Florida Canyon in Balboa Park San Diego, California

Please e-mail comments, corrections and additions to the webmaster at pje@efgh.com.

The Florida Canyon area of Balboa Park (on both sides of Florida Drive) contains approximately five miles of mountain bike and hiking trails, of varying difficulty.

Where to start and end your ride:

• The best place is the northeast corner of Florida Canyon, south of Upas Street and between Texas Street and Morley Field Drive (Thomas 1269 C6). Parking is available north and west of the tennis courts. There are three trail entrances near the tennis courts:
  • Southwest of the tennis courts is a grassy area where dogs may run free. At the southwest side of the grassy area is a signed trailhead.
  • South of the tennis courts is a smaller trail leading down into a side canyon.
  • On the other side of the side canyon is an unsigned dirt track leading around the northwest, southwest and southeast sides of the bicycle velodrome.
• Another good starting place is the bicycle velodrome. There is an unpaved parking area southeast of the velodrome; the entrance is on Pershing Drive. However, this parking area is usually open only for velodrome events. Directions to the velodrome are available on the Southern California Velodrome Association's website at www.sdvelodrome.com.
• Limited parking is available along Park Blvd. north of Zoo Place. You can walk your bike across a grassy area to either of two marked trailheads.

The dirt track around the velodrome, and the large loop just south of it, are fairly level and are sometimes used for mountain bike races that begin and end at the velodrome.

The best places to cross Florida Drive are

• just north of Zoo Place, and
• Just south of Morley Field Drive.

Last revised February 18, 2002