The Rancho La Costa Preserve is a the small mountain open space located near where the communities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, San Marcos, and Olivehain converge in coastal north county San Diego. While this is not a destination per se, it is certainly a gem of a neighborhood trail. With maybe six miles of trails here, what this place lacks in mileage in makes up for with "smileage".

While in nearly all directions you can see the besiegment of this mountain by urban development, I always seem to feel like I have escaped to high ground above it all in this small fortress of singletrack. While most of the trails are semi-buff single tracks with a few rocky areas, there is one trail dubbed "NASCAR" that will be challenging for most intermediate riders on cross-country and all-mountain bikes.

Street parking, please be considerate of the neighborhood.