La Playa Trail- San Diego, California
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 32° 45.570 W 117° 11.771
11S E 481624 N 3624642
This is one of several markers commemorating the oldest European Trail on the Pacific Coast of the USA... but first mentioned in 1542 by Juan Cabrillo as an Indian Trail. The trail is 12 miles long.
Waymark Code: WM7BWQ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 10/02/2009
Views: 24
From (http://www.laplayatrail.org/trail-history.html)
Early European references to the Trail are found in the accounts of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (1542) and Sebastián Vizcaíno (1603). The La Playa Trail has been more or less in continual daily use by the Europeans since April 1, 1769, when the Spanish packet San Antonio arrived from La Paz as part of the advance party of the Serra-Portolá Expedition, which colonized Alta California for New Spain.
The plaque reads:
"LA PLAYA TRAIL
JEDEDIAH STRONG SMITH
PATHFINDER OF THE SIERRAS
HERE COMPLETED THE FIRST TRAIL FROM
THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC JAN. 1827
ERECTED BY
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER D.A.R. 1945"
And from (http://obhistory.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/june-21-7pm-program-charles-best-la-playa-trail/)
"On July 16, 1769 Father Junipero Serra and Don Gaspar Portolá arrived in San Diego from Mexico and joining with the crews of the Spanish coasting vessles San Antonio and San Carlos established the first European colony in Alta California. Camp was set up near a spring at the base of what is now Presidio Hill and linked to the anchorage by a Indian trail running to the beach at La Playa. The trail was traveled daily by the soldiers who established the first lighthouse in Calif., a lantern placed on a pole on the tip of Ballast Point.
From prehistoric times until our present day, El Camino de La Playa, the La Playa Trail, has witnessed a lion’s share of the history of the northwest Pacific coast. Indians, fur trappers, Boston-China traders, Portuguese whalers and fishermen, Indian vaqueros, American cowboys, railway men, the U. S. Cavalry, Mexican rancheros, English explorers, Chinese fishermen and a myriad of adventurers have traveled and left a record of the trail."
Feature Discription: This marker is the third in a series and is set at the Presidio which the Spanish established as a Fort and a Mission.
Web address for the route: [Web Link]
Secondary Web Address: [Web Link]
Beginning of the road: La Playa, Point Loma San Diego
End of the road: San Diego Mission
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Visit Instructions:
We ask that if you visit the site, please include a unique picture with your impressions of the location. If possible, and if you are not too shy, please include yourself and your group in the photo. Extra points will be given for your best buffalo imitation or if you are licking something salty.