reaches past any one afternoon: a safe home for abused and abandoned exotic animals, and teaching people why the exotic animal trade needs to end. The American Sanctuary Association and the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries are among the groups that accredit it.

Sky Falconry puts one bird on your glove. Lions Tigers & Bears gives you a whole ranch full of second chances, and that scale, along with the stories behind it, is why it holds the top spot.

Plan the rest of your day around it. Visits are by reservation only, so pick your date and time from the calendar first. Want more? The Feed Experience takes you to the habitat perimeter to feed big cats and bears with a keeper, and a stay in the White Oak cabin turns the visit into an overnight. Wear layers and comfortable shoes for dirt paths and grass, bring plenty of water, and in summer take the earliest slot of the day.

Put on a glove, hold out your arm, and a bird of prey flies to it. That moment is the heart of a lesson at Sky Falconry, a federally licensed falconry school on a ranch in the Alpine hills, about 2,500 feet up and roughly 30 miles from the coast. Master falconers Kirk Sellinger and Denise Disharoon started it to keep the old art of falconry alive and to teach raptor biology and conservation to anyone curious enough to glove up.

The birds are a Harris's hawk, a red-tailed hawk, a lanner falcon and a great horned owl. Kirk came to falconry after working as a rock-climbing instructor and then as a wildlife videographer on National Geographic and Lindblad expeditions, and he became a falconer in 2010. People rave about the close encounters with the birds and instructors who clearly know their stuff, and they bring up the scenery and how smoothly everything runs.

Pick a program by how deep you want to go. The Basic Falconry Lesson covers the basics and history of falconry, with field games, photos and your first free flights. The Hawk Walk adds an interactive walk with a hawk as it makes longer flights through its natural habitat. The Owl & Falcon Encounter lets you fly a falcon and handle an owl, and the Private Hawk Walk and Private Raptor Experience are built for small private groups.

Sky Falconry ranks just behind the sanctuary because it's a smaller, more specialized outing with a fixed start time and a forecast to respect. The last stretch of road is unpaved and rutted, so leave extra time and use the directions they send you. Prices, lengths and age minimums are confirmed when you book.

The camels on Highway 78 outside Ramona come with a love story. Oasis Camel Dairy is the family farm Gil and Nancy Riegler opened in 2000. Gil first worked with camels in the Israeli army, caring for confiscated animals. Nancy trained birds for shows at what's now the San Diego Zoo Safari Park before starting a bird act of her own. As San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles told it in 2018, her act and his camel show crossed paths at the Santa Cruz County Fair, and the two got married.

You can see both careers in the Open Farm program. On select dates, the farm opens from noon to 2 for a live show with performing parrots and camels, plus the Wild West Turkey Stampede, which is exactly as fun as it sounds. Then comes the part the farm calls the guest favorite: handing treats to the camels and the mini sheep. The mother camels raise their own calves out in the pasture, and Gil turns camel milk into soaps, lotions and lip balms.

Fans point to the owners, the animal care and the shows, and on some summer weekends the farm opens for lavender picking too. It lands third because Open Farm dates are few and far between. For a family day, it's hard to beat.

Treat it like the ticketed event it is. Buy tickets online for a posted date before you drive out, pack lunch for the picnic tables, and check the weather policy if wind or rain shows up in the forecast. Ramona Ranch Vineyard & Winery is also on Highway 78, so the grown-ups can turn it into an afternoon.

For open sky and a long, easy walk, head to Ramona Grasslands County Preserve. The 3,867-acre preserve spreads across part of the Santa Maria Valley with grassy hills and big oaks, and Santa Maria Creek runs through it, feeding wetlands, vernal pools and oak woodland. It's free, and it's the clearest look you'll get at Ramona's open country.

From the main staging area off Highland Valley Road, the loop runs about 4 miles: the Meadow Loop (0.8 miles) links to the Wildflower Loop (2.0 miles) by a short Connector Trail. There's little climbing and nothing technical, so most walkers can handle it. Bring binoculars. The County counts more than a hundred kinds of birds here and nearly 40 protected animals, including burrowing owls and Stephens' kangaroo rats, and golden eagles hunt over the grasslands. The wildlife, the wide-open views and the sunsets are what visitors love most.

