Torrey Pines State Reserve
La Jolla / Del Mar · near La Jolla / Del Mar · San Diego
Trail Running
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Distance
- 6 miles
- Elevation gain
- 600 ft
- Best season
- Year-round · clear mornings for the ocean views
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit for running. State reserve day-use parking is $12–25 (fills early); free street parking on N. Torrey Pines Rd with a beach-run approach.
What is here
- Features
- Clifftop singletrack above the Pacific · The rarest pine in North America · Beach-and-bluff loop options · Paragliders soaring off the adjacent cliffs
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Trail Running detail
- Surface
- mixed
- Intl tip
- Parking inside the reserve is pricey and fills early; many runners park free on N. Torrey Pines Rd and enter via the beach. The adjacent Torrey Pines Gliderport (paragliding guide) launches off the same cliffs. Combine with La Jolla Cove and the Salk Institute architecture. Check tide tables for the beach loop.
The guide
Torrey Pines is San Diego's most beautiful coastal run — clifftop singletrack winding through a grove of the rarest pine in Nor…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Torrey Pines State Reserve — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 32.925, -117.253