Sunrise Highway

I Was visiting San Diego over July 4^th weekend and wanted a getaway from the influx of tourists this holiday would bring to the area around my hotel (how ironic, right?). This highway is about 45 minutes from the Embarcadero area of SD. The highway is awesome and provides you access to the trails at Cleveland National Forest. The highway is fun to drive (car or motorcycle) with some moderate grades and S curves. I also hiked the Sunset Trail which gives the hiker some amazing views of the mountains. Try out the café and general store in Mount Laguna. They are interesting and provide a great juxtaposition between the urbanized coast of So Cal and the rural hinterland less than an hour away. You will need a $ 5 Federal Forest to park along the highway to hike any of the trails.

NOT CLOSED!!! Sunrise Highway is a beautiful mountain road popular with motorcycle riders, hikers, families and people waning to see nature. There are awesome little restaurants in the little town of Mt. Laguna or head to Julian for snow in the winter and amazing shops. Awesome day trip to get away from the city.

awesome drive… now i gotta get new tires, shocks and brakes. F*c# that was fun. drive drive drive!!!

Thanks to fellow Unilocaler and explorer Lance M. for telling me about the Sunrise Hwy. I wanted to actually try and see, you know, the sun rise, but dude that was sooooooo early…
The highway is a really relaxing and fairly scenic drive without a lot of twisties and plenty of vista point stops along the way. In fact, the name Sunrise made more sense when I got here as most of the viewpoints face east with the low desert spreading out beneath you. Mountains block your view to the west and any sunset romance.
If you like to hike and aren’t picky about having shade, you can live out all your Lawrence of Arabia fantasies here. Grab a bite to eat at Pine House Café as you go through the little mountain town of Mt. Laguna, and then finish your day in far-​off North Park for some good food and beer. Trust me, you’ll sleep like a baby.

Never wrote a review of a highway before but Sunrise IS A GREAT drive. Get up early and drive it before the crowds. Lots of scenery and peaceful. Enjoy!

Sunrise Highway is just plain fun to drive.
i recently had the pleasure of doing a roundtrip drive from pine valley to ramona and back. so of course i had to drive via the Sunrise Hwy S1!
it was a thursday afternoon and there wasnt too much traffic, and no snow yet so it allowed you to maintain a good consistent speed, 40 mph the whole way of course. we dont advocate speeding in san diego, the po po dont like that kind of stuff ya know!
its not the most twisty of roads and there are some curves, and mostly hi speed wide open curves.
lots of fun and worth the drive.
if you have the time you can drive the backroads starting from hwy 8 north starting at sunrise hwy past julian and lake henshaw to palm springs. thats fun too.
worth the time to get away from things in the city and have some fun driving!