Those eagles explain the newest change to the trail. The old route had to close every year during raptor nesting season. On March 20, 2026, a 0.6-mile reroute opened that moves the trail farther from an eagle nest so it can stay open year-round, and the westernmost 1.1 miles of the old route closed for good. More segments are set to start construction in fall 2026, the first steps toward linking the preserve to San Pasqual Valley on the Coast to Crest Trail. Follow the signs on the ground instead of an older map.

Shade is scarce, so start near sunrise or save it for the cooler end of the day. Hikers, cyclists and horseback riders share the trail, and storms can close it, so check County park updates before you go.

Dos Picos means "two peaks" in Spanish, after the two big mountains nearby, but most people come for the shade. Dos Picos County Park in Ramona is the easygoing half of the outdoor pair on this list: coast live oaks, a few Engelmann oaks, a pond, picnic tables and a playground, with ranchland and steep, rocky slopes all around keeping things quiet.

If the Grasslands are for walking, Dos Picos is for settling in. Claim a table under the oaks, let the kids loose on the playground, and take a slow lap of the pond. Keep an eye on the sky. The County lists great blue herons, egrets, ducks, red-shouldered hawks, woodpeckers and western bluebirds here, with California quail out in the early morning and barn, screech and great horned owls calling in the evening. The praise centers on the oak shade, the pond, the wildlife and how calm it all feels.

It also works as an overnight. The campground has partial-hookup sites, tent sites, ADA-accessible cabins and a youth group area, with restrooms and coin-operated showers. Horseshoe pits, soccer fields and a covered pavilion round it out.

Day-use parking is $5 per vehicle, and day use runs from 9:30 a.m. to sunset. Campsites, cabins, the youth areas and the pavilion each need their own reservation, so book those separately if a picnic might turn into a weekend. Pack bug spray, and get there early if you want your pick of the shaded tables.

Ramona Ranch Vineyard & Winery began with a smaller dream: Teri Kerns wanted to raise chickens, keep a garden and have a horse. She and her husband, Micole Moore, moved to Ramona in 2004, noticed the new vineyards going in around town, and went to a Ramona Valley Vineyard Association meeting. By 2005 they had made their first wine from Ramona Valley grapes. They planted test vines on their Highway 78 property in 2006 and added bigger plantings of Tannat, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Symphony in 2010.

Micole is the winemaker and works with native, wild fermentation. Teri picks barrels and varietals and runs the tasting room and wine club. The lots are small, so the lineup changes from visit to visit, but look for Tannat, Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Albariño. The estate Sangiovese won Double Gold at the Sunset Magazine International Wine Competition, and the Montepulciano took Gold and Best of Class at the 2023 Toast of the Coast. The winery calls itself San Diego's first and only certified sustainable winery, and it doubles as a working ranch that takes in rescue animals.

Their TasteSpace tasting room opened in fall 2022, with chandeliers inside and a patio looking out over the Ramona Valley. Bring a picnic (they encourage it), bring the leashed dog to the patio, and ask for a flight built around the wines you already like. Fans talk about the hospitality and how relaxed the whole thing feels.

It's open Thursday through Monday and closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and events can change how the space is used, so check the calendar before the drive.

If you know San Diego beer, the story behind this Alpine Boulevard taproom will sound familiar. Pat McIlhenney, a firefighter who studied brewing science at UC Davis, founded Alpine Beer Company in 1999 and opened the brewery at this Alpine Boulevard spot in 2002. That brand was sold in 2014, and in spring 2021 the family came home to the same building under their own name: McIlhenney Brewing.

It's a family operation in the most literal sense. Pat's son Shawn is the head brewer, Shawn's wife Jamie runs the tasting room and the business side, and Pat and Val are retired brand ambassadors. The brewery bills itself as three generations of craft beer. Those Alpine Beer Company years brought home World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival medals, and the house specialty today is hop-forward West Coast-style IPA. Fans rave about the IPAs, how fresh the beer is and the people pouring it. The family's goal is a place where people are "greeted by name at the door, not judged by the beer they order."

The taproom is small, kid-friendly and dog-friendly, with an outdoor patio in the foothills of the Cuyamaca Mountains. There's no kitchen, so eat first or bring something, and plan it as an afternoon stop, since the taps close at 7 p.m. After a morning with the tigers or the hawks, it's an easy way to end an Alpine day, as long as someone else is driving.